AAI plans to start franchise-based league and Archery Mahakumbh

The newly-elected Archery Association of India on Saturday proposed launching a franchise-based league and an all-India inter district tournament to spot talent at the grassroots level.

The Indian Archery League will be a team sport and is likely to come up by the end of this year with involvement from corporate sectors, while the ambitious inter-district 'Archery Mahakumbh' will be held in Ranchi sometime during May-June.

"The main objective of the IAL is to popularise and commercialise the sport. It's been an individual sport but here it will be a team sport. It's yet to be confirmed but we want to start this by November-December," AAI secretary general Pramod Chandurkar told PTI.

Former AAI secretary Anil Kamineni is overseeing the Indian Archery League project and the technical committee will finalise the details.

But the most ambitious project for the AAI, led by union tribal minister Arjun Munda, is the Archery Mahakumbh, where the former Jharkhand chief minister plans to bring together 10,000 archers from 700 districts across the country to compete with traditional bow and arrows in state capital Ranchi.

"It's a mass archery project and will be held in in Ranchi. The main purpose is to spot talents at grassroots level. All competitions will be held in Indian rounds. We hope to start this in May-June," Chandurkar said.

The first meeting of the AAI executive committee and general council here also decided to complete all the national-level senior to age group tournaments.

"All the National Archery Championships-2019 including Senior National, Junior National, Sub-Junior National, Mini (U-14) National and U-9 Open National Championship will be conducted within a period of two months," an AAI statement said.

AAI will also soon start a registration portal in which all the archers, coaches and officials will be able to register in compliance with World Archery, which has conditionally lifted the national federation's suspension, following elections.

The Munda-led AAI also plans to bring together former administrators, Paresh Nath Mukherjee and Tarlochan Singh, as advisors.