Harvesting talent

Location is not the only unique thing about this experiment. It’s the players who are at the heart of the mission, reports Subhash Rajta.

You are told there is this amazing set-up and you decide to check out. Driving down a beaten road barely broad enough to accommodate the vehicle, meandering along a small rivulet, you come across the occasional buffalo, mud-plastered houses and villagers lazily going about their daily lives, and wonder if you are on the right path, for what you are looking for is a youthful sport centre throbbing with life.

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But just then, it appears, in the midst of the countryside with few signs of development. Called Harvest Tennis Academy, it is the brainchild of Harvinder Singh Saran, an NRI based in Canada.

What we have here is a state-of-the-art tennis academy (for 6 to 16 age group), comparable with the best in the country. That it is nestled in a nondescript village, Jassowal, 31 km from Ludhiana — probably the first tennis academy located in a rural area — should not give you any wrong notions, for the slickness of the whole thing could come as a surprise.

Location is not the only unique thing about this experiment. It’s the players who are at the heart of the mission. Here, you see poor children with spirit and dedication. Every facility is available to them, and all free of cost.

“Their curiosity and desire to learn is no less than those in the cities and have adapted very well to this sport,” says Kawaljeet Singh, the academy’s former chief coach.