Shooting League of India promises to trigger innovation

The inaugural Shooting League of India (SLI) could pave the way for innovation, making the competition crisp, capturing the emotion and drama of the athletes, and making it attractive for the fans who enjoy watching sports.

The president of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), Luciano Rossi, and the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Kalikesh Singh Deo, promised to help the game evolve in a healthy, ethical, and interesting way as they addressed the media online on Monday.

Collaboration

“For the first edition of the league, we work together with India. It will be a great success,” assured Rossi, from his home in Italy, as he fondly pulled out a photo to recall his association with Dr. Karni Singh, the first Indian to win a World Championship medal in shooting.

“We are in an advanced stage of negotiations with the sponsors, broadcasters. We expect to finalise and make the announcements by the end of September or early October,” said Kalikesh.

Rossi and Kalikesh agreed that it was important to help the fans understand what the shooter was going through and appreciate the remarkable levels of accuracy being achieved in the sport.

Change in format

“For too long, we had forgotten to show what we are. It was a big mistake. We are working towards a better format for the Los Angeles Olympics. It will be athlete first. We are collecting new ideas. We are close to change, without forgetting the spirit of the sport. Having finals that were too long, without emotion and drama, was not good for the sport,” conceded the ISSF president.

Kalikesh observed that the vision for the shooting league was to have better visibility for the sport and gain commercial and financial support for the shooters, both domestic and international.

“We can do a lot with the league,” said Kalikesh, asserting that the evolution of the sport in a more viewer-friendly avatar could be the way forward, even though shooting has done well to retain its 15 events across pistol, rifle and shotgun sections, offering a total of 45 medals in the Olympics, despite new games jumping into the bandwagon.