The khassi tournament that is popular in rural Jharkhand where a khassi, a castrated goat considered best for feasting on mutton, is given as prize has reached the outskirts of state capital Ranchi.

The residents of Namkum Basti witnessed the final of a football tournament on Monday when the winning team, Prakash Club of Samlong area of Ranchi, was given a khassi weighing 25 kg as the prize.

“The runners-up, Yuva Club from Garhi village, got another khassi weighing 20 kg,” informed Sonal Kachchap, treasurer of Gram Vikash Samiti of Namkum Basti that organised the tournament, adding cups and medals were also given to the best players in different categories.

In total, 16 teams participated in the tournament and each of those had to pay an entry fee of Rs 3,100, he further informed, adding a khassi of lesser weight was also given to each of the rest two semi-finalists.

“It was an exciting match with both the finalists locked in a goalless draw Prakash Club won by 3-2 goals in penalty shoot-out,” he further informed.

“There was another similar tournament organised at Raja Ulatu village final match of which was played on Sunday,” informed Rajesh Kachchap, Congress MLA of Khijri who was chief guest and gave away prizes on both the occasions, adding such tournaments are often organised in rural areas in his constituency.

Cups and medals were also given to best players in different categories. Manob Chowdhary

“Khassi tournament, both for football and hockey, is very popular in countryside and there’s hardly any of us who didn’t play it those days,” reminisced Mohammed Halimuddin, 70-year-old secretary of Ranchi District Football Association.

At some places, these are organised in a big way and prize money of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 were given to the winners and runners-up, besides a motorbike to the best player, in a tournament held in Chakradharpur a few years ago.

These tournaments are also sometimes organised on a single day when the qualifying matches are held in smaller formats of 15 minutes or half-an-hour duration before the final on the same day followed by a feast in the evening.

Such tournaments are also organised on festive occasions such as Christmas when many take leave to return home.

Such persons pool money or accept entry fees for organising the event and buying khassi for prize.

There were reports that those who were away from the state for earning a living also organised such tournaments in places like Vasco da Gama in Goa.

These khassi tournaments, however, also faced criticism at times.

When the Jharkhand team could not win a single match in the qualifying round of Santosh Trophy in 2015, some felt the players were concentrating on small format matches of khassi tournaments and could not hold on in the 90-minute format.

“That’s true,” agreed Halimuddin, adding many of those concentrating too much on small format matches for easy money could not maintain the required stamina for 90 minutes.

Still, khassi tournaments remain as popular as before.