Internet Desk: Eager to make up for the lost time, the recently-formed Boxing Federation of India (BFI) is planning to launch a domestic league next year, the details of which will be worked out after settling a “few issues”.
“We need to have a league, we are just trying to settle down a few things. But in 2017, we are definitely going to launch a league,” BFI President Ajay Singh in an interaction on the sidelines of the ongoing National Women’s Boxing Championships here but did not dwell on the issues left to be sorted.
It is to be noted, that professional boxing scene in India got a boost after amateur boxing hit a downward spiral owing to an administrative mess which lasted four years starting 2012 and ended in September this year with the formation of BFI.
“We are well behind at this stage because of the lost time, so it will take time to build things. We need to build our infrastructure bottom up,” Singh said in an interaction on sidelines of the ongoing National Championships for women.
Promising to put together a professional team of support staff and coaches, Singh said the BFI would ensure that the domestic coaches benefit from the foreign talent which will be on board by the time the national camps resume in January.
“We will put together the best possible coaching team.
It’s not only about the coaches though, it’s also about a sports psychologist, a nutritionist, physiotherapists, the whole support staff has to be there. A team has to be there, so we have to put a whole team in place,” he said.
“We need to broad-base our talent pool both for the players as well as the coaches. So by holding national championships, we will identify players, as far as the coaching staff is concerned, (the incumbents) have done a terrific job, obviously we need to strengthen that department.
We are not limited to coaches in India, we will find the best global talent that we can.
“We are already talking to some people, we are in the process of identifying people, both male and female coaches.
We would try to introduce them to the camps as soon as possible. Also it’s important that we upgrade the skills of our coaches. We want to have a train-the-trainers programme here, get foreign talent to come and train our coaches,” he added.
On the contentious issue of Indian Olympic Association’s continuous delay in giving BFI recognition, Singh said the mater is close to resolution.
“IOA has formed a committee to consider our application for recognition and we are hopeful that we will get affiliation from IOA, very soon. They have no reason not to recognise,” he said.