* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 22 * * * Monday 5 December 2016 The Daily Telegraph The Daily Telegraph Monday 5 December 2016 * * * 23 Sport Cricket SPECIAL basic backgrounds and very REPORT humble homes but although it is a poor area, there is a great spirit How one man of determination,” says Bhojnaik. “We have excellent cricket talent. We are just trying to develop them. I don’t just want cricketers, I want smart cricketers. My aim is is bringing hope to produce cricketers who play for Mumbai and for India. But it is not just for good cricket players. We see them all improving and enjoying themselves. The to the slumdog equipment makes a huge difference. We get all the right clothes and make them look like gentleman cricketers.” The evening session starts at cricketers of 4.30pm and finishes when darkness falls, and the children wander back to Dharavi. The next morning, Rakesh is showing us where the children live, giving a Mumbai sense of life in Dharavi. A group of well-nourished westerners on a guided tour of the slum could feel voyeuristic. But the groups are small and photography is not allowed to protect the privacy of residents. It is not intrusive and hardly anyone pays us attention as we visit recycling workshops and the residential area. Dharavi is Mumbai’s eyesore ur guide, Rakesh, middle of the day as little sunlight Among the cramped asks five boys to penetrates the tiny gaps between alleyways of a Mumbai name their favourite corrugated metal roofs and tangle Nick Hoult cricketer. Three of wires that overhang the streets. slum, finds O answer “Virat There is hardly any sanitation children being coached Kohli”. No surprises (around 7,000 lavatories for one there. “Sachin Tendulkar,” says million people) and open drains to be the next Kohli another. Only one vote for India’s run down the middle of the alleys, most worshipped cricketer. so the smell of sewage is in the air. “Gautam Gambhir,” offers the The few drains in Dharavi smallest, plucking out a name that discharge sewage into a stream will surprise even the man himself. that bisects the slum. We are in Dharavi slum, a half- “This is our swimming pool,” hour train ride on the Western jokes Rakesh. Clean water is but among its alleyways is a Line from the Wankhede Stadium, available for only around three thriving commercial industry Mumbai, where Kohli will captain hours per day and diseases such as with a turnover of around India this week in the fourth Test dengue fever, dysentery and $665million (£522million). against England. Many of the malaria are rife. Around 89 per Stacked up everywhere are piles supporters who walk to the cent of deaths in Dharavi are of plastic bottles collected by the Wankhede on Thursday morning caused by respiratory problems ‘rat pickers’, people paid 300-400 will pass one of Mumbai’s Maidans, mainly due to air pollution. rupees (£3.50-£4.50) per day to where hundreds of cricketers can Dharavi is cramped, dirty and pick their way through Mumbai’s be playing at any one time on usually swelteringly hot. rubbish tips, bringing an average public pitches. Imagine being a child growing 2.5 tonnes of trash a day to the Maidan means ‘playing ground’ up in Dharavi. Rakesh takes us to slum. Plastic from across India is in the local Marathi language. A the one tiny strip of open ground, shipped to Dharavi, where it is playground is a distant dream for scrubland really, about a few feet smelted into small pellets ready the children among the estimated across and the length of a quarter to be made into something else. ‘If any boy is not one million people who live in of a football pitch. It lies hidden The noise of the crushers and playing cricket Dharavi, a slum the size of 500 amid the shacks and tanneries toxic chemicals are a major health football pitches where it is processing goat hides. Goats hazard. There is no safety in Dharavi then reckoned there are 510,000 people awaiting their fate are roaming equipment and many do not wear per square kilometre. across it, nibbling at rubbish, and protective clothing because of he is not When you walk through the rubble is strewn everywhere. the stifling heat. Life expectancy considered a tight alleyways of Dharavi, your “This is for cricket,” says Rakesh. is around 55. shoulders brush the walls on both “If any boy is not playing cricket in The tour moves on to the proper boy’ sides. It is almost pitch black in the Dharavi then he is not considered a textile area where jeans and proper boy. This area has been curtains are made from cast-off saved for cricket.” that runs the trips to Dharavi. It led County Cricket Club Foundation Looking for gems: Children scour Mumbai. “It is like no cricket provided free of charge. “We try to materials before reaching the It was on a guided tour like this to the formation of a charity called provides funding, cricket boards a Dharavi tip; Vic Mills (left), of ground you have seen in your life,” use this cricket programme as a food manufacturing sector where to Dharavi in 2009 that a British Project Front Foot and eight years from Kent, Nottinghamshire, Project Front Foot, sets up a game says Mills. “After the monsoon, it is way to complement the kids’ 3.5 tonnes of curry are made tourist and club cricketer stumbled later Mills has shipped three Worcestershire, Glamorgan and of cricket; players (above right) like the Thames at low tide, but we education and teach them every day. Finally, we reach the across some schoolchildren tonnes of cricket equipment to amateur clubs around the UK have get ready at the Indian Gymkhana make 100 per cent use of it.” teamwork and leadership skills potters. They are the oldest playing cricket. Vic Mills, now 65 Mumbai for use by the Dharavi all donated old equipment for a This Indian Gymkhana is 84 that are different to those taught in community in the slum who are and a former sports journalist who slum kids. new lease of life in Dharavi. work in Dharavi providing years old and one of the few a classroom,” says Andrew Derlien, producing pots and bowls for plays for Lindum Cricket Club in He has just returned from his Nottingham Tennis Centre education projects. patches of land left in Mumbai that the marketing and fundraising shipment across the world for the Lincoln, was in Mumbai hoping the latest run to India, delivering more supplies 800 balls used in its pre- They even have a cricket has not been grabbed and built on. director of Reality Tours. Indian diaspora. city would help inspire a writing cricket equipment to Mumbai and Wimbledon tournament. ground. No, not the patch of dirt I The ground is brown, barren and One of the cricket coaches is Walking through all this, project he was working on. schools in rural Maharashta, the From that one chance meeting saw in Dharavi, but a proper there is little grass. It is passable for Harshad Bhojnaik, who played for trailing a small, plastic cricket Instead, he was inspired to do latest expansion of his project. “It between a cricket fan and gymkhana a 15-minute walk from coaching sessions but for matches Mumbai at junior level and spends bat, is a half-naked toddler. He is something that would become was an accidental meeting with schoolchildren playing with a the slum where two coaches hold the academy shifts to Shivaji Park, the English summer turning out part of the next generation of almost a full-time job. those kids. If I had not met those worn bat, a formal cricket academy three sessions a week. The venue is where a young Tendulkar played for Bristol Indians. He splits Dharavi kids that could fulfil “I managed to catch the eye of kids I would not be having this has been established for Dharavi the Indian Gymkhana club, a the game. The company that around 40 children at the session coach Harshad’s dream of one of the school kids and we had conversation with you now. Eight that is working with boys at under- partnership Mills was able to organises tourist trips to Dharavi into two groups. The younger ones transforming a slum kid into a an impromptu net,” says Mills. years later, the script I was 12, under-14 and under-16 level. establish through a local contact. uses the money from this to help are uncoordinated, struggling to cricketer for Mumbai or India. “The bat they were using was full working on is still gathering dust, Mills provides the bats and balls. The word “Gymkhana” conjures the projects run by Reality Giving, bowl with a straight arm. But next Now that would be a Slumdog size but had been worn down to but this project has gone from The company that provides the images of gin and tonics and which include educational to them is the group Bhojnaik has Millionaire story. half its original size. By the time I strength to strength.” tours to the slum, Reality Tours wicker chairs. Not this one. The programmes, English classes and been working with for longer. had got back to my hotel, I thought The gear Mills provides is and Travel, runs the cricket Indian Gymkhana is a long way in community centres. The children They bowl quick, hit straight and To donate equipment or for more the least they deserve is some kit.” second hand and donated by all academy through its offshoot NGO every sense from the smart must be at school to qualify for the clearly know how to play.