SPORTS IN KASHMIR
The Kashmir Valley is known for many things such as apples, walnuts, vast valleys, heavenly beauty, Jhelum, its hydroelectricity plants, tourism, its carpet and paper mache artisans. The soft snow of winters and the gleaming summer sun lend the ‘heavenly’ vistas that the state is renowned for. This multi diverse state has numerous reasons to be cake that all countries around it want to have. However, when we speak of Kashmir, we tend to miss an extremely under rated aspect of it – Sports. Once someone spends a considerable amount of time in a place, he begins to notice patterns as to how day to day life progresses – making sense out of chaos. Things like the time the bakers begin baking the ‘Girda’ bread, which children of a village go to school, which migratory birds fly in and out of the Valley and in
which season, when does the Srinagar – Banihal Express cross the Rawalpora bridge. Even patterns of weather such as rains after an exceptionally hot summer afternoon become evident. One such observation that does not escape one’s notice is the love that the Kashmiri folk have for sports. Almost every day, in Eidgah grounds and backyards the knocking sound of the willow bat against the leather ball echoes loudly and in other places the loud thump of the football and rowdy cheers at a goal cannot escape even the ones in deep slumber. Time is not as fast paced as that in bigger cities, so we see people interacting in ways that urban generation is forgetting. While their city-dwelling counter parts are engrossed in the quest to kill the opponent in PubG (a popular online mobile game), children, teens and adults engage in serious matches of different sports.
The recently held Kashmir Premier League, involved 10 districts and their teams to engage in world class cricket. The KPL 2021 was a massive success where thousands of ardent fans watched the finale in the Sher – e – Kashmir cricket stadium. The cricket league was a platform for players from Kashmir to be noticed and hopefully be picked up by national team for Ranji, IPL and someday the national team. Cricketing legend Yusuf Pathan had graced the occasion with his presence and support. In winters, when one might think that the life would be moving at a slower pace, Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam are in full glory. Kashmir is an adventure junkie’s delight due to the terrain and adventure sports enthusiasts looking for snowboarding, skiing and ice skating arrive from all over the world. After all Himalayas are the tallest and the grandest mountain range in the world and its slopes are extremely inviting for the winter sports people. The fact that there’s state of the art
infrastructure is another reason for the keen interest that locals possess for sports in the state. Kashmir boasts of 19 stadiums, 23 training centers, 3 indoor sports complexes and 43 government maintained playing fields. Srinagar has two premium Golf courses –Kashmir Golf Club and Royal Spring Golf Course. Institutions such as the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter sports provide beginner and advanced mountaineering, skiing and adventure courses. The TRC Polo Ground is Kashmir’s first football stadium having a capacity of 15000 spectators and is of international size. The unique factor of this stadium is that is has synthetic turf that has been imported from Italy. Apart from the conventional sports, the slopes of Gulmarg enjoy the position of having the best winter sports infrastructure in the country such as ski Gondola, extensive gear available on rent, comfortable stay options and friendly locals.
Perhaps the deep interest of locals in sports is the reason why Kashmir has provided for some first class sports persons such as Aamir Aziz, Iqra Rasool (Women’s Cricket Team), Mithun Manhas, Abid Nabi, Parvez Rasool are prominent on the international and national cricket scene. Apart from these, Gul Dev for Winter Olympics, Chain Singh for shooting and Palak Kaur for gymnastics have made their name in the world of sports and contributed immensely to the country’s sports tally in various competitions. The sad part is that the conflict in the Valley foreshadows all these people and activities. It is something that we need to contemplate that in tandem with the Aryan genes and keen interest of locals in sports, Kashmir maybe a goldmine for talent that is waiting to be tapped into and would give a way out for the youth to engage with state and lead a life of glory.
