Sanjiv Goenka opens scholarships for female athletes of India

Owner of the now disbanded Indian Premier League (IPL) team, Sanjiv Goenka has decided to open a scholarship programme for the talented female athletes of India. The Indian Women’s cricket team on Sunday will take on the English team in the final of Women’s World Cup 2017. This is only the second time an Indian Women’s team has achieved such a feat.

In their road to the final, skipper Mithali Raj and her girls have defeated some big teams like New Zealand and Australia. They are now just one step away from creating history and after looking at their success, the Kolkata based industrialist got the idea for such an initiative. Goenka, who is also the principal owner of Indian Super League (ISL) team Atletico de Kolkata, will offer a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs to 5 talented female athletes.

“For this year, our jury will pick five sportswomen who will be given Rs 5 lakh each,” said the chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, while speaking to the reporters. “Indian women cricket has shown what we are capable of. But what they lack is training, facilities, and resources,” he further added.

BCCI will also reward the team

Not only Goenka but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will reward the team for their efforts. “BCCI  will give a reward to Women’s Cricket Team on their tremendous performance in World Cup. Match by match Indian team is performing so well now, we are proud of them particularly the knock played by Harmanpreet Kaur,” said BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna while speaking to the news agency ANI.

The game between India and England will be played at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground in England. The first and the only time when the Indian team featured in a World Cup final, was in 2005 when they were thrashed by the Aussies.