Jaipur: FanToPark, the sports sponsor of the 14th Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh Memorial tournament, is supporting a four-day sporting event that will bring together around 4,000 students from 50 schools in Jaipur from Nov 2 to 5, 2026. The tournament will feature eight sporting disciplines, including football, basketball, volleyball, handball, kabaddi, tennis, pickleball and chess, providing young athletes with a platform to showcase their talent and sporting spirit.Held annually in memory of Brigadier Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh Ji (MVC), the tournament celebrates his legacy as a distinguished polo player and passionate supporter of sports. The event aims to carry forward his values of sporting excellence, discipline and teamwork while providing young athletes from schools across the region with a platform to showcase their abilities.This year’s tournament brings together traditional and emerging sports under one platform. While kabaddi has been a familiar part of Indian school sports for generations, pickleball represents one of the newer sporting disciplines gaining popularity in schools. The inclusion of both reflects the tournament’s commitment to offering students exposure to a diverse range of sports.Amit Purohit, founder and CEO, FanToPark, said, “We get groceries, food and almost everything else delivered to our door now, and sport should be just as easy to reach. A child who discovers a sport at a tournament like this should be able to keep playing it close to home.”The tournament also comes at a time when children’s screen time is increasingly becoming a concern. A 2025 study involving 537 schoolchildren in India, with an average age of approximately 11 years, found that they spent around three hours a day on screens. Against this backdrop, bringing 4,000 students together for four consecutive days of outdoor sporting activities offers an opportunity to encourage physical activity, teamwork and greater participation in sports.Organising an event of this scale requires extensive coordination. Fifty participating schools have selected their teams, made travel arrangements and committed four days to sporting competition and learning. For students, the tournament provides an opportunity to compete against teams from other schools that they may not encounter during the regular academic year. It also allows them to assess their abilities, gain competitive experience and build friendships beyond their own institutions.
