KOCHI: With the intention of promoting a healthy lifestyle and creating future stars in sports from the state, a group of Non-Resident Keralites has launched an initiative by joining hands with Indian On Track (ITO), a leading sports management and development agency in the country. Creorts, formed by the group of sports enthusiasts will partner with IOT to conduct free sports festivals in at least 50 schools across the state as part of their grand plan. “We are a group of youngsters who love sports and wanted to give something back to it,” said Sunesh Ebrahim, one of the executive directors of Creorts.
“We did a study in Kerala for the last few years to find out why Kerala could not produce sporting heroes despite the huge interest and involvement in sports here. To change this, we learnt we needed to provide infrastructure, professional training and exposure,” said Sunesh. In search of a suitable partner with expertise in sports development, they stumbled upon IOT whose clients include Arsenal Soccer Schools, NBA Basketball Schools, Prakash Padukone Badminton Schools, La Liga and FC Pune City.
“Our objective is to create a complete sports ecosystem in the state. Our first step will be the grassroots festivals which will help us gauge what children here like. After getting the feedback from students and parents, we can zero in on the kind of initiatives we would cater to them,” said Vivek Sethia, founder and CEO of IOT. “The second step will be youth development. We will have a pool of talent who will require specialised training which we will provide after setting up of training centres at various cities and towns,” said Vivek. “The third will be setting up of full-fledged academies and providing exposure to the trainees through our partners,” he added.
The partnership intends to focus on five events - basketball, football, badminton and fitness and self-defence. “We will also focus on bringing in more girls into sports through games like basketball and badminton which have a mass following among girls in Kerala,” said Vivek.