With ace cricketer M.S. Dhoni as the brand ambassador, the Tamil Nadu government is all set to launch a champions foundation to support young sports persons in the state. The foundation will be set up as a public-private partnership venture with support from corporates and the general public.
The theme song and mascot for the foundation will be launched during a grand gala event in Chennai later this month.
“The theme song and the mascot will be released by our chief minister M.K. Stalin during the final leg of the CM trophy,” Tamil Nadu sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin said during an informal interaction with a group of journalists in Chennai.
He said that the sports ministry is working towards improving the grassroots structure, hosting national and international sports events and bringing state of the art facilities for sports lovers in the state. Outlining his plans to make Tamil Nadu a model state for sports in the country, Udhayanidhi said that his ministry is in talks with the central government to host the Khelo India games.
“We have enough infrastructure to host national and international events. We displayed this when we hosted the 44th Chess Olympiad. We have asked the Union government to allow us to host Khelo India and Asian Beach Games in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Talking about setting up centres for sports science with state of the art facilities, Udhayanidhi said that the centres will soon come up in Chennai, Madurai and Nilgiris.
“We have now signed an MoU with Sri Ramachandra Centre for Sports Science to help our sports persons. They can use the facilities there. We will be setting up the centres in three places soon. In Madurai, the centre is already there, but without any facilities. We are working on it,” the minister explained.
Udhayanidhi said that the sports department has already identified the space for a boxing academy at Gopalapuram in Chennai. Apart from this, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium and Velachery Aquatic stadium will be renovated at a cost of Rs 25 crores.
The sports ministry under him, Udhayanidhi said, will also renovate the sports hostels across Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 10 crores. Also, a multi-sports complex is proposed in North Chennai. “We are in the process of calling for tender to construct this multi-sports complex,” he added.
Giving details on the help extended to the sports persons in Tamil Nadu, Sports Development Authority (SDAT) member secretary J. Meghanath Reddy said that the government had deposited an advance amount of Rs 15 lakhs in Olympic fencer Bhavani Devi’s account who wanted to go for a training in France.
Tamil Nadu sports secretary Atulya Misra was also present during the interaction.
