After cricket (IPL), hockey (HIL), kabaddi and football (ISL) sports leagues archery association has decided to compete with them planning for archery league in India. Preliminary discussions are going around the association regarding this.
Secretary General of Archery Association of India Anil kamineni said that league will be launched to promote the sport in India and improve the hidden talent in the country from the grassroots level. The Archery Association of India will be working with World Archery Federation. The league will include top foreign archers, both men and women.
Currently, the Archery Association of India is focussing on Rio Olympics scheduled to be held in August 2016. More clarity can be expected once the association members are back from Brazil.
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“Running a league is very expensive. Unless there are sponsors, unless it is fully funded, it will be difficult for any federation to conduct a league.” Tarlochan Singh, acting president of Archery Association of India, said.
Archery is a traditional sport of the country. The sport dates back to the famous epic, Mahabharata, where Arjuna aims to be the best archer. However, archery could not pull crowds like other sports like cricket or football. Archery made debut in the 1900 summer Olympics and continued till 1920. From 1920-1972 the game was not contested. After 1972 consistent participations took place.
The league will showcase a new revolutionised face of archery which will push the sport to the limelight, Kamineni said in a statement on Monday.
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India is the birthplace for the finest archers of the world like Limba Ram and Dola Banerjee. Current performing archers include Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das, Abhishek Verma and Rajat Chauhan.
