No skills sans practice for Billabong

“It’s tough to play without practice. We simply lack stamina,”says Rishikesh Malviya of Billabong. “We start getting stomachaches within the first 10 minutes of the action. That hugely hampers our efforts to put up a bold show,”adds the 13-year-old. The Billabong team practices once a week at Balkan Ji Bari for which it shells out Rs 600 for one hour.

On Tuesday,Billabong had gone down 5-0 to Poddar before drawing 1-1 against Little Angels on Thursday. “We managed to come down to the ground a bit early on Thursday before our match against Little Angels which had given us about 15 minutes to warm up on the side ground,”informs Johan Palkar. “Since we were a bit worked up,we managed to hold Little Angels to a 1-1 draw. Imagine what we can do if we could get daily practice,”says the oldest player of the team at 15.

“The ground at Balkanji Bari where we practice is very small compared to the MSSA. And we simply don’t get a hang of the ground if we step on it only during the matches,”opines Dhruv Tandon. “The technique we are used to on the small grounds comes to naught on a big ground at MSSA,”he adds.

Another player from the school says that since they practice at small ground,their kicking becomes useless.

“At Balkan ji Bari our kick goes from one side of the ground to the other side. But that becomes useless at the MSSA,”says Kamran Raza. “We simply cannot practice dodging or blocking over there,”he adds.

While Tarun Shenoy,the goalkeeper of the Santacruz-based team,has his own set of problems. “At that ground when I stretch my hands,I can touch both the side bars of the goal post,so I don’t need to jump or stretch to the fullest. But at MSSA it becomes difficult as the goal post is wide and I’m not used to diving or jumping,”explains the youngster.

Meanwhile,Jacob Paul,coach of the team,says he is helpless in this regard. “What can I do if our school doesn’t have a ground and Balkanji Bari is chosen by the school management,”says Paul. “We are trying to book the SNDT College ground next to our school which is huge and good for us but it seems they don’t have BMC permission. But I’m sure something will be done soon,”insists the 52-year-old.

“I know the kids are frustrated but I can’t help it as it is a school policy,”says Paul. He goes onto reveal that the school doesn’t even give exemptions to the kids if there is a match and an exam on the same day. “Not only that they even don’t allow 10th standard students to take part in sports. We just have one player Johan Palkar in our team who is in 10th. He was allowed after lots of requests,”says Paul.

Other results: At St Xavier’s Ground,Parel: B-U-16-III-B: St Xavier’s High School (Vile Parle) won via walkover after St Sebastian (Dabul) failed to turn up for their match. B-U-16-III-C:Smt V D Gardi (Mulund) 1 (Pratik Bhagrecha) drew with Bombay Cambridge (Andheri East) 1 (Parth Goradia); Dhirubhai Ambani International (Bandra) 3 (Mihir Modi 2,Samridhi Khandelwal) bt St Anthony’s (Vakola) 2 (Roshan Noronha,Alviro Fernandes).