The sunny football field greeted us with billowing flags of every bright colour, and the serenity of the bordering bamboo and coconut as we drove in from the highway, and into the narrow lanes leading into the Satghara Vivekananda Sporting Club of Dankuni. The venue for the grand opening of the RevSportz Football Carnival for this year. A drive of 45 minutes from Kolkata, you cannot miss the gigantic Tata Steel gate that welcomes all visitors to the venue.
Tata Steel is the title sponsor of this grassroots tournament, also supported by Coca-Cola, Ageas Federal, Limca Sportz and Wow Momo among others. As I write, the first match of this tournament is under way between two ladies teams, All Adibashi Club and the Police Athletic Club. The audience mills around watching the match, getting a free sample of Limca Sportz, some playing the livestream of the match on their phones.
I’m sitting on a fence behind the tower where the live-streaming is done, surrounded by a group of local ladies who have ventured out, it being a Saturday afternoon. Their children run about excitedly as Trisha Ghosal, our commentator, banters with her co-commentator and throws a question to one of our chief guests of the day – Shanti Mallick, Arjuna awardee footballer and a pioneer of women’s football. This year’s Football Carnival fields 24 women’s and 24 men’s teams, as against the first season last year when the tournament had 16 women’s and 32 men’s teams.
The Football Carnival is an initiative to promote grassroots talent but more importantly, it is an initiative to promote gender equality which RevSportz has made possible this year with equal participation and, like Season 1, with equal prize money.
I’m distracted now: the first match has ended, and the player of the match awarded to the best player from the winning side. On stage now is Anindya of band Chandrbindu, one of Bengal’s foremost artists with none other than the inimitable Mir, who has the crowd hanging onto his every word. The crowd sways to the lilting music and I find my feet tapping. The ladies earlier seated on the fence are now mid-field, swaying to the beats.
It’s exactly what we had hoped for, not just sport but sport for a community, community engagement and community outreach and involvement. And that’s why the live musical performance in between the women’s and men’s matches of the opening day of the tournament. The girls that had played in the first match have now changed out of their jerseys and jumped back into the field and joined the dancing.
I’m going to run in now to join these young girls, and our other team members and shake a leg. As the two men’s teams reach the venue for the second match of the day, our ladies of the fence are invited on stage by Mir and Anindya and are starting to match their steps with our star performers. It’s a day not only for the winners and players, but all of these people who joined into the spirit of the RevSportz Football Carmival. A tournament that’s going to be on for the next month, ending with the grand final on December 23.