One might dismiss a group of teenagers kicking a ball about at the Marina on a sultry Tuesday afternoon as a bunch of friends bonding over a sport, but this fresh-faced motley crew, with ‘India’ emblazoned on its jerseys, is the country’s contingent to the Homeless World Cup to be held in Poznan, Poland, from August 11 to 18.
Team India was in the city on Tuesday for the unveiling of its official sports kit. “More and more international clubs are starting to look to India for partnerships, recruitment and coaching clubs,” said Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner, who was at the event.
“We, at the British High Commission here, will be supporting India,” he said.
Sixty-four countries are participating in the Homeless World Cup this year and this is the sixth time India is playing since the cup’s inception in 2003. The Hindu is the title sponsor for Team India this year.
Slum Soccer, an NGO based in Nagpur, has coached the team, comprising eight players – five boys and three girls. Vijay Barse, founder of the NGO said: “We started out playing a weekly game of jhopadpatti football and have been participating in the World Cup since 2007.”
The rules of Slum Soccer are different from regular soccer. Each team fields four players, including the goal-keeper. The game lasts 15 minutes — seven minutes for each half with a one minute break — and is played on a 16X22 m field, bounded by a one-and-a-half metre high wall.
“This year’s team is the strongest,” said Pankaj Mahajan, the 19-year-old captain of Team India, who began playing football three years ago when he took shelter at Slum Soccer after running away from his abusive, drunkard father.
Their coach is 24-year-old Homkant Surandase, who captained the team in Melbourne in 2008.
Biswajit Nandi, a grinning 17-year-old, said, “I’m so excited to be going to Poland. I want to win. I want my mother to be proud of me. I also want to enjoy myself and visit famous places there.” Biswajit, the son of a commercial sex worker from Sonagachi, Kolkata, is described by the team captain as an excellent shooter.
The girls in the team — all three from Chennai, studying in SDNB Vaishnav College — were taken on this year, before the training camp began in Nagpur.
Arun Anant, CEO of Kasturi and Sons Ltd., Rohit Ramesh, CEO of WTF tabloid, Akshay Madhavan, head of operations at Slum Soccer, Abhijeet Barse, CEO of Slum Soccer and test cricketer Lakshmipathy Balaji participated in the programme.
