A night to celebrate the silver jubilee function of Sunil Gavaskar’s Champs Foundation, was also an occasion to announce the tie-up of the batting legend’s NGO with Spartan, the toughest obstacle race in the world, which will be brought to India by PMG.
A part of the proceeds from the Spartan races will be handed over to the foundation to supplement its activities.
Champs, which stands for ‘Caring, Helping, Assisting, Motivating, Promoting, Sportspersons’, was started in 1999 by Gavaskar after reading news reports of sportspersons who had brought laurels to the country but had unfortunately fallen on hard times after their sporting careers came to an end. Champs Foundation began as an initiative to recognize and reward these deserving sportspersons and has been doing so anonymously for the last 25 years.
Among friends and well wishers who gathered to commemorate the foundation’s silver jubilee were fellow trustee GR Vishwanath, members of the 1983 World Cup winning team, current India coach Rahul Dravid, chief of selectors Ajit Agarkar, to name a few, along with head honchos from diverse fields.
“I thank the media for highlighting these issues 25 years ago, which prompted me to start the CHAMPS Foundation and it was my team members from the 83 winning team that came forward selflessly to help the initiative,” said Gavaskar, while speaking at the function.
Also present on the occasion were Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, former trustee of the foundation Khalid Ansari, besides leading names from the corporate world.
