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Veteran cricket coach Gurcharan Singh, Kalaripayattu master SRD Prasad and Thang Ta guru K Sanathoiba Sharma conferred with Padma Shri
Three veteran coaches who had been nurturing talents for ages while upholding tradition and inculcating the values of sportsmanship have been conferred with Padma Shri awards.
Former cricketer and coach Gurcharan Singh, Kalarippayattu veteran SRD Prasad and Thang Ta master K Shanathoiba Sharma were among those honoured with the Padma Shri award for their extraordinary contributions to sports.
Gurcharan Singh is a well-known and well-respected cricket coach from Delhi.
Born in Rawalpindi in 1935, Singh came to India after the 1947 partition. He began his cricketing journey under Maharaja of Patiala Yadavindra Singh.
Singh went on to play 37 First Class matches, representing teams like Patiala and Railways. But it was his inning as a coach that will be remembered forever.
Singh is instrumental in shaping the careers of numerous cricketers – 12 of whom went on to become international players. Some of his famous students include Kirti Azad, Maninder Singh, Vivek Razdan, Ajay Jadeja, Rahul Sanghvi and Murali Karthik among others.
Some of his notable coaching stints include his tenure as North Zone coach between 1977 and 1983, as coach of the Maldives’ team in 1985 and coach of the Indian team between 1986 and 1987.
In 1987, Singh also became only the second cricket coach to be conferred the Dronacharya Award.
Kalaripayattu veteran SRD Prasad is one of the most respected names in traditional Indian combat styles. He also received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2015 for his contribution to martial arts.
Prasad also created the syllabus for a Kalaripayattu-focused programme for the Nalanda Dance Research Centre in Mumbai.
K Sanathoiba Sharma is a well-known instructor of Thang-Ta, the indigenous martial art of Manipur. It is also known as the “art of the sword and spear”.
Thang-Ta combines the internal practice of physical control through delicate motions timed with the rhythms of breathing with a variety of exterior weapons – the sword, spear, dagger, etc. It is a part of Manipur’s rich heroic tradition.
