‘OGQ should be a people’s movement’

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Viren Rasquinha’s presentation of Olympic Gold Quest’s mission at the C.K. Nayudu Hall, Cricket Club of India, on Wednesday was straight forward and to the point.

The 15 minute audio-visual ended with the objective of making a dream come true of winning three gold medals at the London Olympics 2012, ten gold medals at Rio in 2016 and 20 gold medals in 2020.

Rasquinha is the Chief Operation Officer of the OGG and he has been a ‘livewire’, as described by Niraj Bajaj. An Olympian, former India captain and with 180 appearances for India in field hockey, the Kojak-like Rasquinha implored Gagan Narang and Mary Kom to go for gold at London.

More significantly, he appealed to Indians to join the OGQ movement. “If one million Indians can declare a mandate and contribute a minimum sum of Rs. 100 per month, it can support 2000 athletes in their quest for gold and also the Power Your Champion programme,” he said, adding that the mandate form can be accessed at www.olympicgoldquest.in.

As of now OGQ has supported 22 athletes and the list includes Saina Nehwal, Gagan Narang, Mary Kom, Tejaswini Sawant and P.T. Usha School of Athletics.

OGQ added two more to the list recently, namely Gayathri Govindaraj and Annu Raj Singh. At the felicitation function of Narang and Mary Kom, OGQ also introduced Rakesh Manpat, a possible future champion in the 10m air rifle event.

Well, the OGQ campaign has truly got off the ground. Founded by the shining lights of Indian sports, green maize maestro, Geet Sethi and badminton legend, Prakash Padukone, OGQ’s main objective is to complement the endeavour of the sports federations and the government.

The likes of Sethi (49) and Padukone (54), have lit the flame to create awareness among Indians that playing games is a lovely and healthy activity and exhorted them to support the country’s young sports persons in pursuit of glory with the ultimate aim of winning gold medals at the summer Olympics.

From a small two-man team, the OGQ has expanded into a compact team comprising Bajaj, Leander Paes, Viswanathan Anand and Rasquinha, all champions and stars in their own right.

They have acknowledged the spirit behind the endeavour, played proactive roles in the pursuit of identifying and fostering Indians gifted with talent and showing them the way to excel and make them ambitious to win gold medals at the Olympics in the sport of shooting, athletics, boxing, wrestling, archery and badminton.

Right from the start, OGQ has received wholehearted support from Shitin Desai, Executive Vice-President, DSP Merill Lynch, R. Ramaraj, Co-founder SIFY Limited, Venture Partner, Sequoia Capital India, Rakesh Khanna, Founding Partner, AMBIT RSM and Neeraj Bharadwaj, Managing Director, Accel Partners.

“This is the best team to work on a platform that seeks to encourage Indian sports persons to go for gold at the Olympics. We are not working for profit. We want to make OGQ a people’s movement. We want Indian sports persons to excel and we want to give them all support. I met Sachin Tendulkar at Mukesh Ambani’s house recently. He said he likes to play table tennis and would like to play with me. But most importantly he said he’s fully aware of the activities of OGQ and he’s appreciated that,” said Bajaj, 56, a former national champion, captain of the Indian table tennis team, Arjuna Award winner and at present, CMD, Mukand Limited.

Perhaps the best thing to have happened to Indian sports, OGQ allocates a cerqtain amount of money for the sport it has chosen to support and individuals. “We cover the expenses of sportspersons from airfare, accommodation, providing support staff and whatever a particular sportsperson needs. It’s the sportspersons who decide where the money has to be spent, not the OGQ. All they have to do is give us a call and tell us about their needs. We did that for Saina (Nehwal), her coach and trainer and also a couple of more youngsters for the Hong Kong Open,” said Padukone.

Narang summed it up all saying: “I don’t have to worry about air tickets, equipment and other nneds. OGQ provides me everything.”