Starts grassroot level football project to identify and nurture soccer talent from the tea family
Dr P. Sankar, the collector of Nilgiris, inaugurates the project by handing over a football to a player (Photo: DC)
Ooty: If the country happens to witness some brilliant soccer talent from the tea family cornering glory in the national and international arena in the future, it should not fail to remember Mr R. Ambalavanan, executive director of Tea Board, south zone, headquartered at Coonoor, as he has played a vital role in designing the ‘grassroots-level football project by the Tea Board of India to identify and nurture soccer talent.
Speaking on the genesis of this unique project to blend tea with soccer, Mr Ambalavanan said during a trip across Assam in the recent past along with the then Tea Board of India chairman Banu, he and Mr Banu saw many youngsters playing football even in the rural tea-growing areas there.He said they discussed why these youth fall victims to fundamentalists in Assam and in the nearby area, and what Tea Board can do to channelise the talent in the tea sector to keep youngsters in the mainstream.
“During the discussion, I suggested that since football is the main sport in the tea-growing areas, it would be good to start a project to unearth latent soccer talent at the grassroots-level and groom them to keep their mind oriented towards football.This suggestion was accepted and the Tea Board of India has come out with further plans and strategies to give shape to this unique project in collaboration with the East Bengal Club.
The project has now come to stay in the three major tea-growing regions of the country that includes the northeast, north Bengal and south India,” he said, and added that players who shape up well, will stand a good chance in employment opportunities under sports quota, besides becoming professional soccer players.
During the inauguration of the project on Monday in Ooty, Mr Srinivas R. Reddy, project director of the Hill Area Development Programme, lauded the Tea Board for providing a platform to nurture soccer talent among the wards of the tea farming sector.
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