EXPANDING TALENT BASE

Hockey On Mittal Champions Trust’s Radar; Wrestling May Benefit

Bangalore: The Mittal Champions Trust, glowing in the aftermath of heart-warming performances by its athletes at the Beijing Olympic Games, is looking to expand its talent pool from its present total of 40. Golden marksman Abhinav Bindra and pugilist Vijender Kumar are at the centre of the venture that brought Indian fans plenty of cheer at the quadrennial games.

Former tennis international Manisha Malhotra, CEO of the Trust, said she would have a list ready by the end of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune.

The multi-discipline event, scheduled to take place from October 12 to 18, will showcase the best of India’s young sporting talent, which is exactly what Manisha is looking at.

Squash, archery, boxing, shooting, swimming, athletics and sailing are the disciplines the two-yearold MCT already covers. Manisha is looking to add wrestling and hock ey to the menu.

“I truly believe we are not so far behind the world in hockey , but it’s a team sport and that’s new to us. We are still debating on how to take it forward. How do we go about it? Do we pick a few players or the team itself? It’ll be a huge investment, but yes hockey is on our radar,” she explained.

“When Mahesh (Bhupathi) was down we spoke to Dhanraj Pillay and he too felt that Indian hockey was not all that far behind. I’m also impressed with what Dilip Tirkey is doing in Orissa,” Manisha explained. “The biggest problem though is that hockey is in a messy situation as far as administration of the sport goes. If we start working with A and B comes to power we don’t want our players to be targeted.”

“We want to be involved with a team game, it’ll be something new to us,” Bhupathi, a member of the Trust’s board, said. “Where better to start with than hockey , it’s our national sport.”

One of the reasons MCT is expanding its talent base is the fact that a lot of its athletes come into the Commonwealth Games schemes and their travel and training is being taken care of by their federations. “That frees up some of our funds,” Manisha said, “And gives us a chance to tap at a new talent base. I haven’t put a number on how many sportspersons we plan to rope in, but I’ll have the list ready by the end of the month.”