New life for archery, boxing and wrestling in India

Wrestling could see good days ahead in India soon

The Sports Ministry has decided to invest Rs 15 crore to conduct special competition circuits for archery, boxing and wrestling in India. This is the first time that the Sports Ministry has involved itself in hosting tournaments.

According to the plan, eight players, both at the junior and senior level, will compete in four competitions across India for an annual prize money of of Rs. 5 crore in each discipline. The Sports Authority of India will be hosting these events, which will follow the pro-league format where players have to maintain their rankings to qualify, and prize money will be distributed according to the rankings.

The technical aspects of the tournaments will be handled by the respective sports federations and the funds would be provided from the National Sports Development Fund.The ministry is also looking for corporate funding in order to develop these disciplines in the future.

A source from the Sports Ministry said, "The idea of starting this circuit is to provide financial incentives to top players and attract more juniors. We have selected these three disciplines because we see a great potential of India winning medals at the international stage. We would look to add more disciplines later."

With Indian boxers and wrestlers having performed well in international sporting events, winning five and three medals respectively at the Olympics, the selection of both the sports for the programme was a no-brainer. But archery has also been given special consideration by the ministry as Indian archers have performed well recently on the international stage, including the World Cups, and have great potential of producing medals in the Asian Games and the Olympics.