Meghalaya on a big sporting mission

From planning to set up a top-class football academy to sending a state athlete to the Olympic Games — the Meghalaya government is on a “mission mode” to emerge as the next big hotspot in India’s sporting landscape. At the heart of all this lies Conrad K Sangma’s ambitious New Shillong City project with an allied focus on developing a sports city in the state. The Meghalaya chief minister has already met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore in this regard. “The development of New Shillong is very much part of the agenda of our government. We have started the Meghalaya Games a few years back and through this, our intention is to reach the top level. The creation of infrastructure keeps happening and we would like to see in the next few years proper infra not only at district level, but it should happen up to the block level. The government is certain that transformation of the youth mentally physically will happen in the state soon,” Meghalaya’s deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong told TOI. “We are on a special mission mode for sporting activities in the state,” he added. This ‘special mission’ includes plans of hosting the National Games, nurturing athletes for representing India in the Olympic Games and exploring the idea of holding a national football tournament a la the Durand Cup or the Subroto Cup. “In New Shillong, there's a thought process to do something like a sports city with a football training academy, a bigger stadium and other things. When we look at the fact that we were not able to give tickets to so many people for the Durand Cup semifinal (which was held in Shillong’s Nehru Stadium having a capacity of about 17000 spectators), the only way is to have a bigger stadium. So we are working on those things,” Vijay Kumar D, commissioner and secretary to the government of Meghalaya, revealed. The Sangma government has embarked on a partnership with Indian Super League side NorthEast United FC in establishing a residential football academy in the vicinity of Shillong. The NEUFC co-owner John Abraham is also on board to strengthen the football ecosystem in the region. The Meghalaya government’s big push for promoting sports has also blossomed into an elite programme in which 11 athletes have been selected from a pool of 50000 young talents and have now been training under Australian Olympian and former triple jumper Ian Campell and others. “In New Shillong, along with tourism, IT and sports have been identified as the three big drivers. So, sports has definitely been part of that plan. Overall, infrastructure-wise we are already doing it. Now training and coaching is the second most important thing, that is where our investment is. For example, Lajong now have a new coach (in Jose Hevia from Spain). So this is possible because of the government’s support,” Vijay Kumar pointed out.