Pulwama : A youth from Lajoora village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district has launched a sports academy at Pune city of Maharashtra to nurture talent of youth.
Dr. Rauf Ur Rafiq, who is also owner of Valley’s prestigious cricket club, Pulwama Gymkhana, launched Jammu and Kashmir Sports Academy at Kondhwa area of Pune city in Maharashtra.
Talking to Rising Kashmir on phone from Pune, Dr. Rauf, said the sports academy will train talented youth of Kashmir for Cricket, Football and Volley ball.
“JKSA is the first professional academy of Kashmir, it’s establishment has rekindled a new hope among talented sports persons of our region,” Dr Rouf said, adding that he was approached by many players of his club asking him to start a sports academy.
“Initially, I had to defer this idea due to some reasons,” he said, adding that this year he took a travel to different areas of the country including Jammu, Delhi and Bangalore to analyse various sports academies there.
“ Ultimately I landed at Pune where from JKSA has been launched,” he said, adding that the sports academy was launched in collaboration with Brilliants Sports Academy and Cric Challengers Pvt.Ltd.
Dr Rouf informed that JKSA has registered 10 admissions within first two days, 7 from Kashmir and 3 from Pune for Cricket training.
“ The local players will trained here throughout the year and players from Kashmir will have an option to move to valley after winters,” he said, adding that some players from Kashmir have desired to stay at Pune for whole year to adopt to humid conditions and turf wicket.
Dr. Rouf revealed that they will be starting the Kashmir chapter of JKSA at Srinagar in March of this year.
The players at JKSA are trained by professional coaches who have represented their state at National and international level.
“ Separate coaches have been appointed for bawling, batting and fielding,” he said, adding that they have also roped in some famous players from Pune city including Rituraj Gaikwad, Rahul Tripathi, Kedar Jadav and Mukesh Chaudhry for mentoring the youth
“ The admissions at JKSA are accepted for U12, U 16, U19, U23 and U25,” Dr. Rouf said, adding that their main focus will be on Cricket, Football and Volley ball but in the long run they will also coach for Hockey, Chess and Carrom.
