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Big ball game! |
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By: Clayton Murzello |
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Date:
2008-09-18 |
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Place: India |
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Rohan Gavaskar juggles around with a football at his Worli residence on Saturday
PIC/Rane Ashish | THE year 2007 will not be just a mere thing of the past for Rohan Gavaskar. It will be remembered as the year he signed for the rebel Indian Cricket League and joined forces to form Pune Football Club.
Having played football for his school Bombay Scottish, Gavaskar (32) decided to pursue cricket and ended up playing for the country. There is good reason to believe that he was not given enough opportunities after his international initiation in Australia, 2003-04.
Childhood dream
The son of batting legend Sunil along with his schoolmates Piramal brothers Rajeev, Nandan and Harsh realised their childhood dream of forming a club. Harsh Mehta and Kunal Chandra (aka Road Dogg and KC respectively) are part owners.
Gavaskar wouldn't let out any figures as to how much this club formation cost him and his partner pals. But those involved with football institutions estimate it could be anything between Rs 3 to 4 crore.
Why Pune? "We did a lot of research and found out that there was a lot of following in Pune where football was concerned. Plus, it is so close to Mumbai," he said. The senior Pune FC team figures in the second division of the I-League and the club has a vibrant junior programme too. Gavaskar stressed that they would be striving to do well to earn promotion to the premier division, "which means we would be competing with clubs like Mohd Sporting and East Bengal."
Growing sport
Football is the fastest growing sport in India in terms of participation. Gavaskar looked at the negatives and positives: "The infrastructure for domestic football needs improvement. Though grounds are not conducive to good football, we keep producing footballers much to the credit of the players. But things are looking up and there are a lot of kids taking to the sport. India has become a big football market. This is not what I feel, but what the world feels. You had Bayern Munich playing here recently and there's talk of Manchester United coming over," said Gavaskar.
So, next time you see Rohan Gavaskar whizzing past on the Expressway, you would know what brought about his presence. Some like to call it the Beautiful Game.
Dad was very supportive: Rohan
ROHAN had the complete support of his batting genius father Sunil for the Pune FC project. "He was excited when I told him about our plans. He knows how passionate I am about football and he was very happy for me," Rohan said.
Gavaskar Jr is a Manchester United fan, but it is not easy being one when your partners are all Liverpool supporters. "There is big club rivalry within the group. It's crazy when it's United vs Liverpool," Rohan said. It sure must have been crazy last Saturday when the two giants clashed with Liverpool winning their EPL tie.
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