Gaja Holdings to boost five sports in the country
A minimum of three athletes from each sport from the national level will be scouted for this programme.
Their vision is to ‘eradicate the youth from drugs and form a drug free society and use them as a skilled work force’.
The whole idea behind this concept is to nourish and transform the player to be free from injury, who will then be able to maintain his physical level and other related aspects while competing at the professional level.
“We have identified that at present most of the players do not receive nutrition according to a proper system, which is the main cause for injuries.”
“They have to be educated for 6 to 12 months prior to getting into competitive sports, in order to retain them throughout the season and enable them to be injury free as a conditioned player,” said Gayath Jayasinghe, CEO of Gaja Holdings who is a former national basketball player.
While selecting the players, they are in the process of obtaining the services of professional coaches (for each sport) to train them.
“We can see in rugby and basketball there are qualified trainers but aren’t getting involved in these games due to various reasons. There are many qualified coaches, trainers, physios and nutritionists. Unfortunately, they are not exposed to the top level. But with this project they will get an opportunity to serve by sharing their knowledge and experience with these players and the support staff.”
This project will be fully funded with local resources. They intend to commence from October this year, initially recruiting the support staff at the outset and then selecting the emerging players.
The players will gradually be trained for 6-months and then prepared for the next season.
The groups will be tagged under Gaja Basketball, Gaja Netball, Gaja Soccer, Gaja Hockey and Gaja Rugby and they intend to get at least three national players, if possible, to headhunt them.
“Our ulterior motive is to eradicate the youth from drugs and use them as a skilled workforce.”
“Our aim is to bag medals from these sports, which will also be an eye opener for players. The players will be able to develop their agility, conducive to flexibility in drills, and gain endurance in the respective sport, which is lacking with some of the players at national level,” concluded Jayasinghe.