On & Off the Field

Twenty years ago, she must have been 36. That was the first time i met her on a cloudy afternoon at a playground marked for our sporting activities — football from March to September, or before Puja vacation, and cricket after festive holidays for three/four months. As a kid of just 11 years, i touched her feet and she asked me whether that day i scored a goal or not! That inspired me a lot — obviously not to net one or two like my childhood icon Maradona or sprinter-footballer Caniggia — to tell my mother on Sunday (guardian visiting day) that a lady, Mamata Banerjee, came to our campus and asked us whether we get time to play amid our busy study schedule. My mother said that it was natural for a Union minister of state for sports and youth affairs to visit any school or college.

But what my mom thought “natural” was not at all a usual incident in our country. Never after that i doubt whether any of my Narendrapur friends has seen any such minister’s visit in the next six years we grew up there. Forget Narendrapur, a centre of excellence in itself, how many schools does a sports minister visit during his/her term? Narendrapur is a unique institution, which has a stadium besides 30-odd playgrounds for its students. I wondered — and the process is still on — why can’t there be stadiums with concrete gallery and proper seating arrangements in our Maidan like what we have in Narendrapur? Barring the Eden, rest of the club stadiums bear a shabby look in the heart of Kolkata.

Is it because of sheer government apathy towards the stadiums? Or the respective clubs never wanted to invest in upgrading infrastructure although investing millions in roping in third-grade players from third world African countries. Maybe both. That’s why we would never get an Emirates Stadium or an Old Trafford. Our new sports minister promises stadiums should only be used for sporting activities, nothing else! He seems to be on a move to wipe out some “historical blunders” done by his predecessors.

Kolkata has distinctive characteristics when it comes to utilizing stadium space. We have the second largest stadium in the world that is not solely used for football matches but athletics, musical soiree, dance performances and other cultural programmes. Its huge campus is also used to accommodate book and other fairs, including that of career and lingerie. It houses hostels for athletes, a three-star restaurant-bar for alcoholics, and became a haven for criminals under patronage of a former sports minister. Nowadays we, Bengalis, always take words of our ministers with a pinch of salt particularly when we see they talk development! I still believe our new sports minister — who is also a union leader of soot-belching taxis — would keep his words.