Apna Time Aageya: Gully boys and girls to take strike at Lord's

“I want to play like Virat Kohli,” said 13-year-old Lusi Sharma, who is gearing up to play at an international cricket tournament at Lord's, England, ahead of the upcoming ICC World Cup. 

Sharma, whose father is a carpenter, and mother a homemaker, lives in a Kolkata slum with her brother and four sisters. 

The Street Child Cricket World Cup (SCCWC), which is organised by Street Child United, a UK based organisation with the purpose to support the lives of children who face violence and abuse on the street. 

Hosted at this iconic stadium just days before the World Cup begins, the tournament will give Sharma and her fellow teammates —all from street situations — a chance to show off their skills and tell their stories to a world audience.

The SCCWC, to be held between April 30 and May 8, will find 10 gender neutral cricket teams of children between ages 14 to 17. 

The nine countries taking part are Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, UK, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Mauritius and of course India. 

Indeed, India is the only country with two teams entering into the fray — India North and India South — with Save the Children and Hope Foundation gathering players for the North and Magic Bus and Karunalaya working with the kids from the South.

“We are really lucky that we got this opportunity, not everyone does, and coming from our background, it's especially wonderful,” said Sharma, who has learned all-round cricket over the past two months of training camp, but specialises in batting. “I think us girls are playing better than the boys, to be honest,” she said.

Sharma's teammate, 17-year-old Mili Singh, said that she is an all-rounder. “We do free-hand exercises, catching practice and then we have practice matches,” recounted the young cricketer, adding that what makes her most proud is that she is representing her country.

Bidisha Pillai, CEO of Save the Children, quoted the statistics before the organisation started their work in the country. In the five cities where a survey was conducted with government aid, there were over 85,000 street children. Over 80 per cent of these children had no identity proof. And these are the very stories that the children will now get a platform to recount at the SCCWC. “These children just need the right platform and the mentoring to help them voice their problems. Sport is a real enabler in this context,” said Pillai.

Hope Foundation works in much the same way. Director Geeta Venkandakrishnan said that the foundation is also taking along four children to play with the local clubs in London along with the four who are playing at the SCCWC. 

And it doesn't end with just the tournament. 

“We also have a number of matches lined up after this with the Rotary Club, which is turning 100 soon; the BCCI's U-17, the Calcutta Police, and a street art organisation,” she said.