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Journalism of Courage
On Saturday, March 26, 2022, the official Twitter handle of the Indian football team shared a bunch of pictures before the start of a friendly match with Belarus.
One of these pictures went viral, as it encapsulated the essence of what many netizens called: “unity in diversity”.
In the now-viral picture, one can see three players of the Indian men’s football team praying before the match. What makes the picture special is that the three players can be seen praying according to the customs of three different faiths.
While sharing the picture, a Twitter user commented, “This photo of the Indian football team says a lot of India’s ‘real’ strength @IndianFootball”. Another user called the photograph, “Best Pic of Indian Football Team #indianfootball”.
Even though the Blue Tigers (as the team is fondly called) lost the match, their picture won the hearts of netizens.
https://twitter.com/i_gopalsharma/status/1508281625020604421
https://twitter.com/rj_samaniya/status/1508303549431631872
Belarus won the match by scoring three goals in the second half. The friendly match was held in Bahrain as part of the preparations for the upcoming 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
According to Goal, an international football news website, this time the Indian team consisted of seven new players, namely Prabhsukhan Gill, Danish Farooq, Aniket Jadhav, Roshan Singh, VP Suhair, Hormipam Ruivah, and Anwar Ali. Seasoned players like Sunil Chhetri and Sahal Abdul Samad were unable to join the team owing to injuries.
