Saddened by the monetary hardship being confronted by the hockey group amid the COVID-19 pandemic, former India captain Viren Rasquinha has raised Rs 22 lakh to be distributed as one-time profit amongst gamers, coaches, and groundsmen working on the grassroots degree.
The fund has been raised in only one week by means of a joint initiative of non-profit organisations Olympic Gold Quest, of which Rasquinha is a Director and CEO, and Go Sports Foundation. They named the initiative #LetsStickTogether.
The funds have been collected from 120 donors, together with former hockey gamers, different sportspersons and a company home.
As per the initiative, Rs 10,000 every will likely be given as a one-time grant to 220 recognized beneficiaries to tide over the disaster which arose due to the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown.
“I was talking to my former teammate Conroy Remedios, the coach of Republicans Sports club in Mumbai, which is also my childhood club and his wife Dipika Murthy, who is a former India goalkeeper and came to know how bad the situation was at the grassroot level,” Rasquinha informed PTI.
“The players, coaches and groundsmen at the grassroot level were finding it difficult to put food on their tables because of no earnings during the lockdown,” he stated.
“Most of the club hockey players in Mumbai hail from all over Maharashtra. The belong to poor backgrounds. Someone’s father is a food vendor, barber or auto driver and their earnings have been hit hard. That is when I thought to help them in a personal capacity.”
By then, the 39-year-old hockey-player-turned-management skilled had already shared his ideas with pal Nandan Kamath, who’s the Managing Trustee of Go Sports Foundation, and the 2 determined to affix palms within the #LetsStickTogether initiative.
“It is important to keep these grassroots people in the game because without them there will be no intermediate or top level in any sports. I shared this with my OGQ board and they instantly decided to do this initiative jointly with Go Sports,” Rasquinha stated.
The former India mid-fielder stated the hardest job was to determine the rightful beneficiaries.
For this, Rasquinha used his contacts within the hockey group and concerned the likes of Remedios, Ok Arumugam, who runs an NGO based mostly in New Delhi, former Indian hockey gamers Dilip Tirkey, Bharat Chikara, Vikram Pillay and VS Vinaya , who’re into teaching, and the Jude Felix Hockey Academy amongst others.
“The key was to identify the right beneficiary. So, I trusted people who are involved with hockey for the last 20-25 players,” the 39-year-old stated.
Rasquinha can be giving his inputs from this initiative to related campaigns in sports activities like badminton and desk tennis.
