Rohit Sharma will be the Brand Ambassador of the SFA School’s event, to be hosted at the D.Y. Patil Stadium, Nerul from December 24 to 31, 2015
Schools’ Sports, is set for a revolutionary make-over. With the inception of Sports For All (SFA)-India’s Premier Inter School Sporting System, schools sports is set to get a more professional structure, which would help in identifying and nurturing sportspersons from grass-root level. SFA through its initiative will integrate state-of-the-art infrastructure and administration to the millions of potential future champions in our schools today.
SFA for the first time-ever is organising an 8-day Sports Extravaganza for school kids from December 24th to 31st, 2015 at the DY Patil Sports Stadium, Nerul.
Rishikesh Joshi, founder of Sports For All, addresses the media during a Meet & Greet Session
Through this venture, SFA aims to bring together students, their parents, coaches, sports academies, talent scouts, physiotherapists and other sporting personalities under one roof where aspirant sportsmen will be compete in 9 different Olympic sports (Basketball, Handball, Volleyball, Swimming, Squash, Badminton, Tennis, Table Tennis and Judo) which will be conducted and operated by premier administrative bodies of those respective sports guided by coaches and video feed that would be stored for future reference, talent identification and improvement.
The video recording of the matches would provide the players/teams with the footage to analysis their game and take corrective measures, which is so very important in competitive sports today.
Backed with experience of being part of the core administrative set up of one of the world’s leading cricket franchises, aided with 12 years of experience in sports administration and the heart of a sportsman, Rishikesh Joshi, is the founder of Sports For All.
Rishikesh Joshi (left), founder of ‘Sports For All’, explains to media persons about the refurbishing work that is being carried out at the D.Y. Patil Stadium Facilities
“Our mission is to bring together the best-in-class infrastructure, facilities, administration, records maintenance and governance to the behest of our future champions who are all in school today. India has suffered from an inability to nurture sportsmen from an early age. The answer is in inter-school sport and SFA’s mission is to identify and nurture these champions,” stated Joshi at a Meet and Greet session with media persons on Thursday.
Indian cricketer, ODI record holder and Captain of the Mumbai Indians franchise, Rohit Sharma, inspired by the idea has decided to support the initiative by serving as brand ambassador of the event.
“It is no secret that I come from humble means. When I was younger I was enrolled in a school that did not have sports as part of its curriculum, which made it impossible for me to pursue my passion. I got lucky when the Director of another school with a brilliant sports programme decided to wave of my fees and donation and gave me admission there. That is the reason I am where I am today,” said the dashing batsman in his message.
Rohit Sharma has also informed the organisers that if any school is unable to play the registration fees of Rs 5,000 per school, he would support the school by paying their entry fees.
Work is being carried out to refurbish the sporting facilities at the D.Y. Patil Stadium and Joshi has stated that renovation work would be completed before the start of the events.
SFA intends to serve as a platform where close to 11,000 children from up to 500 schools from across Mumbai will come together to express themselves and discover the champion that resides in them.
The 8 day SFA Mumbai Sports and Education Week will also host training and information sessions for the students where they will hear from experts and professional sportsmen on what it takes to be a champion.
Administrative bodies include premier sports bodies in the country such as the Swimming Federation of India, Mahesh Bhupati Tennis Academy, Maharashtra Badminton Association, Maharashtra State Basketball Association etc.
As of date, more than 50 top schools have registered with SFA. Participating schools for this 8 day sporting extravaganza include the likes of Jamnabai Narsee School, Utpal Sanghvi School, JBCN Schools, Ryan International Schools, Rizvi Springfield, Lilavati Podar Senior Secondary School, Dhirubhai Ambani International School and many more such top schools.
Beginning in Mumbai in 2015, SFA intends to become a pan-India system with presence in many more cities of India and bring together schools from across the country over the next few years.