Sports writers association kicks off activities, honours best sportspersons

A new look Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists Association (TNSJA) is to set the ball rolling for its activities with an award presentation function at a posh hotel in Chennai on Saturday. After its formation late last year, TNSJA apparently ‘revived’ by a set of young office bearers employed as sports journalists in the four English dailies and a Tamil sports publication, recently picked the best sportspersons for the year 2011-12, as it were. Thus Tamil Nadu and Team India off spinner R.Ashwin, who distinguished himself with his fine displays, will be honoured with the Tamil Nadu Sportsperson of the Year award. Correspondingly, India’s squash talent Deepika Pallikal was chosen as the Tamil Nadu Sportswoman of the Year. Another Tamil Nadu talent of yesteryear, cricketer K Srikkanth who recently ended his two-time tenure as Chairman of the Selection Committee of the Cricket Board(BCCI), was named for the TNSJA Lifetime Achievement Award.

And for the first time, TNSJA announced scholarships for ten budding sports talents in the state in K Premkumar and A Suresh (athletics), S Karthikeyan (Basketball), P Appu (Boxing), J Saranya and Mahalakshmi (Chess), Bhavani Devi (Fencing) U Jayakumar (football), P Dhanu (Hockey) and P Jerome Vineeth (Volleyball). Each of them will get Rs 25,000 as scholarship, marking them out as future champions.

The awards are being sponsored by Green Valley Shelters Private Limited (GVSPL). GVSPL Executive Director T Prabhakar described his company’s association with TNSJA as a matter of privilege and a great opportunity for it to be involved with sports and inspiring sportspersons to strive to scale great heights.