A kick in time

Jasmine Singh

Albert Singh, 60, an NRI from Ramidi village in Kapurthala, funds a small football team in his village. Providing necessary kit, football shoes, shorts and tees, Albert tries to keep this team of youngsters, and even those in the age group of 35 to 45 going. Yet another villager Bahadur Singh, a professional hockey player, teaches them the little tricks of the game he knows. As for players of the football team, they are religiously prctice on the school ground that doubles up as a football ground in the evening. Whenever possible, the village team tries to hold a match with teams from neighbouring villages.

When JCT decided to pull out from top-tier football after 2010-11, not much of the sport was dribbled around with for a long time. A state that produced national team players like Sandesh Jhingan, Sumeet Passi and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu hasn’t been able to repeat the feat. However, the recent introduction of Minerva Academy to the top-tier comes as some relief to the state. The academy has been giving free coaching to amateur footballers from rural areas. This year they had trials all over Punjab as well as in the rural areas of Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Rurka Kalan.

The credit for popularising the game in rural Punjab goes to Ranjit Bajaj, founder of Minerva. Because of Bajaj, who played for the junior national team and captained Chandigarh in the Santosh Trophy, the football scene is now looking in better shape than ever. Today, there are at least two to three Punjabi boys in either ISL or I league. Shares Bajaj, “There is no other club that has sent 27 players to three different age group teams. Actually, the idea of developing interest in football starts at a young age of six or seven, we like to catch them, so our entire focus is always on the youth, and to nurture their talent.”

Then there are people like Gurmangal Dass from Rurka Kalan, who are bringing about a revolution in the field of football. Gurmangal went all the way to revive the sports and cultural heritage of his village. The first step was to set up a football team of his village in 2000. “Yes, it is true, the farmers from the village transported soil from nearly 20 km to set up a football ground. They levelled it, planted grass and finally made it a football field,” he shares. His small football team of Rurka Kalan went on to win many football tournaments in the region. Gurmangal has come up with a residential football academy YFC, Youth Football Club, Rurka Kalan, for young boys. “In Punjab, drug menace is a big problem. The youth do not have role models. We provide them a platform through sports, educating and facilitating them to go forward with their skill.”          

Punjabi singer-lyricist and football fan Shubhkarman Bal (25) is one of the members of the unnamed village team in Ramidi. “All the neighbouring villages near our area are dealing with the problem of drug menace. It is the youth who is affected the most.”

The idea behind encouraging children to take up football was driven by the idea that a sport would wean the kids away from drug menace in Punjab, besides ensuring comprehensive health and a good lifestyle for the youth in the region. This is the reason why some elders in our village decided to introduce a sport for youngsters. Luckily, it was football.”

However, because of lack of funds and inadequate infrastructure, the team is unable to go in for matches. Therefore, they have no recognition at the national and even regional level. “We don’t have proper studs, or even a net to practice. The only support we have is from the NRIs.”

While hockey and cricket still has takers in rural Punjab, football is not considered a sport of North India, even though Punjab has produced many national-level football players. Hardev Singh Preeti from Amritsar teaches football to kids as his hobby. He had once dreamt of making it to the national team.

“To an outsider, Punjab and football would be something like Punjabis and pizza. But the fact is Punjab has been breeding ground for the best football players of the country. Now, it is for the government to bring back the lost time by encouraging budding football players and providing the required infrastructure.”