Kashmiri students star in university T20 league
(From left) Furqan Khushdil, Mudawar Beigh and Suhaib Qayoom at Holy Family Medical College campus. They are from Srinagar and studying medicine at the Dhaka college.
On Sunday, the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur would be hosting the Indian IPL heroes for one final time in this Asia Cup. India’s global dominance in the shortest format has a lot to do with the successful hosting of the world’s most popular and vibrant T20 league. And the IPL’s influence is far-reaching, so much so that even a medical college at one corner in Dhaka now has its own version of the event.
At Holy Family Medical College in Moghbazar they play the Holy Family Cricket Premier League with six teams — Bulldozers, Thunderbolt, Crushers, Song Saptak, Crows and Knights Watch. Players are picked through ‘auction’ and the total auction purse for each team is 5,000 BDT. Bulldozers are the reigning champions.
Indians, mostly Kashmiris, have had a decent presence in the tournament. Away from home, this is their biggest connect to the sport they adore.
The league started four seasons back. It’s proper hard ball cricket with the teams attending auction, selecting their players and then playing in a 10-10 format.
“Abhijit and Tony were the biggest buys last term, both getting 2,500 BDT each. Every team is managed by a teacher who does the bidding. Players sign a formal contract but don’t get the money. It stays with respective teachers, because the money is basically spent on buying food and refreshments and odd cricket equipment on match days.
The left-over goes to charities after the tournament. Player registration fee — 100 BDT for every player — is our source of revenue and we have derived a method to spend it the fun way,” Mudawar Beigh, a second year MBBS student, provides the details with his dear friend Furqan Khushdil by his side. They were accompanied by Suhaib Qayoom; another Srinagar boy who has joined the institute only a month ago and already fell in love with the college culture that allows a lot of room for extracurricular activities including playing, watching and gossiping cricket.
Girls joined the conversation. Farah Fatima and Hafsa Imtiaz, also from Kashmir and Virat Kohli fans. Farah is the senior-most, third year into her programme. She elaborates how girls, too, are actively involved in the cricket league, raising the pitch with their support for respective houses. She loves Dhaka, for the place gives her the opportunity to watch cricket live from terraces. “Kashmir doesn’t host international matches and my first experience of live cricket was in Dhaka two years ago — when they hosted the Asia Cup and World T20. Since then I have become a regular to the cricket stadium here. The beauty of our own league is that it is not restricted to a particular community. Students from all nationalities participate and camaraderie flows.”
Ahead of the Asia Cup final between India and Bangladesh, the young Indian students, however, looked a little despondent. They had been to India’s all four group league matches but don’t have tickets for the title showdown. With 150 BDT tickets are being sold at 1,000 BDT in black market, they barely have a chance.
The college has an inter department football tournament as well – Holy Family Premier League – which is even more popular with a bigger auction purse of 10,000 BDT for each team. Saif-ul-Haque, a Kolkata boy, is an ‘icon player’ with a price tag of 4,000 BDT.
But why have these Kashmiris and other Indian students chosen Dhaka to study medicine? “Because it’s cheaper. In India, the MBBS course costs about Rs 70-80 lakh in private colleges. Here we can do it for 25-30 lakh. Standard is very good.In fact, syllabuses are nearly the same. Also, we share the same culture and food is excellent,” Qayoom, a Parvez Rasool fan, explains.
Problem is that a medical degree from Bangladesh is not valid in India and these young boys and girls have to qualify in the Medical Council of India screening test to be eligible for practice in their own country. “We don’t mind. All of us intend to have a medical career in India. We will appear in the MCI exam. If we don’t qualify, then Russia and China are the other options,” Khushdil says.
Saiful Islam, Holy Family’s academic officer, is very confident that the Indian students will make the cut in their own country. “Our course is on par with the best in the business. Also, the boys and girls are very serious about their studies. And they love their cricket. With the Asia Cup going on and World T20 coming up, a large chunk of our campus talks is centred around cricket at the moment. Even the teachers occasionally join. We have 719 students in our college and 67 of them are foreigners – 49 Indians and rest Nepalese. Indian students mainly come from Kashmir (20-odd), Kolkata and Assam and they get along very well with the local boys and girls. All the students are now demanding the screening of tomorrow’s final at our auditorium. We did it for the match between Bangladesh and Pakistan, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Islam is a little surprised that even the Nepalese have been making enquiries about the final. “They usually are not very interested in cricket. Football is their No. 1 sport. But this game is inviting their attention. Cricket has become that big in this country.”
