All India Subroto Cup school football tournament commences today

Sep 14: A total of 66 school teams, including schools of five foreign countries, will be in the fray to vie for top honours in the 47 th All India Subroto Mukherjee Cup football tournament for schools which kicks off at the Capital’s Ambedkar stadium today.

Maiden entrant’s Army Public School (APS), Delhi Cantonment will take on Government Boys senior secondary school, Tikri Kalan, the champion school team of Delhi state, in the inaugural match of the tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium at 3:30 P.M. on Friday. Air Marshal JN Burma, Air Officer-in-Charge (Administration), Air Headquarters, will grace the opening ceremony.

Apart from Indian schools, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are sending a team each for the junior (Under-17) and sub-junior (Under-14) categories while United Arab Emirates who are participating for the first time and Malaysia will send only a sub-junior team to take part in the month long country's premier school level tourney which concludes on October 16.

The coach of the APS, Delhi Cantt’s team Ajit Kumar is quite thrilled with mere participation of his school team in the junior category as their school has been given chance under Army School quota for the first time.

Talking to Newstrack India Correspondent Mukesh Thapliyal, coach Ajit Kumar clearly stated “My team didn’t get enough time to practice as we only come to know about the participation just 15 days back, still we could be able to give our opponent’s a tough time on the field irrespective of the fact that they are the champion team of Delhi. I am quite hopeful that my team will put up a good show in the tournament”.

The prize money of this prestigious tournament has been doubled from this year, by the Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society (SMSES), the organisers of the tournament. The winners and the runners-up in the junior category will respectively pocket Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 while the sub-junior champion’s and losing finalists will take a purse of Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 each. In addition members of the winning teams of both the age-group will also be given suitcases by the sponsors while the members of the runners-up teams will get wrists watches. Air Marshal Burma told media.

A four-member selection committee which comprises former Olympian Sqn. Leader SS Hakim as the chief selector, Nirmal Singh (SAI), Anadi Barua (AIFF) and Ranjit Thapa from SMSES, will also select 30 outstanding players from the juniors and 16 from the sub-juniors categories, recommending them to National Institute of Sports (NIS) Patiala for grant of government scholarship.

SMSES will give a one-time stipend of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively to each of the junior and sub-junior boys selected by the committee. The sponsors of the 47-year-old tournament will also award un-geared scooters to the most promising player and the best player of the tournament.

Air Officer-in-charge Administration, Air Marshal J.N.Burma told reporters that a large scale tournament like this gives exposure to the boys and motivates them to excel in the sport. He also confirmed that countries like Brazil, Argentina and Italy could be considered for participation in coming years.

Air Marshal Burma said that the opening and the closing ceremonies would be marked with fly pasts by MI-17 helicopters, aerial displays by the Army Adventure Wing, Air Force band display, aero modelling by the NCC and Air Warriors Drill Team. The closing ceremony will be attended by the Chief of Air Staff S.P.Tyagi.

The tournament began in 1960 with the formation of the Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society, which was the brain child of the first Indian Air Chief (late) Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, a keen soccer enthusiast.