Kolkata, Oct 27 (IANS): A West Bengal real estate giant has announced that they have roped in world famous sports and fitness icons - midfielder maestro Ronaldinho, Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, India cricket icon Yuvraj Singh and Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff to develop state of the art sports and fitness academies in Kolkata.
Launching their project christened "RISE - Sports Republic" at Rajarhat - the satellite township of city, the Merlin Group said that this self-sufficient township has all amenities required for today's modern living.
The new greenfield sports-themed township will house the state-of-the-art football academy of Ronaldinho - the R10 Football Academy, the Michael Phelps Swimming Academy, state of the art MMA (mixed martial arts) Matrix Training Centre by Tiger Shroff, and the cricket academy - The Yuvraj Singh Centre of Excellence (YSCE).
According to the group, the football and the cricket centres will be operational within the next five months, and the swimming and MMA training centres in the next one year.
The academies will follow a thorough and complete training curriculum, techniques, learning module and overall infrastructural facilities as per their guidelines. This will help them bring out the hidden talent from different segments of the population, it said.
The sports township of Merlin is equipped with an all-weather football ground and the world-class training to be imparted by R10 Academy of Ronaldinho. The cricket facility will have indoor nets/pitches to practice during bad weather and two outdoor pitches on the field with all the updated equipment and technologies.
The township will house a swimming pool at the roof top of the Sports Club where training will be provided under the programme of Phelps.
It will have a state-of-the-art gymnasium with the updated equipment, proper training and diet guidance along with provision of MMA Matrix and other facilities where one can accomplish to be the best athlete.
"West Bengal as well as India is the treasure-trove of untrained talents in sports. There is no dearth of talent, but I sensed a sports infrastructure gap in Bengal.A There is a dire need for identifying and grooming the talents from the grass root level,", Merlin Group Managing Director Saket Mohta said.
"This motivated me to set up a world class sports infrastructure and sports academies of internationally acclaimed brands to nurture the talents. The academies will hire international supervisors and coaches who will nurture the talent pool, train them and take them to the next level to possibly to represent the state or district or nation. We will try our best to provide assistance to needy yet talented youngsters," he added.