OSJA observes foundation day
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Sports Journalists’ Association (OSJA) on Tuesday observed its foundation day here. On the accession Odisha Senior Journalist Sandip Sahu, former sports administrator Ashok Mohanty and International Master Chess star of the State Swayangsu Satyapragyan were present as guest. We are facing many complex situation in our professional field, we need to educate our self to face our day to day work, said OSJA secretary Suresh Swain. Bhubaneswar now becoming an international sports hub with conducting many different events, in future the city is going to host Asian athletic meet, World Hockey league and World Cup Hockey. The importance of sports journalists is growing day by day, added Swain. Sports journalists’ role is like catalyst and bridge between organiser and players. Our job is not only to spread news among the masses. We most put our effort to engage more common people in the platform of sports, said OSJA working president Sanatan Pani. Without the support of the sports journalist, the players cannot get there due recognisation despite our hard work, said Satyaprangya. The digitization of world helped a lot to get the information through internet it also created new challenges for new generation reporters, Ashok Mohanty.
I am a big sports follower, two decade ago there was no sports page or sports reporter. It’s a great pleasure to see so many sports reporter under one roof, said Sandip Sahu OSJA felicitated KiiT Sports officer Gaganendu Das, Sradhanjali Samantaray, Maruti Esteet CMD Jitendra Kumar Samantsinghar, Subrat and Tata corporate communication head Soumendra Pattnaik.
Govinda Poddar to join India Red team
Bhubaneswar: Odisha skipper Govinda Poddar has been selected in the India ‘Red’ team for the upcoming Deodhar Trophy cricket tournament to be held in Vishakhapatnam from March 25. Parthiv Patel will lead the side while the other team India ‘Blue’ will be captained by Rohit Sharma. Poddar has got selected for the prestigious tourney after his performance for the Odisha side in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy in Delhi. Poddar scored 359 runs in six matches including a couple of hundreds against Assam and Punjab. The Rourkela batsman also bowled a few overs in the competition and scalped five wickets. He was in good form in this Ranji season as well. Odisha qualified for the quarter-finals under his captaincy in Ranji Trophy. Deodhar Trophy is not played in the zonal format now and three teams- India ‘Red’, India ‘Blue’ and the winner of the Vijay Hazare Trophy i.e Tamil Nadu compete for the Deodhar Trophy according to the recent format of the competition which is played pretty much like the challenger series.