Virender Sehwag takes up new role, to anchor show ‘Umeed Olympic’
NEWDELHI: Like his no-holdsbarred approach at the crease, Virender Sehwag has also created a buzz in the media with his tongue-incheek humour on Twitter and the in-your-face comments in commentary box. The dashing former India opener is now gearing up for another role. He has been roped in by a Mumbai-based entertainment company to anchor a TV sports programme ‘Umeed Olympic’.
The 13-part series will highlight the journey of the country’s top athletes aiming for glory at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The series, which is expected to be aired by Epic Channel in 2020, looks to explore the lifestyle of top athletes, some of whom also took part in the Rio Olympics.
The show will see Sehwag travelling to the training base, capturing exciting moments in the home environment besides interviewing the athletes’ families and coaching staff. Sehwag’s team, which has already started travelling for the shoot, will also interact with the respective national federations and government agencies and talk about their plans to prepare top athletes. Recently, Sehwag visited Hyderabad to interact with national sprint champion Dutee Chand.
The visit turned out to be a big motivating factor for youngsters training with Dutee Chand as her coach N Ramesh posted on his facebook profile.
Former international judo player and coach Yashpal Solanki believes the focus of the show is to create awareness about the Olympic movement in the country. “Normally, the buzz is once in four years and that too just weeks before the big event. But the new programme will give an in-depth analysis of the entire journey of the athletes,” he added.
Solanki’s trainee Avtar Singh, the only judoka to represent India at Rio, will also feature in the programme.