Shrachi Group strengthens India’s sports ecosystem with extensive investments across various leagues
New Delhi: The Shrachi Group firmly believes in promoting sports at all levels in India. In town for the Hockey India League (HIL) auction, Rahul Todi, Managing Director of the group shared with Millennium Post his thoughts on how investing in sports is important.
“Look, hockey is our national sport. And what the HIL is offering is what IPL is offering to cricket. The pool of players is from Germany Australia, Belgium, Netherlands and Argentina, both for men and women. So the best across countries will be playing here. We have a very clear calendar and nothing is happening in hockey at this time in the world, so the HIL is going to be good,” said Rahul Todi. The league will be held in Ranchi and Rourkela from December 28 to February 1, 2025.
“Shrachi has been investing in sports in the last one-and-a-half years. Primarily we believe India is strongly changing from a sports watching nation to a sports playing nation. The ecosystem around sports is changing at home. The IPL and the ISL (football) have shown us a lot. Right now, besides, ISL we own the Mohammedan Sporting Club. We also have a team in the Bengal Pro T20 league. And we also have a team in the IRL (Indian Racing League), added Todi. The IRL is a recent addition to the racing calendar. Named as Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers, the team is competing against other teams from Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad and Chennai. The last two rounds of the same will be held in Coimbatore in the third week of October and November.
“We are also starting our own leagues, for instance, the Bengal Super League and a league in Kerala. We also have a train the trainer programme. We want to focus on the grassroots level in sports as well. Our national education policy talks about sports as an integral part of education. Shrachi believes that sports promote a healthy lifestyle. By playing sports at your level, club level, community level, you can maintain a healthy lifestyle without hitting the gym and doing weights,” said Rahul Todi.
The group promotes Para sports in a big way and also works closely with the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). “Inclusivity is our motto. They need more support than us, and they are our superstars. We complain about little things in life like how hot it is. The Para athletes have been disadvantaged from birth and their stories are the real stories. I was the only corporate there in Paris supporting our athletes at the Paralympics. It was a humbling experience for me to see the medal winners and India won so many medals (29). We need to make them the real stars and the world should know about them,” stressed Todi.
Back to the auction, he spoke about how the three days will be live and worthwhile. “It should be fun, JSW is part of it and many more. It is a great platform. We have Colin Batch as the coach of our team (Shrachi Rar Bengal Tigers) plus a few more well-known names. The excitement is there like the IPL auction,” added Rahul Todi.
“We have a team in the Tennis Premier League as well and this time it is not Bengal, but Delhi. So we will continue to support more leagues.” He also spoke on India bidding for the 2036 Olympics and hopefully, India can win 50 medals at least by that time.
