KOCHI:Everyone was in pursuit of the ball. The atmosphere was charged with the heat and the dust rising off the feet of the players. Their energetic shouts drowning the burbling of the Bhavani River. One with the ball was in front, moving swiftly towards a corner of the field, the others chasing him. Rahul kicked the ball with full force and it hit the Bhavani like an arrow from a bow. The players took a short break until somebody got the ball back. This is a usual evening scene from Veettiyoor, one of the Muduka tribal residential areas of Attappadi.
“At first, we used to play cricket. Later, we didn’t find interest in the sport. We went to see football matches on the nearby grounds of Agali. We started kicking back the balls that came towards the boundary. That is how our story of football began,” said Praveen a member of the Veettiyoor football team, spinning the new football they brought.
They don’t have proper fields or goal posts. And most of the time they play on the hill slopes as they don’t have many flat terrains due to the land topography. It adds danger to the game. But due to their love for the game, they choose to play on the risky terrain.
Some have to work hard to make a decent space to play. They spend weeks clearing rocky surfaces and making it feasible. Each rainy season makes Veettiyoor’s football field muddy. Nevertheless, they are forced to give up their routine evening sport during these days. Whenever the ball dives into the Bhavani River, it sinks in, taking in water; stitches start to crack and the ball rips apart much faster than they can save to buy a new one.
The struggle to keep the passion of football alive is an uphill task for these youngsters amid extreme poverty. Parents and elders opinioning the effort is a wasted one when they can utilise the time to make a living adds to their woes.
However, they have faith that a bit of training could mould many of them into promising players. But right from the school level, they go overlooked. “We never get to know the notifications of football selections in schools or colleges. Teachers choose the players they know. I think they prejudge that ‘we’ can’t play,” rings the desperate voice of Praveen.
None of the NGOs working in Attappadi provides needed support or motivation for these young talents. They play among themselves, go back to their homes and watch their favourite player or team on TV, their talent hardly emerging out of the nondescript corners they live in.But now things have begun to look up slowly, with a few countable numbers of opportunities these youngsters are getting through matches by the Agali police and Excise.
There have been many stories, across the globe, of football becoming an island of hope in the midst of poverty and struggle. Attappadi is a saga which proves you don’t need to go too far to witness it.