HOMEGROUND A UNIQUE MULTI SPORT FACILITY FOR KIDS
Mumbai, January 11: Children from the city of Mumbai, especially those from the western suburbs, can now enjoy the comfort of training on quality playing surfaces and under the guidance of reputed and highly qualified coaches. This opportunity for the kids comes with the launch of HOMEGROUND, an unique international standard multi-sport facility that has been set up at Thakur Stadium, Thakur Village, Kandivali East. Indian football icon and former captain, Baichung Bhutia along with Henry Menezes, another former India captain and CEO of WIFA, formally inaugurated HOMEGROUND, and they were both overwhelmed with the project and the facilities that have been put in place.
Bhutia lauded the efforts of the promoters and was very impressed watching the children actively and passionately competing in football and volleyball matches. “There are not many proper playing facilities for children in the country. But the sports facilities at HOMEGROUND are fantastic and it would certainly give the kids a great opportunity to enjoy training or playing the game. The promoters have done a wonderful job by taking up this initiative,” Bhutia said.
“Football skills like dribbling, passing, trapping are best learnt on small pitches at a very young age. HOMEGROUND is an ideal facility to train young, talented footballers and sharpen their skills. Every city needs a facility like HOMEGROUND to promote and encourage youth to take to sport at an early age,” further stated.
This first-ever, unique project is an initiative of DPS Sports and Leisure LLP and promoted by Archana Thangri and Thakur College of Science and Commerce, HOMEGROUND, will offer the best possible training facilities for football, cricket, volleyball and tennis. “Training to talented yet underprivileged children will be the focus of HOMEGROUND,” said Archana Thangri at the launch of the event. She further elaborated that the facility would be offered free of cost for a stipulated period to enable talented young sports persons to train on international standard facilities. “The best among these would also be offered scholarships,” she added.
Municipal schools will be one of the main pockets of underprivileged children that HOMEGROUND will be targeting to spot talent.
Menezes, welcomed this initiative by saying, DSP Leisure & Sports have impressed all with the state of an art facility at the HOMEGROUND complex in Thakur Village. It will be a great opportunity to the kids and youth of North Mumbai to train on it. It will bring in expert & qualified coaches and introduce sports psychology, nutritionist & physio's who will bring in prevention and injury sessions through e-power football academy which will benefit and bring in awareness of physical & mental toughness to the game. The venue is in the heart of the community of the Thakur Village and Thakur complex and I am sure that the kids will benefit from this venture.”
Manoj Thakur had this to say on the new venture, “We have always been committed to providing the best sporting infrastructure to the students of our various educational institutions. The launch of HOMEGROUND is another big step in spotting talent at a young age and providing high quality training to them.” While two artificial football pitches have been prepared, HOMEGROUND will also have three artificial cricket pitches and six natural practice wickets. Two BOLA machines will be available for batting practice, while for bowlers, one pitch will offer the PitchVision technology, which is being brought to India for the first time.
The cricket coaching will be conducted by Monty Desai, an ECB Level 3 coach and Talent Scout for Rajasthan Royals. Some of the visiting coaches at HOMEGROUND will include Apurva Desai (NCA Level 3 coach), Satish Samant (Ex-Mumbai U-19 coach), Onkar Khanvilkar and Usman Malvi (both ex-Ranji Trophy players). The coaches for Junior Cricket Development will be Santosh Singh, Prashant Vilekar and Dinesh Rao. Two volleyball courts and one tennis court will also be on offer in the first phase of completion. The plans also include construction of squash courts and badminton courts in the near future, to make HOMEGROUND, a one of its kind multi-sporting facility in the country.
Thakur College of Commerce & Economics is one of the leading colleges promoting sports among Mumbai University, emerging among the top in various disciplines. Their partnership with HOMEGROUND is an extension of their policy that academics and sport are both equally important for overall development of youth.
Premise of the Newly Set up Academy:
SportsLife Home Ground Cricket Academy is aimed at developing cricketing talent at northern part of Mumbai Suburbs. The Facility offers various models of Cricket Coaching through our Academy Structure Ranging from Managing Elite Group Master Class to the Ultimate. Grassroot (FUNdamental) Cricket Coaching. It also offers Development Courses & Long Term Athlete Development Orientation. The other Major Area of Focus is on the Introductory Cricketing Course. The Facility Intends to Inculcate the Essential Skills to Participate in any Sport. Certified National and International Coaches in the Coaching Panel.
“Commenting on the entire facility and not only the academy, Monty Desai said, “HOMEGROUND provides the right mix of cricket, football, volleyball & tennis, meaning that the facility is here to ramp up the level of sports training in the northern suburbs of Mumbai.” Monty also said that the cricketing academy would be the first & only in India, today, to have PitchVision Technology built in. “PitchVision is the largest online platform of player generated cricket content in the world with 200,000 unique videos uploaded every month, and it excites me that the boys will now be registered on the same platform and get more views on their cricketing content from other coaches worldwide,” he added.
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