Domestic league in offing in 2017
The Boxing Federation of India is planning a domestic league next year, the details of which will be worked out after settling a “few issues”.
“We need to have a league, we are just trying to settle down a few things. But in 2017, we are definitely going to launch a league,” BFI president Ajay Singh said on the sidelines of the ongoing national women’s boxing championships, a BFI statement said.
“We are well behind at this stage because of the lost time, so it will take time to build things. We need to build our infrastructure bottom up,” Singh added.
Promising to put together a professional team of support staff and coaches, Singh said that the BFI would ensure that domestic coaches benefit from foreign talent, which will be on board by the time the national camps resume in January.
“We will put together the best possible coaching team. It’s not only about the coaches though, it’s also about a sports psychologist, a nutritionist, physiotherapists, the whole support staff has to be there. A team has to be there, so we have to put a whole team in place,” he said.
“We need to broad-base our talent pool both for players as well as coaches. By holding national championships, we will identify players. As far as the coaching staff is concerned, (the incumbents) have done a terrific job, obviously we need to strengthen that department. We are not limited to coaches in India, we will find the best global talent that we can.
“We are already talking to some people, we are in the process of identifying people, both male and female coaches. We would try to introduce them to the camps as soon as possible. Also it’s important that we upgrade the skills of our coaches. We want to have a train-thetrainers programme here, get foreign talent to come and train our coaches,” he added.
On the issue of the Indian Olympic Association’s delay in giving BFI recognition, Singh said that the mater was close to resolution.
“The IOA has formed a committee to consider our application for recognition and we are hopeful that we will get affiliation from IOA, very soon. They have no reason not to recognise us,” he said.
We are well behind at this stage because of the lost time, so it will take time to build things AJAY SINGH BFI PRESIDENT