Ex-India Captain Viren Rasquinha Raises Funds For Lockdown-Hit Hockey Players, Coaches, Groundsmen

Saddened by the monetary hardship staying confronted by the hockey neighborhood amid the COVID-19 pandemic, former India captain Viren Rasquinha has raised Rs 22 lakh to be dispersed as 1-time profit among the players, coaches and groundsmen working at the grassroots degree. The fund has been raised in just 1 7 days by means of a joint initiative of non-revenue organisations Olympic Gold Quest, of which Rasquinha is a Director and CEO, and Go Sports Foundation. They named the initiative #LetsStickTogether.

The cash have been gathered from 120 donors, together with former hockey players, other sportspersons and a company property.

As per the initiative, Rs ten,000 each will be presented as a 1-time grant to 220 discovered beneficiaries to tide around the disaster which arose since of the coronavirus-pressured nationwide lockdown.

“I was speaking to my former teammate Conroy Remedios, the mentor of Republicans Sports club in Mumbai, which is also my childhood club and his spouse Dipika Murthy, who is a former India goalkeeper and arrived to know how poor the circumstance was at the grassroot degree,” Rasquinha explained to PTI.

“The players, coaches and groundsmen at the grassroot degree were being discovering it complicated to place foodstuff on their tables since of no earnings in the course of the lockdown,” he mentioned.

“Most of the club hockey players in Mumbai hail from all around Maharashtra. The belong to poor backgrounds. Someone’s father is a foodstuff vendor, barber or automobile driver and their earnings have been hit really hard. That is when I assumed to help them in a personal potential.”

By then, the 39-year-old hockey-player-turned-management qualified had by now shared his thoughts with close friend Nandan Kamath, who is the Taking care of Trustee of Go Sports Foundation, and the two determined to sign up for hands in the #LetsStickTogether initiative.

“It is crucial to hold these grassroots persons in the sport since with no them there will be no intermediate or best degree in any sports. I shared this with my OGQ board and they promptly determined to do this initiative jointly with Go Sports,” Rasquinha mentioned.

The former India mid-fielder mentioned the toughest career was to recognize the rightful beneficiaries.

For this, Rasquinha applied his contacts in the hockey neighborhood and included the likes of Remedios, K Arumugam, who operates an NGO based in New Delhi, former Indian hockey players Dilip Tirkey, Bharat Chikara, Vikram Pillay and VS Vinaya, who are into coaching, and the Jude Felix Hockey Academy among the some others.

Promoted

“The important was to recognize the appropriate beneficiary. So, I trustworthy persons who are included with hockey for the past twenty-25 players,” the 39-year-old mentioned.

Rasquinha is also offering his inputs from this initiative to very similar campaigns in sports like badminton and table tennis.