Dubai: Tennis icon Sania Mirza insists that India needs to fully invest in grassroots sports programmes in order to become a top-10 sporting nation by 2036 Olympic Games. The six-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1 in women’s doubles feels both the government and private entities need to work together and start nurturing young talent from an early age for this cause.
A trailblazer in Indian sports, Sania Mirza backed the country’s first digital sports learning platform, Play Sports. Speaking passionately about the initiative during the App launch in Dubai along with ex-India cricketer Harbhajan Singh and former World Champion MC Mary Kom, Sania highlighted the importance of grassroots development in creating future Olympic champions.
India has won a total of 35 Olympic medals since 1900 and this time in Paris 2024 the nation has set their sights on entering double digits. The country had scripted their best-ever finish in Tokyo 2020 with seven medals.
“Everything is possible if your mind and body allows you. Play Sports app helps us to nurture the grassroots level athletes and the goal is to try and nurture more champions in different disciplines for the Olympics,” Sania emphasized.
“Children residing in remote villages and towns have zero access to quality training and coaching despite having the skills and talent. Play Sports app’s objective is to bridge that gap and with the world moving towards the digital age they want to equip every talented kid with the knowledge about nutrition, training and recovery mechanism.”
With the government wishing to host the 2036 Olympic Games in India, Mirza believes the country’s future in the quadrennial extravaganza is ambitious yet attainable.
“2036 doesn’t seem to be an unrealistic target,” Mirza said expressing hope for increased representation and more medals for India. The 37-year-old’s optimism is a testament to the potential she sees in the country’s young athletes.
Play Sports have created video tutorials in 15 disciplines for children between 6 to 15 years of age who want to take up sport as profession.
Founded by Shubham Chaudhary and Lavish Chaudhary, Play Sports grassroots programme intends to nurture young talent by providing world class training and coaching in schools and societies, improving sports infrastructure, giving equipment support and catering to nutritional needs of children.
“We felt that there is no digital platform that provides full information from warm-up, nutrition, mental conditioning to recovery methodology under one platform. This is why our team came up with the idea of having a one-stop app that has all the information in video format to cater the millennials and GenZ requirements,” Shubham Chaudhary said.
During the launch, cricket legend Harbhajan Singh shared his heartfelt reflections on his illustrious career, emphasizing the unmatched joy of winning two World Cups alongside his teammates.
“For me, it was a priceless moment to win two World Cups with my other teammates. I will cherish those moments for the rest of my life,” Harbhajan said.
Harbhajan also took a moment to celebrate the achievements of other Indian sports icons who have made their mark globally.
“Sania Mirza, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, and Harmanpreet Kaur — it’s so good to see them make a name for themselves by representing India. The Indian government are doing their bit but private organisations also need to come forward,” Harbhajan remarked.
Boxing legend MC Mary Kom highlighted the significant progress in women’s sports in India over the past few years.
“There has been a lot of improvement in sports for women in the past few years. The Play Sports initiative is very good. It was needed at this time not only for women athletes but all,” Kom stated, acknowledging the strides made towards greater inclusion and opportunities for female athletes. She specifically praised the Play Sports initiative, describing it as timely and crucial for the development of women in sports.
