NEW DELHI: After one aborted attempt and a second that died a quiet death after one season, it will hopefully be third time lucky for India as far as franchise presence in AIBA’s World Series Boxing (WSB) is concerned.
According to the Tribune, India could soon have a franchise in the World Series of Boxing so as to brighten the prospects of the country’s pugilists to secure maximum quota places at the future Olympic Games.
“India would possibly have a WSB franchise by this year. I had discussions with the top brass of WSB during my recent visit to AIBA’s headquarter in Lausanne. AIBA, too, seems to be very interested and wants India to become part of the WSB fold,” BFI chief Ajay Singh said.
Singh also informed Tribune that India would bid for the hosting rights of the AIBA Youth World Championship for women in November this year.
It is worth noting that Videocon Group was awarded the Delhi franchise when AIBA launched WSB in 2011. However, the company had pulled out at the last minute without citing any reason. Aiba then went ahead and signed Korean city of Incheon as replacement for Delhi Tigers, as the franchise was then called.
Then in 2012, Mumbai-based sports infrastructure company TransStadia had bought the WSB India franchise for a period of 10 years.
TransStadia’s trsyt with WSB lasted but one season, after which it pulled out, citing to paucity of funds and the administrative turmoil in the now-defunct Indian Amateur Boxing Federation.
That is of course all in the past. Fast forwardingf to the present, the newly-formed Boxing Federation of India’s (BFI) strong desire to own a WSB franchise would certainly boost Indians’ qualification hopes for the Olympics.
