Engaging youths through the Sports clubs

A meeting with members of sports club was organized at Chinese temple, Kapatiya. More than 20 participants of 5 different sports club participated in the discussion. All the sports clubs were formed under the Nehru Yuva Kendra in early nineties. Most of the sports clubs are now defunct and now exists only on paper.

There was a discussion on what kind of sports can interest tourists and how we can organize it for better participation of tourists. Lots of suggestion came, few suggested cricket, and few said football is a better option. On being asked what is so unique about these sports and why a tourist should be interested in watching us play cricket. Participants agreed tourist will not get interested in watching us play cricket or football. We asked participants to think something traditional, unique to place and participative sport, which could involve the visitors. Lots of suggestion came regarding traditional sports like kabbadi, Kho-Kho etc. After some discussion on various possibilities all of us agreed to start with Buddhiya Kabbadi this year and experiment with other sports later.

They shared their experience of difficulties they faced while working with Nehru Yuva Kendra and how they sustained their clubs. Next few meetings revolved around how the clubs can be maintained and the logistics of playing the sports. We discussed on possible sponsorships and other methods of generating revenues.
A summary of the discussion is given below,

1- Sports Clubs and teams need to be reoriented for the tourism purposes.

2- A revenue model to be developed for sustenance of the clubs and sports

3- A start should to be done this tourist season by organizing a few Buddhiya kabbadi matches

4- A marketing plan and discussion with tour operators and stakeholders about promoting such endeavors.

There have been some considerable development in achieving the goals set for a youth sports activity and we'll the sharing the latest and the greatest in upcoming weeks...