Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1089

Chapter 1089: Training camp & Olympic Sponsorship

Indira Chauhan couldn’t sleep properly the entire night; the thoughts about him possibly being selected for the Olympic team representing the Bharatiya Empire, his motherland, kept popping into his mind. In the end, he had to force himself to close his eyes and count freaking sheep to get tired. Thankfully, it did work, and he finally fell asleep. But when he woke up the next morning, the anticipation became heavier. He couldn’t even go to his practice with the team; his hands and feet were shaking like those of an old man, and he had to walk aimlessly in his own home to calm down.

If someone from his team were to see him in his current situation, they would be shocked, because Indira Chauhan, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, was usually a strategic mastermind; he always kept his cool, and his losing his nuts and bolts was rarely seen.

“Paper”

A loud shout was heard from the outside, and Indira’s heartbeat stopped. His hair stood on end as blood rushed into his head, turning his face redder than a peach. Taking a big gulp, he walked towards the front yard in stiff steps like a wooden toy.

As he opened the door, he saw the paper lying on the driveway right in front of his car. Indira walked forward, his steps getting faster, leaving behind wet marks on the cement pavement, and picked up the newspaper roll. He immediately went back into the house and plopped down on a sofa.

‘Gulp!’

As if he wanted a sense of ritual, he didn’t immediately jump to the sports section of the newspaper but turned one page after another, reading the headlines written in it. Finally, as he was about to turn the last page of the section and go into the sports section, his hand began to shake visibly, and even the corner of the page he was holding tore a little.

As he turned the page, there were the names of athletes qualified to represent the nation. There were tables upon tables of names of athletes from different games, sports, and disciplines. His eyes, like those of a scanner, quickly scanned through the entire page, and to his dismay, it seemed to be showing only the selected ones in track and field sports. Turning another page, it showed the athletes selected for winter sports and water sports, and finally, as he turned the third page, he saw the title “Team Sports” in it. At the corner of his eyes, he could see the table of the selected Kabaddi players, so he understood that this was the page.

Looking around, his eyes finally focused on the table, which mentioned men’s team cricket. He looked right below it and,

“Hahahahaha!”

He was actually in it. He was in the team. He was selected. He made the cut, and not only that, he was the captain.

“Thank you, Shiva!!!”

“Jai Jaganath!”

He joined his hands and immediately thanked the Lord. Tears slipped from his eyes due to happiness.

A similar situation happened to the hundreds of athletes who were selected throughout the empire. They were overjoyed to represent the empire for the first time ever. Some well-off families even held a feast and invited the whole village to celebrate.

The House of Bhima Thakur was in a similar situation. After he was selected as the captain of the empire’s Kabaddi team, his parents decided to throw a feast for the whole village. They had invited hundreds of relatives and thousands of neighbours. There was even a Satya Narayan Pooja at home. He got to meet all his cousins, as well as teammates, and look cool and brag humbly in front of them. But who would have thought the next day he would receive a letter from the National Olympic Committee stating that he would have to live in the training camp they were starting until the Olympic Games next year, and undergo intensive training and team-building sessions.

He was a little troubled that he would have to leave home for a whole year, but considering what was at stake, he still packed his bags, bid farewell to his parents, who had reluctant looks on their faces, and left. He had a train to catch.

Athletes all over the empire had to make the same decision. Since all the selected athletes in team sports were from different teams, they did not have a proper understanding of each other, and they had no teamwork built up yet. So the necessity of the training camp was to build up this teamwork and understanding over the span of a year.

At the training camp, Bhima Thakur saw a few guys he had been annoyed with in the past in the same team. After all, they were all athletes of the Pro Kabaddi League; it was a given that they would know each other. The coach of the Kabaddi team, Kali Mehta, had a headache looking at the hostile gazes the teammates gave each other. ‘It’s going to be a long year,’ he thought to himself and had everyone line up.

While all of this was taking place, the Olympic Committee of the empire had invited a few top sports companies in the empire and allowed them to bid for the primary source of equipment and kits for the athletes.

The empire had several high-quality and top sports brands, but the companies that always stood out were Priyadarshini and Olitha. They covered the largest range of sports equipment and products, as well as had the most competitive prices. After fierce bidding, Olitha was selected as the primary provider of sports kits and equipment for the athletes, with Priyadarshini being used as the auxiliary, where gear and equipment of Priyadarshini would be used in sports in which they were dominant.

Many businesspeople running top companies enquired if there was a chance to buy a sponsorship slot on the kits worn by the athletes, but unfortunately, the Olympic Committee had banned all advertisements on the kits of all participants, making a lot of people disappointed. But the empire’s Olympic Committee put out news that the Olympics were looking for sponsors and advertisers.

This immediately excited a lot of people.

“We have to snatch this opportunity,” Akarsh stressed in front of his executives. “No matter the cost, it doesn’t matter if it is a loss; I don’t allow for the bid to fail.”

His eyes were burning with eagerness. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase his Akarsh Mobility Company in the eyes of the world. He would not miss this chance.

Ravi Shetty, who was an old man, no longer took care of the day-to-day affairs of the family’s industries, but he was immediately alerted by what was happening, and he went to meet with his nephew to see if he could reserve a slot for his family.

The Kalyan family also moved, mobilising their assets as they set off directly to Greece with the declaration that they would win the bid at any cost.

Other families like the Bakshi, Bareunda, Pillai, Reddy, Naidu, Sharma, Jain, and others followed a similar example and sent a representative from their family directly to Greece.

The competition was not only among the top businessmen of the empire; the kings of various nations participated in this bidding war as well. There was almost no company in their nations that could rival the business giants of the Bharatiya Empire, but when it came to wealth possessed, even the richest family of the Bharatiya Empire was a little distant from the actual wealth most of the kings had at their disposal.

King Narai sent his son directly to Greece to bid on behalf of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, with 200 grammes of gold in his hands and a bond of two million varaha.

Yogendra Singh, wanting to boost the tourism of his nation, was even ready to mortgage some of his assets to get the sponsorship slot.

The Persian Atashban family was completely mobilised as well, using a large amount of resources at their disposal to bid against the top business giants of the Bharatiya Empire and the kings and state leaders of different countries and kingdoms.

Ezidi Serwan was no different. In fact, since Lalistan was closer to Greece, he got to know about the sponsorship before the Bharatiya Empire did. So, in the hopes of closing the deal early, he left immediately with a bunch of gold and varaha, but unfortunately, the deal was not done on a first-come, first-served basis; it was done according to who would pay the most within a certain deadline, and by that time, other people began to arrive, even people from Europe.

Athens was crowded with foreigners. People from the Bharatiya Empire, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, or even Southeast Asia began to frequently appear in the once-glorious metropolis. With the arrival of so many, the economy of Athens improved greatly, making the General Secretary of the United Greek Socialist Republics laugh from ear to ear. So what if they could not participate in the bid? They were still making a lot of money by hosting the Olympics.

The bidding session was held at a grand cathedral that had been renovated and rebuilt after the Ottomans had destroyed it and built a mosque on top of it. Bidding was fierce.

There were a total of 80 sponsorship slots, ranging from banner boards at the edge of the field for cricket, football, rugby, and kabaddi matches, large banners on top of every game, banners attached to the stadium itself, and other types of advertisement spots.

But despite there being so many advertisement spots, people had to fight tooth and nail for each and every one. No one was a fool; the Olympics had already attracted a lot of attention, and now, with the Industrial Revolution underway in both Asia and Europe, people had more spare money in their hands. They were bound to want to watch the legendary Olympics for themselves. It was clear how many eyeballs the games would attract, so no one wanted to miss this opportunity to be seen.

In the end, although most bidders came from the Bharatiya Empire, it managed to secure only 35 ad slots. The competition was simply too intense. The Ming Empire claimed five slots, Japan took one, while the Southeast Asian nations and the Bharatiya Empire’s vassal kingdoms together occupied 14. Surprisingly, the European countries captured 23 slots, and the remaining two went to the Persians and the Yezidis.

Those who failed in bidding for ad placement and returned empty-handed were extremely sad and devastated, but the Olympic Committee, which received a total of 275 million varaha, was ecstatic. This money was already enough to cover 30% of all the construction costs the Bharatiya Empire invested in the Olympics. It was foreseeable that with the revenue earned from the tickets and merchandise, there was a lot of profit to be made.

Like it ? Add to library！