MUMBAI: The Cricket Board has started disbursing funds to assist sportspersons of the country picked for the Beijing Olympics.
However, the joint venture between the BCCI and the Sports Ministry to support sportspersons of select disciplines for three years is yet to be officially launched, according to the BCCI's July quarterly newsletter.
The joint venture -- for which the Board and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports would pool in Rs 25 crore each to create a corpus of Rs 50 crore -- would be officially launched soon by BCCI Chief Sharad Pawar and Sports Minister M S Gill.
"The disbursement of funds to assist sportspersons selected for the 2008 Olympics has already begun. A special committee will be constituted to monitor the progress of this venture," the newsletter said.
The committee will have four nominated members each from the BCCI and the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) Executive Council and a representative from each of the Federations administering the concerned sports disciplines, it said.
The Joint Secretary (Sports) would function as the convener-secretary and the BCCI-NSDF Sports Talent Fund would be known as BEST Fund, it added.
Expressing happiness over the joint venture, Pawar said that the fund would be used to assist prospective medal winners in boxing, judo, swimming, archery and wrestling commencing from the Beijing Games and extending upto the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
"The BCCI is proud to associate itself with the development of other sports and we hope these athletes will make the nation proud and get us that elusive gold medal at the Olympics," the BCCI chief was quoted as saying in the newsletter.
Meanwhile, the highly successful opening duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were named "Players of the Quarter".
Sehwag amassed 372 runs at 74.40 per innings in the three-Test series against South Africa while his Delhi teammate Gambhir notched up 209 runs from three ties to average 104.50 in the tri-series in Bangladesh last month.
