CHENNAI: This doesn’t augur well for sportspersons. The proposed merger between State Bank of India and its associate banks has created a flutter among hundreds of sportspersons employed by the smaller banks. The biggest fallout is that the associate banks have stopped recruiting in sports quota for more than a year now. What’s worse, players working with the banks are uncertain about their future.
SBI’s five associates — State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur — have a significant presence in sports, mainly in this part of the country, especially in football and cricket. SBT’s football teams once played in the country’s top-tier, and are reigning Kerala champions. Its cricket team is a big player too.
SBM also fields a cricket team, with one current player being Sreenath Aravind, who represented India in T20s. SBP’s cricket team has Punjab Ranji star Siddharth Kaul within its ranks, while its TT teams are currently Punjab champions. SBH’s football and cricket teams play in the top leagues in Hyderabad.
SBT’s chief manager (sports) GR Jayakrishnan told Express that while he is hoping existing teams will not be disbanded soon, hiring under sports quota has stalled. “We last had recruitment in 2015. Because of the merger we have stopped it,” he said.
Sanmeet Singh, secretary, Central Sports Committee of SBP, is worried. “This’ll affect all teams, and I don’t know what the future holds for players. We had a policy that 1% of all recruitment will be under sports quota.”