A small hamlet in the Southern part of Mizoram was not big enough to send out the required number of players to form a football team. But so what? This shortage in players did not dampen their spirits; instead, they went out unflinchingly as a team of 8 players to stand against the other teams and fight for the HPC Cup.
Mizoram, a small state in North- East India, shares it's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Small as it maybe, it has been recognised today as one of the most promising state in the world of Indian football. This is evident from their previous victory in the big national championships such as Santosh Trophy and the National Games. The recent entry of Aizawl FC as one of the I- League clubs also throws light on the future of Mizoram in the football field. Credits for this booming progress in football should be given not only to the Mizoram Premier League but to the local tournaments as well. In these much valued local tournaments, more than 200 teams from different villages and localities used to participate with great gusto.
The noteworthy participation of the eight player team was witnessed in the HPC Cup, a tournament organised for Lunglei District, in the Southern part of Mizoram. In this tournament, 50 teams from different villages were listed to play for the Cup among which Thlengang village, a hamlet with just 45 houses, was one of the 50 participating teams.
The male members of the village were not enough in numbers to form the first XI for the village team which led them to hire some players from the nearby village. Unfortunately, this was against the rule set up by the organisers and the team had to face the tournament with a seven player team. Their first match in the Group League left them with a staggering defeat of 15-0 and everyone thought it would surely be the end of the road for this team.
But the players of Thlengang were not to be easily disheartened. The 8 players marched out for their second match and headed towards the neighbouring village Thingfal, walking for 7 kilometres on foot. They finally reached Lunglei after a 3 hours ride from Thingfal. The team did not have any coach, manager or physio and were ready to face their opponent Bualte with as much confidence as an 11 men team. On top of this, one of the players was exempted from the match as he did not have a Ball boot to wear in the field.
Right from the kick off, it was clear that the players of Thlengang could barely hold their fort. However, the opponent team was kind enough to lend a boot to the exempted player who later played as the 8th man on the team. This did not bring much change in the game though. Towards the end of the first half, another youngster from Thlengang arrived and waa immediately added as the 8th player of team, and that too with a borrowed jersey from the opponent team.
The second half saw the arrival of another two players with different jerseys who finally completed the required norm of 11 players. However, an injured player reduced them to a team of 10, once again. The match finnaly ended with a score of 19-0.
Soon, the moving story of this team reached the ears of S. Malsawmtluanga, one of the most successful Mizo professional footballer, currently playing for East Bengal/ Delhi Dynamos, who felt nothing but respect and sympathy for this team and promised to sponsor the team jersey for the next Cup.
photo credit : LDFA