Wizcraft plans 8 sports academies

The investment will be Rs 200 cr, in all sports but cricket.

Sports academies are catching the fancy of astute businessmen. Wizcraft International Entertainment, an event management and enterainment agency, plans to rollout around 8 sports academies with an outlay of nearly Rs 200 crore.

The non-sport company will panout the eight academics across eight cities""Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad,Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Chennai"" in a phased manner beginning early 2008. Wizcraft is believed to be in talks with major real estate and infrastructure developers for the same.

The academies will provide training in non-cricket sports and will select trainees from across several age groups, said a source. "It is likely that a few academies will be residental while others would follow a different training module," added the source.

Wizcraft will set-up a seperate business unit under which the academies will be staged. When contacted Sabbas Joseph, director Wizcraft International Entertainment, declined to comment.

However, Wizcraft planned to set up its own sports management company as well, industry sources said. It isn't clear whether the academies will come under the sports management company or will function under a different business entity.

The company started off as an event management agency that organised private and corporate events. Over the years, Wizcraft has made its presence felt in other fields as well.

Apart from organising the International Indian Film Academy Awards, for the Indian fashion industry, Wizcraft has also produced television content for broadcasters.