Dabang Mumbai News

Mumbai: Dabang Mumbai, the Mumbai franchise of the prestigious Hockey India League (HIL) own by DoIT Sports Management, kicked off its preparatory camp for the third edition of the tournament at the MHA Hockey Stadium on Friday with the aim of staking claim to the prestigious trophy in their maiden appearance in the competition.

The HIL would be held from January 22 to February 22 and Dabang Mumbai would be playing their lung opener on home turf on January 23.

All the Indian players have already joined the camp and have been working under the guidance of assistant coach Anil Aldrin, goalkeeping coach Edgar Mascrenhas and team mentor VirenRasquinha. And Chief Coach Valentin Altenburg is joining the squad from Monday and the preparations would definitely be taken to a higher level here on.

“We are slowly but surely gathering momentum and it is showing in the training sessions. The arrival of Valentin would only bring more purpose and direction to the training. We want to give our fans and supporters a reason to cheer from our first game itself and we are working in that direction,” said Rasquinha after the session.

The team would be having training in two sessions – endurance and skills, every day with all the foreign players expected to join the squad before January 15.

The team has tried to maintain a distinct Mumbai character to the squad by picking six players – including the experienced Adrian D’Souza and VikramPillay – who have been products of Mumbai hockey and have an instant connect with the fans and fellow players.

Special initiative

In a first for any HIL team, Dabang Mumbai will also open its preparatory camp to local club coaches and young hockey players – boys and girls — who aspire to make hockey their career as part of their commitment to promoting grass-root talent from the catchment region of Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat apart from improving the sporting infrastructure at the grass-root levels in urban and rural India under their pioneering initiative of “Rurban” sports development.

 Speaking about the team and the vision for the franchise, DoIT Sports Management owner Radha Kapoor said, “Dabang Mumbai will be representing the aspirations and dreams of every Mumbai hockey fan and I am sure the team will play an exciting brand of hockey that will bring more spectators to the stadium.

“Do IT Sports Management is also committed to promote hockey at the grass-root level and to identify and nurture local talent. We already have six local players in the squad and over the years we will like to give more and more opportunity to the local talent to make the grade,” she added.

For their first season, Dabang Mumbai has built a completely fresh team after deciding against retaining any player from the last edition and bid a record amount of $103000 for Belgian striker Tom Boon and second highest amount of $78000 for Australian defender Matthew Swann in the closed bid process.

The team also boasts of penalty corner specialist Harmanpreet Singh, who recently bagged the ‘Top Scorer of the Tournament’ and ‘Player of the Tournament’ award in the recently concluded Sultan Johar Cup in Malaysia.  

About DoIT Sports Management (India) Pvt Ltd:

-DoIT Sports Management (India) Pvt Ltd was incorporated as a part of DoIT Creations Group with the vision of promoting sports, athletes, sports facilities and events across India.

-DoIT Creations Group is founded by RadhaKapoor, a creative entrepreneur promoting creative and innovative new sunrise opportunities focused on entrepreneurship.

-DoIT Creations has established the Indian School of Design and Innovation („ISDI‟) in Mumbai in collaboration with Parsons The New School for Design, New York in 2013

-DoIT recently acquired a strategic stake in the established Business World (BW) magazine.

-Marked its foray in sports with the ownership of the Delhi franchise of the Pro Kabaddi League – “Dabang Delhi.

-With Dabang Mumbai, now DoIT Sports enters into Hockey India League and as a team expect to work towards developing and contributing towards the growth of Indian hockey.

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