People in India are crazy about ‘CRICKET‘. They play with their remote and flicker numerous sports channels but their search halts where cricket is smashing fours and sixes. Despite billions of cricket fans there exist a literally tiny community which is dedicated to sports other than cricket. They admit that they have fewer fans that can be counted on their fingers, but their passion does not let them sleep and they always think of their sport. Amongst such sport groups, a name sprawls into the horizon and that is Rajputana Football Club of Udaipur. Our team spoke to them and took a closer look on their activities. They shared with us each and every detail about their club and the same is being shared with you.
Rajputana Football Club
How was this club formed?
The answer really stunned everyone at first as they revealed that it was not at all planned. There wasn’t any objective to form a club. There were only 5 or 6 members, although all were having some background related to sports, they used to play football at BN College just for fun and it was their regular routine. Gradually their numbers and supporters rouse and simple practicing shaped up into agile revolution which led the birth of Rajputana Football Club.
How RFC is different from other sports club?
There are a numbers of factors which keeps us apart from other sports clubs. For instance;
- We are an open community. Anyone can come and join our club.
- There is no coach or trainer in the club. We watch matches, learn from them and practice the same at ground.
- You need not to be a football player. Irrespective of sport you have played in past does not matter for us. Here we gather to play football.
- There is no requirement to be a member of any eminent club, not at all. At RFC we respect every individual and do not encourage discriminations. For us everyone is equal.
- The strongest thing about our club is that people of every age, gender, caste and even nationality is the part of our regiment. Girls enjoy playing football with us and they feel themselves safe and protected, which matters a lot to us.
- Foreigners working at various NGOs join us in the evening and enjoy the game.
- It is a fact that a nominal fee has been decided which each members has to pay every month but still it is not a bounded rule for young kids. There are examples of many school children who play with us and learning the tactics of the game.
- Football is in our blood and we could go to any level to promote it.
What was the strength of the club at inception and today?
The club was formed hardly by 5 or 6 members and today we are a strong team of more than 150 members.
Can you sum up some of your major achievements?
Yeah, since we practiced regularly and gradually our playing techniques improved significantly. People noticed us and some of them offered us to play tournaments on behalf of their team. We also played various matches under the banner of RFC and at times we played for the other teams too. We played matches in 2011 in Futta Tournament and grabbed 2nd and 3rd position. We won the Krishna Tournament in 2012. We are regularly playing with army troops and they accept that they are learning a lot from RFC. Kids in RFC from various schools, playing from their school teams are also scoring good results.
How do you consider the status of Football in India?
Cricket is everywhere. Even parents have not seen any other game apart from cricket. So they wish their kids to learn cricket. There is lack of awareness in the society. People are more excited and thrilled towards pace as we can see how 20-20 matches have gained popularity over the years. Truly speaking football has much pace than cricket. We need medium which can spread awareness among the mass about the benefit of sports other than cricket.
What are your future plans?
At times we also face lack of infrastructure to promote the game. Sometime we do not have ground when the Field Club is hosting other activities. For playing tournaments we need to have professional sports kits. There are lots of such hurdles we face every day, but we try to find out solutions out of the problems. We are keenly looking for a good sponsor which could help us to saturate our infra related issues. What may come, our objective is to keep football alive in our blood and we are working very hard for it. We are planning to come up with our own sports academy. This is what we can say at the moment for the future to come.