Sports Authority of India`s rowing coach Jose Jacob and well-known women`s football coach Nanda Kishore Patnaik were today chosen for the Kamal Ganguly Memorial Award for the year 2013 and 2014 respectively.

City-based premier cricket club, Saheed Sporting, which instituted annual award two years ago, will honour Jacob and Patnaik in a function to be held here at the club ground after Dussehra festival. The award carries a memento, citation and Rs 15,000.

According to club secretary Pankaj Patnaik, former Odisha Ranji team captain and retired IAS officer Madan Mohan Mohanty will be conferred with the Saheed Sporting Life-time Achievement Award on the occasion.

Government cricket coach Kishore Mania was the first recipient of the award, which was instituted in the memory of eminent cricket coach Kamal Ganguly, who passed away in 2006 after grooming number of quality cricketers including Odisha`s first international Debasis Mohanty.

For Jocob, under whose guidance rowers of SAI Watersports Centre, Jagatpur (Cuttack) won more than 200 national and international medals, including an Asiad bronze, this is a case of late is much better than never. He applied for the Biju Patnaik state sports award for outstanding coach for five years but in vain. However, after his name was approved for this year`s Dronacharya Award, things have taken a dramatic turn.

The red-faced State Sports Department followed suit by hurriedly selecting him for the outstanding coach award for the year 2013. Now a cricket club has come forward to honour Jacob, who, however, is serving as a contractual coach since February 2000.

Identical is the case of Nanda Kishore Patnaik. A former Santosh Trophy player, Patnaik has the reputation of grooming over a dozen international woman footballers, including former India captain Sradhanjali Samantaray. But his applications were not considered by the State government because he had not done a coaching course in NSNIS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: Rowing coach Jose Jacob and women’s football guru Nanda Kishore Patnaik