SPORTS SUPERPOWER

Sport University To Create More Olympians  

    PM Modi laid the foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in UP's Meerut. The University is established at an estimated cost of ₹700 crore at Salava and Kaili villages of Sardhana town in Meerut. The Sports University is named after Hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand who helped India score three Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936. His birthday that falls on August 29 is celebrated as National Sports Day.

    The university will have BA in sports courses and will also provide diploma, post graduation, MPhil degrees as well. The Major Dhyan Chand Sports University will be equipped with modern and state-of-the-art sports infrastructure. It will include a synthetic hockey ground, football ground, basketball ground, areas designated to play volleyball, handball and Kabaddi, a lawn tennis court, a gymnasium running stadium, swimming pool, multipurpose hall, and a cycling velodrome. It will also house facilities for shooting, squash, gymnastics, weightlifting, archery, canoeing and kayaking among other facilities, and will have the capacity of training 1,080 sports person including 540 female, 540 Male sportspersons.

    One of the key areas of focus for the PM is inculcating sports culture and establishing world-class sporting infrastructure in all parts of the country. The establishment of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University at Meerut will be a major step towards fulfilling this vision, PMO said. The aim of the proposed University in Meerut is to prepare a talented young force that would in turn help transform UP and India into a 'sports superpower'. It is envisaged as an establishment with facilities matching International standards today, competition at the world level is new basic. The prime aim of any sportsperson is to compete at international level.

    If there is a credible palpable and empirical sign that there has been an advent of a 'New India', it is in the domain of sports. The virtues and the rewards to be gained in having genuine professionally-minded stakeholders in India sports running India's sporting ecosystem, through public-private partnership (PPPs), should be road ahead. The recent past has shown that this works the long distance, beyond the short electoral cycle. The foundation stone of this university is a sin for sportsperson to emerge as excellent players and to take India into the next level.