The Hindu : Sport : OQG beginning to make an impression

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Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009
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OQG beginning to make an impression

Mumbai: Olympic Quest for Gold (OQG) — a dream project of Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone and Niraj Bajaj — is beginning to make an impression on the sports aficionados in India and resulting in healthy contributions towards a corpus they anticipate would touch Rs. 200 crore in five year’s time.

Champions in their own right in the field of cue sport, badminton and table tennis, they told a story of a happy incident after their last media interaction a few months ago at the C.K. Nayudu Hall, Cricket Club of India (CCI).

Surprise cheque

“I received a telephone call from an individual. I don’t know how he got my phone number. I met the sports enthusiast and he gave me a cheque for Rs. 11 lakh. We have written to 120 top corporates in India about OQG and its mission. I always believe that a one $ contribution from NRI’s from all over the world would be able to raise ample fund for the project. We know the struggle a sportsperson in India has to undergo to fulfil his or her potential. ,” said Sethi who along with Padukone organised a road show in California last August.

Bajaj said: “I have met people from the corporate world. They have shown interest and are happy that we are involved in the OQG. They became emotional. We have planned a series of appointments in April and probably in three months time we will revert. We must have a healthy corpus to drive our mission in quest of gold medals at the Olympics.” Some of the prominent companies and people who have contributed to the OQG are Bajaj Group, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Shitin Desai (Vice-chairman, DSP Merrill Lynch),. R. Ramraj (Sequia Capital India), Ashsih Kacholia, Amit Chandra and Vijay Aggarwal.

Tie-up

At the Cooch Behar Room, CCI, on Monday, OQG announced that it has entered into a broad spectrum agreement with the P.T. Usha School of Athletics and would support discus thrower Vikas Gowda, promising badminton player Guru Sai Dutt and boxer Sanjay Kolte. “We will continue to support shooter Gagan Narang and Tintu Luka of Usha’s school in Kerala. We will monitor their progress and performance and support them financially for a specific period of time. We are here as a bridge to fill the gap between sportsperson’s potential to excel and the support he/she receives from federations and the government,” said Sethi. — Special Correspondent

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