The grass has suddenly turned green at the Mumbai Hockey Association, as things begin to brighten up at an association that has hitherto struggled to organise tournaments on time.
A few days ago, MHA conducted the final of last year’s Super League tournament. On Monday, this season’s Super League got underway, and a day later the Bombay City Civil court ruled in their favour and against the state government that was planning to evict them from their Churchgate premises.
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Now, in one of its brightest developments in recent times, yesterday MHA have entered into a partnership with Hockey Indian League franchise Mumbai Magicians.u00a0
MHA secretary Ram Singh Rathod explained: “Mumbai Magicians are keen to not just enhance their brand value through this partnership, but more importantly, they want work in conjunction with us to to develop the game.
The franchise’s name will henceforth be attached to our events even as we work together to organise new tournaments for youth of the city and state. At the moment, we are planning an inter-college tournament involving institutes from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. There will be more such new initiatives announced in due course.”
Though the exact finances of the deal are unclear, sources informed MiD DAY that MM have made a part payment of Rs 5 lakhs and will subsequently invest a lot more across the next year.
MM COO Satya T said the partnership was more u00a0strategic rather than sponsorship-oriented. “Being the Mumbai franchise at the HIL, we wanted to build on our brand presence and what better place to do it than on our homeground?
Developing junior hockey is definitely one of our prime objectives and we are also planning an academy to help youngsters hone their skills. This is a long-term association. In India cricket is a religion, so our idea is to make hockey a tradition,” said Satya.u00a0