Anand Mahindra wishes to invest in startup boxing academy of Abid Khan, former national champion who became an auto driver

By
Saikat Banerjee
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68
Abid Khan
Image Courtesy: PTI/Express

“If it weren’t caught on camera no one would believe it”, the popular phrase stands true for Abid Khan, a name the netizens were oblivious until last week when a short clip about a former boxer took the Indian internet by storm.

Abid Khan, a former national-level boxing champion, who did a coaching diploma in boxing from the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, in 1988-89 and even coached Indian Army boxing teams across a span of five years, has resorted to driving auto to acquire a livelihood.

A video about Khan’s story was shared on YouTube channel ‘Sports Gaon’, where it was revealed that the former pugilist, who was once North India boxing champion and Inter-university champion from Chandigarh and represented Panjab University, now is an auto driver and unloads grain sacks at markets to sustain.

Sports Gaon’s Saurabh Duggal shared a short clip of the video on Twitter, with an aim to make the public aware of the toiling the former athlete has been enduring in his current days and to get the attention of the administration.

Since last Wednesday, the clip got over 666.5k views as well as 7.7k retweets as the India boxing fandom was spreading the story about Abid Khan’s struggle like rapid fire.

Just a couple days later, Sports Gaon revealed that Khan is set to get back into coaching and will be aided by Olympic medalist Vijender Singh and Olympian Manoj Kumar as well as millions of “well wishers from across the nation.”

Although Khan’s resumption of coaching has been free of cost in his locality in Rehabilitation colony, Dhanas, Chandigarh, none other than Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra group and one of the most iconic names amongst the Indian business tycoons, has decided to help out the veteran coach in his journey back to boxing.

Sharing Saurabh Duggal’s original tweet, Mahindra revealed that he is interested to help Abid Khan get back into coaching and was intrigued by the NIS qualified coach not wanting to take donations. The Mahindra Group chairman also revealed that he wants to invest in Khan’s boxing academy.

Thank you Saurabh, for telling us Abid’s story,” Anand Mahindra wrote in his tweet, “I especially appreciate his not looking for a handout. In any case I prefer investing in people’s talents & passion rather than offer charity. Please let me know how I can invest and support his ‘startup’ boxing academy…”

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