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Journalism of Courage
New Delhi, January 2: Perhaps, for the first time in the history of Indian sports, a national championships will be held outside the shores of the country. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the CBSE national badminton tournament in Dubai from January 10 to 13.
As many as 16 teams from India — winners and runners-up from the four zones — and two from the Gulf will participate in the league-cum-knockout tournament, according to Dr G P Gautam, Officer on Special Duty, CBSE.
The boys and girls teams from New Era Public School and one team from Holy Child will be the teams from Delhi participating in the Dubai tournament. One school team from Panchkula make up the line-up from North Zone. The zonals were held at the New Era School here a couple of months ago on four wooden and two cemented courts.
The school teams from the South Zone will be four from Vijaywada (both boys and girls).
The West Zone schools are from Bombay (girls), Nagpur (boys and girls) and Udaipur (boys).
Bagalpur, Hazaribagh, Varanasi and Shakti Nagar (near Muzaffarpur) will be the teams from East Zone.
The CBSE which started its sports activities with just one discipline in 1996 has grown in stature over the years and has added 13 more disciplines in the last four years. Badminton was added to the list only last year and the nationals were held in Vijaywada. Handball, judo, roller skating and swimming have been added from this year. Some additional age groups in table tennis were included in the CBSE tournaments this year.
The total expenditure of the tournament to be conducted in Dubai would be equally shared by the CBSE, the Gulf Council and the organisers (Indian High Schools, Dubai). The Councillor General of the Gulf, the chairman of the organising committee, is expected to inaugurate the tournament.
The chief referee and the deputy chief referee will be from India and a clinic for the Dubai officials will be held on the eve of the tournament.
All the Principals of schools which organised zonal badminton tournaments have also been invited to Dubai during the tournament.
