As the Santosh Trophy returns to the Valley after three decades, Shreya Chakravertty catches football mania at home in this Euro ‘08 season

While the mercury is steadily rising in the coniferous Swiss landscape with every feint that Cristiano Ronaldo fashions, an identical temperature fluctuation is being recorded for the past week at home in a similar serene environment. The Santosh Trophy can’t boast the star power of Euro ‘08, but considering their long sporting isolation, Srinagar can match Switzerland when it comes to soccer mania.

As the national football competition returns to the Valley after three decades, Srinagar’s spectators are putting on a no-holds-barred show of support that is much more intriguing to watch than the soccer skills on field. Perhaps they’re making up for lost time. Having spent so long looking at each other in suspicion, they have whole-heartedly embraced the game and given a bear hug to the J&K football team. Posters are plastered all over the city announcing the Santosh Trophy schedule and that’s a welcome change for the region used to notices barking out curfew timings.

Revival underway
Militancy did ensure that sports were deemed extremely insignificant a few years ago, but now, the revival has begun. Jammu and Kashmir Football Association secretary Basheer Ahmed Malik takes an uneasy walk back in the past as he explains the local football scene. “If you look at the 90s, all people thought about, obviously, was making themselves safe. There were curfews in place as early as 4 pm, and it was impossible to think about football at such a time. But in 1995, the football association of the state was revived, from then till now, we have kept it up. Local tournaments have been conducted with great regularity all this time. This Santosh Trophy has ensured there are positive signals reaching out to everybody, and the bad impressions will hopefully no longer be there,” he says.
Football as balm for mental scars might seem too simple a solution for a complex problem, but it has certainly worked as a healthy divergent. Previously frowned upon as a mere frivolity, it no longer invites ridicule or outright rejection. These days even young girls in the Valley are busy ‘bending it like Beckham’ as they religiously turn up at training camps organised in all seriousness.

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