Ukhrul: Ramnganing Muivah, IAS (Retd), former secretary NEC, launched Wilders club T-shirt on Fiday at Ekhon office at Dungrei Hungpung.
Wilders club is a nine member club, all sports enthusiasts who came back home from cities after their studies. The nine member club decided to bring basketball to limelight apart from the already popular football and badminton sports in Ukhrul District. This endevour was even further spurred after two of their members got to represent in a national level basketball for Manipur State.
Wilders club’s first known tournament goes as far back as 2018 at the district level. In 2019, the team of nine organized a state open basketball tournament. Several teams from Imphal, Churachandpur, and all over Manipur came and participated in the tournament, according to Wilders club.
Horthingshang CS, host of the program, who is also the financial secretary of the club said that sports provides the much needed physical fitness. It is good for health and also helps the youth to stay away from alcohol and substance abuse.
Ramnganing Muivah in his exhortation at the launch of the T-shirt, said that basketball is one of the highest-paid sports in the world. “NBA is a household name throughout the world”, he said.
Applauding the members of Wilders club for focusing on physical fitness he asserted, “It is really good what Wilders club is doing”.
He then mentioned popular basketball players such as Yao Ming, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James. He opined, “Nowadays our icons are not politicians, but sports personalities”.
Taking cue from Wilders club’s motto “Rise and Change” as an exemplary motto, Ram Muivah said that the same is symmetrical to his motto, “Mission Ukhrul”, to transform Ukhrul.
Talking about his school days in erstwhile Sacred Heart School, Ukhrul, he recounted that he was familiar with basketball as he himself used to participate in Independence day basketball trophy in Ukhrul.
He further opined that Tangkhuls are good at contact games like football and basketball.
The program ended with a closing prayer from K Kanrei, an elder, followed by refreshment.
The 4th edition of basketball tournament is scheduled to be held from December 16 to December 18 at Sacred Heart Hr. Sec. School, Ukhrul.