GOALS TECHIES SCORE

FIVE-A-SIDE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT WITH CORPORATE
BACKING IS THE LATEST CRAZE IN TOWN
Chandu Gopalakrishnan

WHAT do techies and corporate heads in Bangalore do to cool off after a stressful week in front of their computer? They hit the ground and play soccer! With active support from an increasing number of techies addicted to sports, the city has hosted more corporate sports events than any other metro in the country during the last three years.

Bangalore is growing not only in terms of IT revenue and the number of firms, but the number of corporate sports events as well. The latest is the inter-corporate five-a-side football tournament to be held at the St Johns hospital complex grounds in Koramangala this November. The criteria for entry? Backing of a corporate house located in and around Bangalore.

“Corporates are not just brainy fellows. Their physique should have a good break after the five-day work cloistered in their cubicles. They can easily afford the entry fee for the tournament, in which they get good exercise and also gain acquaintances in other firms,” says Aubrey Ellis, events manager of SportzVillage, who organises the football tournament that starts on November 17. Five-a-side football tournaments are popular among techies. “Not just soccer, we are also organising a cricket tournament exclusively for BPO firms during the same time,” says Aubrey.

Aslam Arakkal, associate consultant at a leading database management firm, has represented his firm twice in the five-a-side football tournament, facing teams from IT majors HP, Dell, Infosys, Bosch, TCS, SAP and Convergys. “The tournaments provide a real break from the routine and monotonous professional life. It’s also a chance to meet like-minded folks,” he says.

The eight-a-side tournament conducted by the Karnataka State Cricket Association played at the indoor facility of the cricket academy had generated considerable interest among techies. This tournament is popular with the IT houses and other corporates, with their players indulging in a lot of competitive cricket.

Fast-paced games are said to be the forte of youngsters. For the senior executives who would use the leisure to relax and build more business relationships, there are golf courses run by golf clubs and sports academies. Almost all leading IT firms have in-house arts and sports clubs, many of which back their employees in corporate sports championships. If cricket pitches and football grounds offer only weekly relief, in-house games offer daily recreation for techies. Table tennis, with lesser space demands and good physical activity involved, is most common in the recreation areas of IT firms.

“We organise table tennis, carroms and chess tournaments for our employees. The tournaments were held at our cafeteria after 5 pm, in which around 300 participate,” says Suma Boby of LogicaCMG. “The badminton championship organised by us recently, with single, doubles (men and women) and mixed doubles sections, had around 250 participants. We also organise an annual cricket tournament called Cricket Mania, in which 32 teams participated this year.“ A sports ambassador is elected from the employees every year. This year, Deepak Dennis, a prominent member of their cricket team and a kart racing enthusiast, was chosen. He had finished fourth in the recent LogicaCMG in the corporate Karting challenge.

Many say that unlike serious sports tournaments conducted periodically, corporate sporting events lose their steam three to four year after the launch.

“Everytime after a tournament I decide to start a new work-out regime along with playing more football. But once I’m back in the grind, it all takes a backseat while I sit comfortably in a reclining chair in the air-conditioned room waiting for the next break,” agrees Aslam.

But the number of new events promoted every year, either by a player in the industry or as a joint effort of a sports academy and firms interested, ensure that the city sports diary gets regular entries. The corporate sports events have grown so much, both in number and grandeur, that teams from major cities come to the city to participate. IT majors Infosys, Wipro, and others invite teams from their branches in other cities to take part, taking the stature of the tournaments to that of an all-India-level one.