KIYG revives Barauni's deep-rooted football culture

Over the next three decades, Barauni turned into a cradle of footballing dreams, led by unsung heroes like Chandra Shekhar, and former Mohun Bagan goalkeeper-turned-mentor Sanjeev Kumar Singh, who chose turf over a steady Army career, love for the game over comfort

- INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Football ke rang, Begusarai ke sangh. It’s more than just a tagline pasted on the pillars of an under-construction flyover leading into this town. It’s a quiet revolution that began with broken legs and bruised pride in a forgotten corner of Bihar.

Tucked away from the din of Patna’s bustle, in a humble locality of Barauni in Begusarai district, football did not just arrive, it fought its way in. This ground, a patch of land that carries the legacy of a freedom fighter Yamuna Bhagat, became football’s unlikely home nearly 80 years ago.

But the spark that truly lit its modern-day fire came in 1990, when a hastily assembled team of local girls, untrained and unsure, were battered by a seasoned Muzaffarpur team in an exhibition match, meant to mark the ground’s 50th anniversary.

Some hobbled away, some were stretchered and all had wounds that cut deeper than skin. But instead of shame, it birthed a movement. “We were humiliated. But we turned that pain into purpose,” recalls Chandra Shekhar, a retired schoolteacher and former footballer, whose words carry the weight of generations.