Silchar, Sep 3: The ongoing MLA Cup football final tournament will be graced by Birmingham Common Wealth Games 2022 Gold Medalist in Lawn Bowls event Nayanmoni Saikia on September 4. It was confirmed by Kaushik Rai, MLA of Lakhipur constituency on Friday.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Rai said, "The football tournament started in August and over the past one month a total of 226 teams from across the constituency, even at the GP level, have joined the tournament with over 2,000 players taking part."
"The target behind organizing the tournament was to boost the sports infrastructure and find out fresh players who can be trained to represent the state and the country in major sporting events. We are also planning to open an academy to train the players. Also, we are elated to get the consent from CWG 2022 Gold medalist Nayanmoni Saikia to attend the finals of the event," Rai said.
"The winners of the constituency level tournament will get Rs 1,01,000 and the runners-up team will get Rs 51,000. The Player of the Tournament will get Rs 11,000. At the GP level, each team was given a cash award of Rs 1000," he informed.
Elaborating on the steps taken to revamp the sports infrastructure, the legislator informed that work is in progress for the indoor stadium and it is likely to be completed by March 2023. Also, a new stadium will come up in the Binnakandi area under the constituency for which Rs 12 crore has been sanctioned and work is likely to start from November.
Kaushik Rai further said that, "Many players from Lakhipur are taking part in major sports events across the state and around the country, and some of them have been immensely successful. My endeavor is to create an environment with adequate facilities so that players from my constituency get well trained to be successful in their pursuits
"Sports is a great platform to unite people and I am trying to transform Lakhipur into a sports hub in the region and work is being undertaken to manifest the vision," the legislator added.