Dibrugarh/Guwahati, Aug. 1: Responding to Dispur?s appeal to the corporate sector to come forward and support the state teams in preparing for the 33rd National Games, the Assam Gas Company Limited (AGCL) has decided to sponsor the state hockey squads.
Credited with being the state?s best-managed public sector unit, the AGCL has also decided to assist the Assam Olympic Association with a sponsorship of Rs 5 lakh to prepare the state contingent for the mega-event.
?We are a small PSU, yet we have our commitments towards the development of the sports sector. Hence, we have decided to sponsor the Assam hockey teams? preparation and during the Games,? deputy manager (public relations) Pradip Chetia Phukon said. ?Besides, the National Games is being held in our state and we, too, want to be a part of it. So we will also assist the AOA prepare the state?s contingent for the Games.?
The state associations welcomed the AGCL offer though they were yet to receive any official correspondence.
?The commitment by the AGCL makes things so much easier. It is an encouragement to us in our efforts to field a strong squad in the National Games,? said Assam Women?s Hockey Association (AWHA) secretary Shnigdha Daimari.
In its recent executive body and general body meetings in Tezpur, the AWHA had decided to field outstation players. ?We have already contacted Jharkhand and Manipur for outstation professionals. We are also going to hold a camp in Berhampur shortly from where we will select players for our own state,? Daimari added.
She, however, made it clear that the association would send the probables on exposure trips only after the date for the Games was declared. ?We do not want to waste funds on tours much before the Games,? she said.
Instead, the AWHA has requested its parent national body for a national-level coach to train the players.
The Assam Hockey Association (AHA) too welcomed the AGCL decision and said the sponsorship meant that it could go ahead with its plans to raise a ?medal winning team?.
In its quest for a medal, the AHA, too, plans to field star players from outside the state. AHA secretary Tapan Das admitted that the standard of hockey in Assam was not at par with the rest of the country. in parity with the rest of the country.
The AHA also plans to send a 22-member squad of probables ? to be selected from among participants at a camp that concluded at Nagaon on Wednesday ? on exposure tours to Hyderabad and Bangalore.
