Speaker Legislative Assembly Kavinder Gupta today, stressing on the need to extend support and encouragement to the budding sports talent in the state, said that this support will help these young players achieve their ambitions and bring laurels to the state and the country.Kavinder Gupta was speaking at a function organized by National Cricket Club to felicitate team members of the club on winning the KC Sports Club Cricket Cup 2017-18.The Speaker said that the State is filled with talented youth who on being given right physical support and encouragement have capability to shine at national and international platforms. He said this can only be achieved by extending them support from all quarters of the society, especially parents. Private institutions/organizations and government need to make combined efforts to achieve this goal, he added.Kavinder called for more public private partnership initiatives to improve the sports facilities available to the people and providing apt opportunities to nurture the sports talent in the State.Stressing on the need to encourage more and more youth to take up sporting activities, he said that sports and other co-curricular activities not only play an essential role in overall development of the youth but are instrumental in channeling their energies in positive directions besides developing essential qualities like leadership, team spirit and discipline in youth.He appreciated the efforts of National Cricket Club in providing support to the budding sports stars and helping them build solid foundations. On the occasion, Kavinder Gupta also distributed Sports kits to the excelling players and officials. The players who were facilitated include Manish Dogra, Vijay Dogra, Inderjit Singh, Pranav Mahajan, Gokul Baru, Pranav Gupta, Aditiya Pratap, Sahil Bhalwal, Rakesh Kumar, Amrit, Deepak Manhas, Ateev Sani, Tanmay, Samad, Vishal Rana, Ankush and Abishant Bakshi.