Gandhinagar

Government of Gujarat through Sports Authority of Gujarat has initiated a Sports League for five popular sports in Gujarat. In its bid to promote sporting culture and nurture up-coming sporting talent in the state, a competitive format is necessary to create an environment conducive for a sporting talent hunt in these sports. In accordance with which, the Government has decided to establish a state-wide Sports League at the school & college level. The objectives for setting up such format are as under:

To provide a competitive format to the players of the state for long period

To inculcate competitive sporting spirit in players and instill pride in both players and academic institutions for participation and achievements.

To create a performance-oriented selection process for selection of state level team in each sport

To increase participation in the Sports League by schools/colleges and sports groups.

In its inaugural edition, the SAG is starting league matches in 4 zones viz. Saurashtra Zone, North Zone, South Zone & Central Zone of the state for the sports of Basketball (Men/Women), Kabbadi (Men), Volleyball (Men/Women), Football (Men) and Kho-Kho (Women). Govt. of Gujarat is following an approach of public participation, wherein the total planning of the Sports League will be handled by Schools / Colleges. For participating team of school and college, the expenditure of travel, uniform, food and coaching will be incurred by the individual schools and colleges. The organizing schools and colleges will raise funds for the same through donation, sponsorship, and partnership. The Sports Authority of Gujarat will provide assistance in the first year till the time the Sports League become self sustainable. This will include fixed amount per match for organizing zone level matches and state level matches.

The role of the sports association will be very important who will manage and oversee technical part of the league.

The Government of Gujarat will award Rs. 1.96 crore for winners of the 7 sports in 4 zones at zonal level and for state level it will award Rs. 1.54 crore for winners. In total, attractive cash prizes of Rs. 3.50 crore will be awarded to winners. The details of the prizes are as follows:

For participating in Sports League matches, schools and colleges have to register online on www.khelgujarat.org by paying fee of Rs. 1,000/- on or before 21st September. There will be qualifying matches amongst the participating teams in each zone. Two best school as well as college teams from each zone will qualify to play state league. The next best eight teams from the zones will play Zone league. Thus for each sports, four zone and one state league will hold matches simultaneous for schools as well as colleges. The zonal and state league matches will be held parallel during the 3 months of October to December 2015.

The teams not able to make it to zonal leagues will be encouraged to start city/District leagues. For second year onwards there will be relegation and upgradation on the basis of performance in the leagues. The broad rules of the games will be decided by a technical committee. Separate rules will be decided on the basis of prevailing National/ International rules for each sport. Registration of the league matches has been initiated. Further information can be obtained from e-mail: [email protected] OR toll free no. : 1800 2744 151

– DeshGujarat