A. Nagalakshmi used to play cricket with whatever she could manage to find at that point — her favourite was a bat fashioned out of coconut fronds. “Not perfect,” she says, “but perfect for playing on the streets of Chennai.”
But in a short while, Nagalakshmi will be heading out to London to represent the south of India in the first-ever Street Child Cricket World Cup, 2019. Organised by Street Child United in the U.K. — the same organisation that used to conduct the street child football championships — the event will have another team from India, representing the north of the country from Delhi and Kolkata.
Nagalakshmi lives in the shelter for urban homeless girls of the Chennai Corporation, run by Karunalaya, an NGO working with street and working children.
Nagalakshmi’s partners on the team proposed by Karunalaya include her mates from Chennai — B. Monisha, V. Paulraj and K. Suryaprakash. The four will form a team along with Mumbai’s Mani Ratinam Karppya, Mohd. Irfan, Shama Moaaz Siddiqui and Bhavani Veerakannu Mayavan, all chosen by NGO Magic Bus.
Each team will comprise eight members, and six members will play in this ‘Street 20’ format, where 20 balls will be bowled, explains Paul Sunder Singh of Karunalaya. “We’ve seen the T-20s, here’s a shorter version, and it’s played with a tennis ball covered with black tape,” he adds. Street Child United has already conducted sporting events for children, just ahead or after international events such as the Olympics and the football world cup, he explains.
Paulraj, Mr. Singh adds, is a promising star from the street. He lives with his family on the streets in North Chennai, in an area that borders Esplanade and Park Town, depending on where they get to bed for the night. He’s keeping a count of the number of ‘helicopter’ shots he has played, inspired by his favourite sporting idol, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and he sincerely believes it will help them win the matches.
They cannot wait to meet their Mumbai mates, and practise as a team. Parvati Pujari, manager, international partnerships, Magic Bus, says: “We have brought together two girls and two boys from the same community, so it makes it easier for them to work in a team. From the first day, we introduced them to each other as teammates.” Bhavani is also busy practising with her teammates in Mumbai. “We want to play really well and so we are practising often, near our homes…My teammates help me a lot,” says Bhavani.
Paulraj says he will be happy to help, as and when they meet. Even as he speaks, he keeps sneaking glances at his mates goofing around in the floodlight playground in Karunalaya’s premises. He leaves as soon as he can. His other teammates — Suryaprakash, who lives in the NGO’s boys shelter home, and Monisha, another street dweller — wait politely, until he finishes the conversation, but clearly for them, the game must go on.