Cliched or not, there is no better place to be in India during the football World Cup. Byzantine neighbourhoods in the city of Calcutta are divided amongst their loyalties for South American giants Brazil, Argentina, and Columbia. Other pockets swear European allegiances to Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Even then, fans are always ready to tell you about other footballing nations that they greatly adore, almost like a family heirloom passed down through generations. Football in the city is always a Top-3 conversation starter alongside politics and pop culture.
When one looks back at FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the edition will be remembered for the incredible Moroccan and Croatian campaigns. France making two back-to-back finals is no mean feat either, while it seemed like all of Argentina took to the field in their games to try and add to their tally of two World Cup wins. In contrast, the Cup will also be remembered for controversies spurred by accusations of human rights violations and the untimely passing of soccer correspondent Grant Wahl.
In the midst of this once-infour-year Mardi Gras comes a timely children’s book by Mallika Ravikumar called The District Cup. Published in November 2022, this is a story of a motley crew of football-crazed kids going through their own journey of self-discovery in Mumbai.
Meet characters like Chitra, who flips through a sports magazine while her grandmother oils her hair and laments all the while that her granddaughter needs to get off the sports field because she isn’t like the boys who she plays with.
Explore Prithvi’s family sweet shop and meet his grandfather who reminds him that the shop was their bread and butter, not football. All this while, Prithvi dreams of taking penalties for his team, the Braganza Boys.
Aaron is in goal outside St Thomas Church after Sunday Mass while the church priest, his mother, and younger brother Ethan look on. Everyone is all praise for Aaron’s ability and his devotion to family — why can’t Ethan be more like him asks their mother?
The two teams Braganza Boys and Maulsari Eagles are fastidiously sewn together as we go from one introduction to another. Ravikumar weaves together a suspenseful storyline which introduces us to the underbelly that is youth football in the Indian subcontinent. Speaking from her home in Portugal, Ravikumar said the idea for this book was apparent after years of being a football parent. Her 11-year-old twin sons first got a competitive start four years ago in Mumbai. They now continue to play and train regularly after the family moved to Europe.
It was like unearthing a rabbit hole for the historyminded Ravikumar. In millennial speak, she ‘slid into DMs’ to speak to an array of people who have an inherent understanding of the game in India. For example, a prominent lawyer who is known for taking sporting organisations to task in the Indian Supreme Court, was insightful in helping her understand how these organisations bend rules to get their way.
Another sports journalist who published long-form stories on age fraud in youth football was also key to her understanding of the inner workings of an oftoverlooked youth sports system.
She also tapped into her network as a football parent to speak to All India Football Federation (AIFF) officials, coaches, athletes and other parents to paint an accurate picture of the grassroots game. One of the more interesting conversations was with a young Indian girl who plays third-division football in Spain.
The result is an introduction to contemporary conversations that are difficult to start around young teenagers — age fudging, gender discrimination and administrative fraud in Indian youth sport. Ravikumar has been witness to two junior footballing systems in India and Portugal. She tries to draw from both experiences while keeping in mind the subcontinental flavour of an international game. This book does well to introduce children to facets of sport which are usually not highlighted until they are much older.
The District Cup is reminiscent of ‘90s American sports storytellers such as John Feinstein and Dan Jenkins who were known for the specific ‘sport suspense drama’ genre. This book is a tribute, a love note to Indian school kids who would stay up nights in the ‘90s and ‘00s to watch football games on late-night cable television. Today, most of those kids are 30-something adults frequenting sports bars and still supporting those same teams. Life goes on, but for sport, it must occasionally come to a standstill.
Ravikumar who is a lawyer and historian by training, hopes that there can be a sequel to this football story. There is also interest from producers for screen adaptations — only time will tell. In the meanwhile, she is putting the finishing touches to her next book, which is a historical narrative on the accession of princely states in India post-1947 for children.
Signing off, she tells us the stories of how canteen workers in her sons’ Portuguese school began juggling a ball during lunchtime. A few days later during training, a nearby landscaping gardener on break joined in an impromptu game with her kids. All these stories and more were the inspiration behind The District Cup, a book which is recommended for kids aged 12 and above.
The author is a doctoral candidate in Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. He grew up (reading) at the independently owned Storyteller Bookstore in Kolkata.
Copies of Mallika Ravikumar’s book The District Cup are available at Storyteller Bookstore for readers. They ship globally — follow @storytellerkol on Instagram and Twitter for more details