Uttarakhand Lions bats for wrestling

New Delhi, February 17, 2013: The golfing fraternity is greatly aggrieved with Olympics’ recommendation that wrestling be dropped from the 2020 Summer Games. Speaking on the occasion of felicitation of Uttarakhand Lions on Saturday, the winning franchisee of the Golf Premier League, its co-owner Tushar Kumar said he felt “hurt and saddened” by the development. Tushar, who is vying for a team in the proposed Indian Wrestling League, is hopeful the recommendation won’t see light of the day. “We are in a strange situation. We just won the inaugural Golf Premier League and now want to build on this win through to Rio de Janeiro. We wanted to build on wrestling through our association with Indian Wrestling League. The 2020 Olympics was our target where we wanted a wrestler from our team to represent the country, it is sad to note while golf is on upswing, there are challenges thrown at wrestling,” said Tushar.

Tushar’s sentiments were echoed by veteran golfer Mukesh Kumar as well who was the member of the victorious Uttarakhand Lions team. “Yes, it is a sad development. In golf you have a lot of opportunities to showcase your talent but in a sport like wrestling and boxing, the opportunities are limited. Olympics is one of those events for which wrestlers work hard for four years and even that opportunity may be taken away from them. It is heartbreaking,” said Mukesh. “I have come up the hard way and I know what a sportsperson must be feeling when he is devoid of an opportunity. But lets hope the final decision comes in favour of wrestling.”

Away from these concerns, Mukesh and his fellow team mate from Uttarakhand Lions Shankar Das felt a million dollar in an evening that was organized in their honour. In a nail-bighting finish to the tournament at Amby Valley both Mukesh and Shankar pulled out their A game to rally towards a win. On the final day on February 14th, both bogeyed the penultimate hole, the 13th. After this Mukesh birdied the final par-3 and took his team to the top.

Tushar and the co-owners of the franchisee Umesh Kumar of NNI and cricketer Harbhajan Singh have already decided to give 10 per cent of the total prize money of US $ 250,000 to the four golfers of their team – Mukesh Kumar, Shankar Das, Darren Clarke and Chapchai Neerath.

The evening organized amidst fanfare was also attended by fellow golfers Digvijay Singh, Gaurav Ghei and Rashid Khan. The inaugural Golf Premier League was played at Amby Valley with eight teams contesting for the top honours.

Photo caption: Former union minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and co-owner of Uttarakhand Lions Tushar Kumar cutting celebratory cake in the presence of ace golfer Mukesh Kumar and Shankar Das to mark their team's victory in the inaugural Golf Premier League in New Delhi on February 17, 2013.

Press release