VIJAYAWADA: Henceforth, Adudam Andhra, a sports festival, will be held across the State every year to encourage sports and games. A decision in this regard was taken by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at a review meeting with the Sports and Youth Services Department officials at his camp office in Tadepalli on Thursday.
The sports festival, which will be held for 46 days, will have sports and games, including cricket, badminton, volleyball, kabaddi, kho-kho, 3 km marathon, yoga, tennikoit and other traditional games. It will be held at village/ward secretariat, mandal, Assembly constituency, district and State levels. Grounds of government schools, colleges, municipal stadiums, district sports complexes, and university grounds will be used for the conduct of the sports festival. The exact schedule for the sports festival is yet to be finalised.
Underlining the need to create a favourable ambience to develop professional cricket teams at district and constituency levels for grooming a team from Andhra Pradesh to compete in the Indian Premier League, the Chief Minister directed the officials to seek guidance of the Chennai Super Kings team in this regard.
“With the inspiration of Ambati Rayudu and KS Bharat, we should develop more cricketers. In the beginning, we will hand over the coaching responsibilities to the CSK at three stadia and in the future, we could seek the cooperation of Mumbai Indians team also,” he said.
“You should take steps to supply sports kits to the village secretariats in the future, besides equipping all government schools with necessary sports paraphernalia,” he told the officials, adding that every educational institution above high school should have necessary sports equipment. The officials should formulate an action plan to construct indoor stadiums in all constituencies, he stressed.
Indian cricketer KS Bharat calls on CM
Indian cricketer Kona Srikar Bharat called on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at his camp office in Tadepalli on Thursday. Bharat was accompanied by his parents Mangadevi and Srinivasa Rao, coach Krishna Rao and YSRC MP PV Midhun Reddy. Bharat gifted a jersey autographed by the Indian cricket team to the Chief Minister