Mumbai will host the inaugural edition of the Indian Gymnastic League from December 1-3.
The event, conceptualised by the Prabodhankar Thackrey Krida Sankul and TheGymnast, will see four teams build on a franchisee model compete for honours and a winner’s prize purse of Rs 1 lakh.
“The team owners are those who are basically supporting the idea. The players have been divided in a way that all the four teams are balanced. The whole idea is to create a platform for the players to come and perform and learn from each other,” explains coach Harish Parab, who is also organising the event.
“Players from Maharashtra, West Bengal and the Services are participating in the event. The top players from Railways wont be here since they have their inter-Railways competition. But otherwise we have the best players competing and that is a positive start for us,” he said, adding the players are not being paid any money for participating.
Each team would have eight players – four men and four women – with half of them between 15 to 18 years. Every player will have to participate in at least one of the four events with the winner decided on the collective points won by the team.
Normally there are six events for men and four for women. But since this would be a mixed team competition and both categories need to have just four events, the Pommel horse and Parallel bars have been dropped, Parab added.