Inside the lives of the world's first Street Child Cricket World Cup champions

The Mumbai contingent of the champion cricket team has had to overcome various obstacles to clock in the win at Lord’s

Published: Jun 10, 2019

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Siddiqui hangs out with her friends after a game of cricket. Her propensity to learn new things drew her towards the game as well as to a neighbourhood gym, which the four members from India South visited ahead of the tournament. Her older sister is part of the National Cadets Corp (NCC), which motivated her to stay fit as well. When she’s not playing, Siddiqui loves to dress up and click selfies.

Bhavani Mayavan, 15, watches cricket with her father and brothers at her 10x10 foot-home in Mumbai&r

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Bhavani Mayavan, 15, watches cricket with her father and brothers at her 10x10 foot-home in Mumbai’s Cheeta Camp. An MS Dhoni fan, Mayavan has learned to play cricket from her brothers and her friend Sachin. As her parents—her father is a municipal worker and mother a domestic help—set off for work during the day, Mayavan has a lot of time on her hands, which she spends honing her skills. She wants to grow up to be either a cricketer or a footballer.

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Md Irfan, 14, takes a break after a hectic practice session in the days leading up to the Street Child World Cup in England. Irfan loves to sketch, a skill he has picked up from his mother, and aspires to become a cartoonist. It doesn’t sit well with his father, who earns Rs 300 a day by stitching bags and wants Irfan to take up a job with a bank. His parents have often fought over Irfan’s aspirations and his mother had once thrown away his sketching kit and art medals in fear of his father. But he seems to have come around once Irfan started to win prizes at art competitions; he would still prefer his son to have the financial stability that a bank job affords, but feels as proud as his mother while showing off the medal and the fair play award the 14-year-old has brought back from London.

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Irfan climbs up a slide at the park where they practice cricket. The game is a hobby for the diminutive teen, who would love to be a cartoonist. Every evening, once he’s done with cricket, he plays a game of ‘Business’ with his friends. At other times, Irfan is shy and reticent, but once he sits in front of the board, he’s a different person altogether.

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Mani Ratinam, or Surya as he is known locally, runs in to catch a ball during practice. The 17-year-old wants to become a cricketer, like his idol Sachin Tendulkar, and is looking for a club to take him in. Ratinam lost his father when he was two, and has since been brought up by his mother, a cleaner in a local school, and his three sisters. He does have his share of banter and the fight over the remote control with his sisters, but says the sisters have given in to watching cricket with him. The area has an hourly water supply during the day, between 12 and 1 pm, and Ratinam has taken up the responsibility of filling buckets while his mother and sisters are away at work. Once done with household chores, he meets his friends at a local hangout where they play PUBG on their phones. Once out of data, they all head to the local ground for a game of cricket.

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Mayavan all set to play a match with her brothers and friends. They are often cramped for space at the dingy, labyrinthine lanes in her neighbourhood, with fears of electrocution from a mesh of exposed wires lurking overhead—but trooping out to the local ground in sportswear would invite snide comments from her neighbours. She hopes her trip to the UK and victory at the Street Child World Cup would help her change such conservative mindsets.