Schools, organisations should encourage traditional sports: Modi
New Delhi, May 27: Stressing that traditional Indian sports like kho-kho and gilli-danda were "fading into oblivion", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged schools and youth organisations to promote them.
"Sports and games that were once a part and parcel of every child's life, in every lane in the neighbourhood, are fading into oblivion. These games used to be a special feature of summer holidays," the Prime Minister said in the 44th edition of his monthly radio programme, Mann Ki Baat.
"Children used to play with exuberant abandon for hours together. Some games saw the participation of the whole family," he said.
Naming pitthoo, kho-kho, gilli-danda, lattoo, kite flying as few among others, Modi said these games were an "inseparable part of every child's life from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Kamrup".
"Of course, those games were known by different names, depending on the place."
"The unity, intrinsic to our country's diversity can be witnessed in these games. A single game is known by distinct names at different places," he added.
He then said that traditional games were structured in such a manner that along with physical ability, they would enhance logical thinking, concentration, alertness and energy levels.
"There is no age limit for participating in them. From tiny tots to grand-parents, these games were played together," Modi said, adding many games made people aware about the society, environment and other spheres.
"It is crucial that today, schools, neighbourhoods and youth organisations come forward and promote these games. Through crowd-sourcing we can create a very large archive of our traditional games," he said.
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IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24, 25: BCCI
New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.
This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.
The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.
Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.
The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.
Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.
Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.
As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.
The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.
Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.
