Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Like most children of my age who lived in towns in the India of the ’60s, I grew up playing football. In those days cricket was still a game of the elite and not easily affordable for many parents. Even when we played the game sometimes, the boy owning the bat had the indisputable privilege of dictating terms, which did not go down well with the rest of us.
Football, in contrast, put us all on equal footing. All you needed was a ball, an open ground and your mates to enjoy the sport with all its pace and thrill. I continued to play football for the sheer fun of it well into my college days and even during my training as a police officer.
However, during my postings in the districts, I lost touch with the beautiful game, since most of my fellow officers played ‘officers’ games like tennis or badminton. I played these games too, but could never develop a liking for them. Sometimes I played volleyball or basketball with the men but never football. For some reason, it was not very popular with policemen.
However in the late ’90s, when I was posted in a new district, I got a chance to go back to my old game. The district headquarters was a small town and my fellow district officers were not very sporty types. But the reserve police lines had an open ground, which lay unused. Sensing an opportunity, I had it converted into a football field and started playing the game with police jawans.
I was nearing 40 at that point, but what I lacked in physical fitness I made up by my enthusiasm. On most evenings I would be at the football ground. The old passion revived and we used to have a great deal of fun. It not only improved my physical fitness, it brought me closer to the force. This continued for about a year until I was transferred.
A couple of years later a constable who used to be a football mate came to see me at Ahmedabad. I casually asked him if football is still being played. He replied in the negative. The new SP was a cricket enthusiast and had converted the football ground into cricket field, he said. A new turf wicket had been laid and the jawans now played cricket. Even those who wished to play football could not play it lest they damage the pitch.
Now here is the answer to that perpetual question: what ails Indian football?
