MUMBAI: Sports mangement experts and stakeholders in India have time and again stressed the importance to develop alternate sports like hockey, boxing and football at a decentralised level with the help of corporate companies. One such game, boxing, today received a boost as five time Amateur Boxing World Champion Mary Kom was handed a cheque of Rs five lakh which was crowd funded by Edelweiss’ philanthropy arm EdelGive Foundation, to help build her boxing academy in Manipur.
The amount will be utilised to support build her boxing academy which currently houses 35 residential students comprising boys and girls besides other students who come for coaching classes.
Describing her long and rewarding journey Kom said, “When I started boxing it was very difficult to gain recognition as the sports was not very well known. But after six to seven years today not just the game but also women’s recognition in boxing has grown. But at the same time competition has grown tougher due to upcoming sports leagues including the Common Wealth Games and the Asian Games.”
Speaking on her successful career she added, “Patience, dedication, hard work and strong will power is what helped me become what I am today. The money received will not be splurged unnecessarily but invested in the academy to create more inspiring stories.”
EdelGive Foundation and Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), an organisation that builds teams of athletes and sports persons to become potential Olympic Gold winners at Olympic Games, helped her achieve her goals as it also provided her a Rs 2 crore life cover. Edelweiss Tokyo Life Insurance (ETLI) is now associated with the movie Mary Kom as it feels by promoting the film it will inspire more Indians to join sports and inspire organisations to come forward and support champions like Kom. The ‘Crowd Funding for Social Development in Sports’ initiative was started with the launch of its website http://needforchampions.com/.
Former Indian Hockey captain Viren Rasquinha who too was present at the occasion felt that in order to pick up the right talent it was important to find the talent at the junior level and after finding the same a personalised structured support system should be put in place.
EdelGive Foundation CEO Vidya Shah said that by partnering with OGQ, EdelGive has managed to consistently provide aspiring young India, an opportunity to mainstream their sports careers. “We take pride in partnering with Mary Kom in her success story and it is our endeavour to create many more ‘Mary Koms’ in the future, ” she added.
Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance CEO Deepak Mittal sees the initiative as an extension of the company’s vision to fulfil the dreams and aspirations of every Indian. “The amount received shows the increasing connect towards alternate sports in India. We hope that in this small way we will be able to help attract more aspiring sportspeople towards sports other than main stream ones in India,” he concluded.
