Many national champions in carrom from the State, like Stalin Edward, struggle to make ends meet.The Periyampet slum is a treasure trove of players whose only obstacle is lack of sponsorship.
CHENNAI: Stalin Edward (28) is exhausted from loading sack bags and other heavy objects into a truck. The daily wage worker unloads the day’s burden and stares at a game board of lacquered plywood. Once a junior national carrom champion (2007-08), Stalin now plays only in a board room at an indoor playroom set up by the Greater Chennai Corporation.
The hood of the lamp that hovers over the carrom board has little mounds of fine talcum on it. He, like several other children from the slums in Periyampet, was drawn to the game while watching a set-up similar to this when he was a kid. Other ‘promising’ youngsters who trained along with him completed formal education and found a government job to feed their passion for the game. Stalin did not finish Class 10 and shoulders the burden of earning for his family of three.
“I was around seven when I first saw a board room, at a club that was a couple of streets away from here. Young boys like me from the slum had to wait for hours to play just one game,” said Stalin, recalling that within the next couple of years, the curiosity to learn the game had become an obsession.
He remembers rushing back from school to the board room where he played for five or six hours straight. “I remember Stalin’s mother coming to the board room, yelling at him and hauling him back home,” said Vinnoli Irudayam, a senior carrom player. He was one of the senior players who spotted Stalin’s talent. Vinnoli, who takes care of the corporation board room with other players, is the son of Maria Irudayam, a two-time carrom world champion (1996 and 1998) and an Arjuna Awardee for carom (1997).
“Back in the 90s, members from the club would tell me about Stalin. When he started taking part in local tournaments and winning them, his talent became public. I took personal interest in training him along with a few more boys,” said Maria.
Stalin dropped out of school to practice carrom everyday. “That kind of dedication hones your skill but does not give you an alternate career or financial stability,” said Vinnoli referring to the fact that if Stalin had to travel for a match, he will have to forego his wages for a few days, and also pay for his travel expenses. “I earn about `10,000 a month. Training for a State championship will cost me around `3,000,” said Stalin. “I cannot afford to pay for the tickets to travel to bigger tournaments or find sponsors.”
Dilli Babu, a leading player for LIC, started playing in the clubs of Periyampet around the same time as Stalin. However, a formal education gave him a government job and financial stability that subsequently helped him become India No 5 (2015-16). Though he even won the National Federation Cup for Carrom (2015), but he said that even formal education does not guarantee a job based on carrom. “The Railways does not consider carrom players, and banks have stopped recruiting us,” he said.
Almost all players who play at the board room at Periyampet claim that the standard of the game has gone down in the country as players don’t get many opportunities. The last State championship tournament was organised in November 2015 and players cannot be chosen for Nationals unless they contest and earn pre-requisite points in State tournaments.
The informal, yet rigorous, club at the slum at Periyampet is one among several in the city. Chindadiripet, Washermanpet, Vyasarpadi and other parts of North Chennai have several carrom clubs. “These clubs have underprivileged kids who are talented. Tamil Nadu has been producing some of the best carrom champions in India. They have enough local role models they can engage with and learn from. All we need is a system that backs them up,” said Vinnoli as he locks the board room at 8.45 pm on a weekday.
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