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All work and play
Midday — February 24, 2005
Bowlers hunt in pairs they say. The best example of this was
the deadly Dennis Lillee and thunderous Jeff Thomson. Now,
Tata Chemicals is taking a two-pronged approach to find sporting
talent and open up academic avenues for Mumbai's students
in municipal schools. Under a programme called 'Desh Ko Arpan',
the company is providing cricket and football coaching and
tutoring Std IX students in three subjects — English,
Maths and Science — to help them do well in their vital
Std X exams. The Tata programme that began this month will
run right till December 2005.
There are 450 students being coached in football and 600
are getting cricket coaching. Besides sports, 980 students
will also get extra academic coaching. The announcement was
made at the Cricket Club of India, with club president Raj
Singh Dungarpur saying, "Cricket has reached the rural
areas now and the administration must follow," Sports
presenter Harsha Bhogle believes Mumbai's next great cricketer
will come from an economically impoverished background as
the upper class does not have the grit and the middle class
is bogged down by academic pressure.
According to him, for the backward, cricket will be a way
out of the ghetto. The loudest applause though must go to
the city's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation because it has
provided space for the company to start coaching kids at the
grounds. As the thwack of leather meeting willow resounds
at a Sion-Chunabhatti ground where the scheme is already underway,
one can only say, may we find the next Einstein, the next
Pele and another Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai's class rooms
and maidans
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