27 November,2022 09:23 AM IST | Mumbai | Yusra Husain
The girls who hail from slum pockets in Govandi and Mankhurd, travel four hours to and fro daily, to train in Orlem, Malad. Playing for UK United since last year, they have been winning back-to-back tournaments. Pics/Sameer Markande
Khan Shabnoor Mohd Rafique never wanted the length of her shorts to come in the way of her dreams. But for her parents, who live in a chawl in Dr Zakir Hussain Nagar, Govandi East, this was always a spot of bother. It took them time and some convincing from her coach Zoheb Khan, but all of 16 now, Shabnoor has surmounted this problem to become a basketball celebrity of sorts in her locality. She and 12 other girls from the neighbouring slum pockets in Govandi and Mankhurd are winning one basketball tournament after another, making their families proud.
Back in 2016, coach Khan, who lives in Mira road, was on the lookout for talent to form basketball teams for both boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds. His search took him to a BMC school, Awami Girls High School, in Govandi. Students there didn't have the slightest idea of what an orange ball with black stripes meant, let alone the rules of dribbling and shooting a basket. But his selection process was simple and one that had nothing to do with the game directly. The students were tested for their racing and athletic skills. From here, 13 girls formed a team that is now minting gold.
In the last two months, the girls have won all three tournaments held by Rama Sports and Adventure Tournament, playing for Uncles Kitchen (UK) United. On September 29, they won in the under-16 category in Powai, and on October 9, they won the tournament held in Colaba. Last week, they emerged victorious in the under-18 category at DN Nagar BMC ground, bagging a hat-trick as champions. All of these tournaments were in the 3x3 format of the game, which is played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup. Last year in November, they were champions in all these categories when they went outside the state for the first time to play in Rajasthan.
"These girls are from the Urdu-medium BMC school, so barring one non-Muslim on the team, the others are all Muslims. There was resistance from their parents, because even if they had no problem with the sports outfit themselves, there would be another family member who would create a scene about it. I made them understand the opportunity the sport could provide to their girls in terms of exposure and career," says Khan, who is a national-level basketball player and coaches in schools to make a living.
To address the problem at hand, Khan made the girls wear inners inside the basketball shorts to cover any exposed skin. There was another bigger issue to deal with - the lack of a court to train them. "We would use the BMC school court or the ones in Chembur and Powai, wherever I could manage to get space after school," he recalls.
The first year of training wasn't easy. "They had no proper shoes, nor clothes. I would do whatever I could from my own pocket," says Khan, who coaches them for free. "But all my efforts went in vain, when they went to their villages for the summer holidays. When they returned, the girls remembered nothing. I would motivate them by giving them examples of Sania Mirza and would show them the matches of Michael Jordan on my phone."
Khan then decided to let them compete in tournaments for "exposure" even though they failed miserably at all the matches played in 2017. "The loss gave them the josh to succeed. In 2018-19, they won a lot of matches."
During the pandemic, practice stopped due to subsequent lockdowns, and so did the tournaments. When training had to resume, their practice court was out of bounds because the girls had graduated from high school.
He then approached the philanthropy wing of a Malad-based restaurant business, Uncle's Kitchen, that runs a sports academy, UK United Academy, for upcoming players of football, hockey, throwball, basketball and even horse riding. Ronnie Dsouza, who runs the academy, took the girls and all their troubles under his wings.
Now the girls travel two hours one way from Govandi, changing three trains, only to practice at the JBC grounds in Orlem, Malad. Their arduous journey after attending school and college, for a two-hour practice, three times a week, is hardly a deterrent. "I have seen a number of sportspersons in the last 15 years of my running the UK United Academy in Malad, but none come close to the phenomenal passion and dedication of these girls," shares Dsouza. He and his elder brother Sunny Dsouza have been helping out these girls with a daily allowance, money to buy jerseys and shoes, and fees to participate in tournaments.
The girls, however, wish they could train closer to their homes. Ishrat Jahan Abdul Hafiz Shaikh,15, whose father is an auto rickshaw driver, says she wants to play for the country some day. "If we get a training space near our home, we can use the time spent on travelling to improve our skills."
Shabnoor makes up for the lost time by studying doubly hard, "lest my parents stop me from playing basketball". "But I won't stop playing, even if it means travelling four hours daily."
