India's shooting league gets international federation support: ‘We are ready to receive attention'
Shooting has been excluded from the Commonwealth Games on multiple occasions. It was excluded from this year's World University Games, too. The withdrawal of the programme, coupled with pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has forced the world body to think outside the box.
'ISSF is working very hard for marketing, for communication, because it is really important because we realize that people don't know what we are, what we do. We know very well inside the family, but it's not enough. We have to open not only the door, but also the window in the world, and we are ready to receive attention,' ISSF president Luciano Rossi admitted in a virtual media roundtable on Monday.
One part of this push is to align with the discipline of eSports, now a programme that features prominently in the plans of the IOC. NRAI president Kalikesh Singh Deo was recently appointed as the interim chairperson of the ISSF Committee on eSports and Innovations and has ensured that there will be eSports at the Shooting League of India.
'We also understand the pressures and the pulls of the current market of audiences. As he has said, and I reiterate, there are more than 450 million, 500 million gamers who exist. The idea is to try and tap an audience of fans,' said Deo.
He added, 'While all of us may understand the intricacies of pulling that trigger and the release of the breath and the stillness of the mind to maintain the competitive posture. However, to make a common man understand what the shooter has to go through, I think a lot of technology can be brought in, the biofeedback can be driven, new camera angles can be brought in to ensure that there is more excitement related with the broadcast as well as a better understanding of what the athlete is going through. I think that's the level of communication that we intend to bring out from the Shooting League of India.'
Apart from an eSports push – as well as a shooting league that has, according to Deo, 70 foreign shooters and close to 400 domestic shooters signed up – there is also the support that India will provide to the sport. Deo said that India would ensure a shooting programme at the 2030 Commonwealth Games and should the bid for the 2036 Olympics materialise, would support the programme wholeheartedly.
'I spoke with the Chair of the CWG. It was a mistake to remove shooting from the Games roster in 2022. The ISSF did what needed to be done at that point. But that's in the past. We are ready to cooperate again,' said Rossi. Deo agreed with the Italian and reiterated that shooting would be at the heart of any multi-sport event hosted by the country.
Over the next four years (including 2025), India is set to host four different ISSF events. India will host a Jr World Cup this year, the Asian pistol and rifle Championships next year, an all-format quota World Cup in 2027 and finally the Jr World Championship in 2028.
Deo spoke about plans to hold the Shooting League of India in November, but said that a clearer picture would emerge once the NRAI can lock in franchises and hold an auction. 'We are in an advanced stage of negotiation with the franchises. We still expect to hold our auction towards the end of August, maybe sometime in September, beginning of September. The schedule still remains in November. We are in advanced talks with some sponsors, with broadcasters,' said Deo.
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