Leander Paes, Shrachi Group enter into partnership to build sports infrastructure in Kolkata

Tennis legend Leander Paes and Shrachi Sports Ventures (SSV) entered into a strategic collaboration with an ambition to create an Olympic-level infrastructure in Kolkata with state-of-the-art training facilities under top coaches and systems with structured modules for various age groups across multiple disciplines.

This will be India’s first such multi-sports set-up, complete with sports science, analytics, sports medicine and nutrition.

“I’m excited about the Shrachi collaboration to create an ecosystem using sport for life, building tomorrow’s India and creating jobs for more Indians,” said Leander, who has won 20 Grand Slam titles in his glittering career.

Shrachi Group’s big-bang entry into sports, Managing Director Rahul Todi, who is also the vice-president of East Bengal Club, said, “Our goal is simple. We want Bengal to be at the forefront of the Indian sports movement and Leander as our captain in this initiative. We are extremely happy to have him on board and we are convinced he is just the right person to take our projects to fruition so that we can create a clutch of sustainable sports ecosystems. We will enter into a number of strategic alliances to take this philosophy forward.”

Shrachi has already collaborated with East Bengal for their cricket and hockey teams and has plans to create a FIFA-standard age-group football academy.

Aware of its responsibility towards both sport and society, the Shrachi-Leander alliance envisions establishing a university investing in innovations, including support and development for elite sports as well as leisure and recreational sports. It would also like to dovetail application-based sports education with curriculum-based performing arts, especially theatre, literature, painting and local folk art.

The university will continuously promote inter-disciplinary exchanges and close cooperation with various fields involved in the application of sport, encourage new academic talent and offer students specialized training in academically oriented career profiles.

The Leander-Shrachi partnership also contemplated focusing on centres of excellence in different sports along the same lines, with a 10-year roadmap for numerous such CoEs, including adopting existing ones. Yet another key project in the sports pipeline is creating Kolkata franchises in all organized national sports tournaments.