BENGALURU: When the final whistle was blown at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Amritsar on Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu women’s team once again ascended to the top of Indian football.
They had emerged victorious over Haryana in the final of the Senior Women’s National Football Championships by a scoreline of 2-1, with Priyadharshini and Indumathi scoring the goals.
However, for at least some of the players, the celebrations might have been soured by the memory of broken promises. They had been in this very same place in 2018, when Tamil Nadu had last won the title. Jobs and monetary cash awards were promised as a reward for their achievement. The promises though had remained mere words.
“The last time, they were promised cash awards. However, nothing was given to them. We are hoping things will be different this time,” said Seeni Mohaideen, chairman of Tamil Nadu Football Association’s women’s committee and the man behind Sethu FC, the football club that had developed almost the entire team.
What makes those broken promises worse is that these players could actually use all the help that they can get. Most of them come from extremely poor backgrounds. Forward Sandhiya Ranganathan lost her father at an early age. Her mother, a daily wage labourer, entrusted her to an orphanage so that she could get an education. Both parents of Devi, the goalkeeper and captain, are daily wage labourers. Indumathi, who has captained India, is one of the two players in the squad with a full-time government job.