Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with cricketer Suresh Raina for training budding cricketers across the Union Territory.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Secretary BVR Subramaniam and Principal Secretary to Lt Gov Nitishwar Kumar.
The J&K Government has been busy with exceptional sports facilities for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. This initiative will encourage the youth to take the next step in sports. This will help in building a superior talent pool, a Twitter post from the J&K Govt said.
It was earlier reported that the pandemic had halted the development and overhaul of sports infrastructure in the state but in September, the work had resumed with more pace and focus.
Development work catches pace
According to Advisor to Lieutenant Governor J&K, Farooq Khan, who also handles sports departments apart from some other departments, J&K will see a massive stride in sports development and activities in 2020. There was a temporary hurdle caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the relaxation in SOPs, sports activities started at Inter-School level across J&K.
He was quoted as saying, "During COVID-19 we can't expect to have any major activities so soon. We are re-planning our activities while infrastructure work is already going on a massive scale. In our policy we are not merely focusing on activities like Cricket, Football but are now giving importance to popular activities like Volleyball, Kho-Kho, Kabaddi, Water Sports and Winter Sports as well which in the past were ignored."
Suresh Raina would prove to be an exemplary mentor for young talent from J&K and this collaboration will hugely benefit the youth.
Raina to set up an academy in J&K
It was reported in September that the former India cricketer Suresh Raina would set up a cricket academy in Jammu and Kashmir to train aspiring cricketers, particularly youngsters from remote areas of the union territory.
Twitter supported the initiative and the Govt of J&K posted, "LG @manojsinha_ observed that the MoU will provide an opportunity to budding cricketers to hone their skills and to showcase their talent in various levels of national and international competitive tournaments."
It was reported that the state is all set to get indoor and outdoor sports infrastructure. Farooq Khan had recently stated that the Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju E-inaugurated multi-sports facility sports excellence centre at Hira Nagar recently, which was dedicated to former Union Minister late Arun Jaitley.
