Playing with a corporate touch

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Airtel Rising Stars from Delhi (left to right) Amit Dhankhar, Kartikeya Swarup and Agaiya Sharma

At a time when sports in India is mostly dominated by cricket and cricket-lovers, corporates like ONGC, Airtel and SAIL are showing a great interest in the world of sports other than cricket. Out of the 81 athletes who have qualified for the London Olympics, 16 are employees of ONGC, the principal sponsor of the Indian contingent for the upcoming London Olympics.

ONGC has also announced cash bonanzas for players who win medals at the London Olympics. “We have decided to give Rs 25 lakh, Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh to gold, silver and bronze medallists, irrespective of whether they are the employees of ONGC or not,” said an ONGC official in Delhi while according a warm send-off to the Olympians.
The company also announced an amount of Rs 3 lakh each for those 16 players, which include archers Deepika Kumari, Jayant Talukdar, and Tarundeep Rai and two badminton players Ashwini Ponapaa and V. Diju, who have made it to the London games.
“We are very happy that we are being supported in our endeavour. We will do our level best and try to bring medals and honour for our country,’’ said Tarundeep Rai.
Bharti Airtel, too, is not far behind in nurturing young talent. Recently, Bharti Airtel announced the kick-off of “Airtel Rising Stars” — an under-16 soccer talent hunt. Starting mid-July 2012, this three-month long talent hunt will involve participation from over 10,000 young soccer players across 16 cities in India to choose 12 footballers who will get the opportunity to attend a week-long training camp with Manchester United in Old Trafford, England.
“In Airtel, we are always looking for new ways of being relevant to the young, and what could be a better way of engaging with them than sports,” said an Airtel spokes-person.
“Soccer as a sport has a cult following worldwide and the same fervour and excitement towards football can be increasingly seen in this part of the globe. In fact, millions in the Indian subcontinent closely follow the game and aspire to play alongside professional soccer players,” he added.
Cricket, which was once the one and only sport Indians loved to watch and play, is losing its sheen day by day. With money-spinning events like the Indian Premier League grabbing more interest than Test cricket, which is considered the ultimate test of playing ability and endurance in the sport, today’s players seem to be more interested in earning money than to playing for the country.
“It seems cricket in India has lost its popularity. Earlier, in the days of cricketers like Kapil Dev or Krishnamachari Srikkanth, people used to play for their country, their team. Sadly, today’s game of cricket is influenced by money. So I am more excited about the Olympics than the T20 cricket World Cup,” says Anisha Jaiswal, once a cricket lover.