Kashmir’s football dreams under fire

Twenty-year-old Basharat Bashir Baba was among three footballers chosen to travel to Brazil, where they would play with reputed clubs. He trained hard at the International Sports Academy Trust (ISAT), under the Argentine coach, Juan Marcos Troia. If you play in Brazil, and get picked up by a club, your life can change.

Fate, however, had other plans for Basharat. He was denied a passport because of his father’s past links with militants. He could not make the trip. “I cannot forgive the government for this,” he says. “I finally got my passport 18 months after [Jammu and Kashmir] chief minister Omar Abdullah intervened, but it was too late,” says the footballer.

The news was difficult to bear for his father, who had always dreamed that his son would become a top-notch footballer. “I would tell him that I’d do anything so he can live his dream. But he could not go to Brazil because of my past,” says Basharat’s father, Bashir Ahmad Baba, who was in jail for two years.

Basharat’s story inspired filmmaker Ashvin Kumar to make a documentary  titled Inshallah, Football, which released in 2010 to critical acclaim. “Marcos gives the youth of Kashmir what they need the most — hope, dignity and self-respect through football,” says the filmmaker.

Football cooled his temper
Marcos, a professional coach, moved to Kashmir in 2006. “Here football is very popular. But no professional club from Kashmir has ever reached the national level,” says Marcos.

Marcos started his academy without any support from the state government, with the help of Brazilian sponsors. He is also looking for Indian corporate support. But life in Kashmir is tough, he says. “Two of my dogs were poisoned. I’ve been getting threatening phone calls, warning me to leave Kashmir,” Marcos says. Marcos has coached about 1,000 Kashmiris. “In the first two years of the programme, we were champions of the ‘A’ division league in the state. And we have kept the academy open for four years,” he says. In addition, two boys went to Brazil and got a chance to train with Marilia Atheletico Clube and Triburgensie Clube.

Musadiq Mehraj, 17, could not have asked for more when he was selected for a Brazilian sojourn. “Four years back, around the time I started playing football, I’d scream and jeer and let my emotions get the better of me on the field,” he says. Eleven months in Brazil changed Musadiq. He speaks fluent Portuguese, and has more control over his anger.

Despite these small successes, and though the state has produced national players like Mehraj-ud-din Wadoo and Ishfaq Ahmad, government apathy, coupled with the political unrest and poor infrastructure is killing the game.

A poor man’s game
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Football Association (JKFA), the state has 500 registered clubs with 12,500 players, coaches and other officials. “Almost 85% of the players belong to poor families. It is a poor man’s game. We get only Rs2 lakh in grants from the government,” says Zamir Ahmed, JKFA president.
Footballers in the region barely manage to make ends meet. “My initial remuneration was Rs2,000. It was later raised to Rs3,300. How can I sustain myself and my family on that salary?” says 26-year-old goalie Tanveer Ahmad.

“Earlier, all departments had their own teams and hired professionals. This encouraged more people to take up the game,” says Bashir Ahmed, former general secretary of JKFA. He remembers playing in the Srinagar Municipality team as a wing back in the early 1980s. “People were enthusiastic back then. They thronged the stadium in large groups. I remember some my seniors saying that they were recruited in government services because of the game,” he says. “But things have changed and most of the departments have wound up their teams.”

The insurgency-related turmoil in the region sounded the death knell for departmental teams. The entire focus shifted to curbing militancy. “Despite that, we produced international players,” says Ahmad proudly. While experts say the government’s indifference has ruined the game, secretary of the State Sports Council, JP Singh believes otherwise. “The infrastructure is available and the JKFA can utilise it.”