1. Sports For All (SFA), India’s premier inter-school sports competition was held in
Mumbai’s multi-sports arena, the D. Y. Patil Sports Stadium in Nerul from 24th
to 31st
December, 2015. Schools all over from Mumbai and suburbs of Thane and Navi
Mumbai participated in 9 Olympics sports.
SFA is an inter-school sporting platform for school children to play, compete and
grow in various sports. SFA aims to be the country’s foremost inter-school sporting
system that identifies sporting talent at the grassroots level in a structured and
professional environment.
The students playing to be tennis champion got a chance to play and compete like in
world tennis championship with other tennis school. SFA, founded by Rishikesh
Joshi, is aimed at creating a platform for school students across Mumbai to
participate and compete in multiple sports. They conducted an inter-school sporting
event which was held at the D. Y. Patil Sports Stadium, Nerul and they made it a
system in itself called India's Premier Inter-School Sporting System.
The tennis tournaments arena at the D. Y. Patil Stadium had four polyvinyl synthetic
hard courts, suited and calibrated for world-class tournaments. Every tennis
champion match played by participants was captured on video and later showcased
on their schools SFA profile and individual participant’s SFA profile.
The Tennis tournaments at SFA were conducted under the aegis of the Mahesh
Bhupathi Tennis Association. For the first time an inter-school tennis championship
was officiated and governed by an authorized body of the sport.
SFA conducted tournaments for boys and girls from 500 schools of Mumbai.
Students competed in: Tennis championship, Basketball, Volleyball, Handball,
Badminton, Table Tennis, Squash, Judo and Swimming. MBTA was the authorised
body for conducting the tournaments for Tennis school.
Tennis tournaments have a considerable following in India, although it is limited to
urban areas but still it is counted among the most popular sports in India. India has
produced a number of tennis school, where many players have come out and
achieved international recognition and have made their presence in some of the
top tournaments and grand slams.
The game, also called lawn tennis, has a vibrant history to boast of. Since its
introduction to the country, a number of tournaments have been organized for men
and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles matches
along with the same for children and various schools in India. India has produced
some of the outstanding tennis players of Tennis. But due to lack of availability of
sports ground and appropriate tennis equipment, gears, etc. the sports is only played
in certain urban areas with a very few number of children getting a chance to
showcase their talent.
2. SFA’s mission is to bring together the best-in-class infrastructure, facilities,
administration, records maintenance and governance to the behest of the future
champions who are all in school today. India has suffered from an inability to nurture
sportsmen from an early age. The answer is in inter-school sport and SFA's mission
is to identify and nurture the students to be tennis champion as well as champion in
other sports as well.