Gujarat Titans Launch Junior Titans Grassroots Sports Programme in 5 Cities

Colonel Arvinder Singh, the franchise's Chief Operating Officer (COO), said the initiative, which has engaged more than 10,000 children so far in 11 cities, will help more and more kids to get into more outdoor sporting activities.

Singh also clarified that it should not be seen as a talent hunt to unearth the next Shubman Gill, Smriti Mandhana or Harmanpreet Kaur. "It is purely aimed as a concept at motivating children - boys and girls - to come out and play, and not just play cricket. Play whatever you want, but do some physical activity. So it's not that we're not reaching out in the small cities to look for the next Shubman Gill. Certainly not - that's not our aim.

"Nor are we trying to teach them how to play cricket, nor are we telling them that you should play only cricket. We are just telling them to come out, do physical activity and play whichever sport. In doing so, we create a curator event for them in their own city, in one of the schools, where, in turn, children from various schools, both boys and girls, come.

"We encourage every school to send an equal number of boys and girls as far as possible to these events of ours, and provide those kinds of facilities there. Again, the intention is not that we're not trying to look for the next Shubman or Harman or Smriti," Singh told IANS in an exclusive conversation on Thursday.

This year, the initiative will be in five cities - Surendranagar (January 17), Morbi (January 24), Amreli (January 31), Anand (February 7), and before concluding in Ahmedabad on February 14.

"The idea is very simple to try and cover various regions of Gujarat every year. So if you kind of plot where we started from in the 2023 season, and where we are today, and what we will be covering this year, you will find that we like to go to different parts of Gujarat and not leave any part of Gujarat untouched.

"Like, at least the cities that feature in that tier one, two, three kind of nomenclature. So our intention is to cover every city in Gujarat as we move forward," added Singh.

The goal is also to engage hundreds of children with sports from an early age, especially with the gadget era taking a huge chunk of their attention. "Sport is outdoors, so come outside and play, and you need to do it. We try to explain to them why it is important for them from various aspects of physical activity, teamwork, camaraderie, or working as part of a group, etc.

"So, games are one part of it, like playing football, basketball or cricket, which we organise there. But it has also got other stuff in terms of physical activity that happens there, which you're basically trying to kind of put in the child's head that 'All right, fine, this is also important for you. It's not just enough for you to just study and play on your gadgets.' Physical activity is good for you in the overall scheme of things, and that's what we try to do," concluded Singh.

- IANS