In an inspiring sign of community cohesion, a small football team from a tiny valley community in the conflicted state of Kashmir has made it to the professional league. The team saw people from different faiths and nationalities uniting.
Shamim Meraj, owner of the Kashmir Monitor newspaper, started a football club four years ago to help a community that was flood-hit in Kashmir. He started the club to rally the valley's spirit. In four years, he witnessed his team, 'Real Kashmir', go from being a passion project to India's professional I-League.
The team has a Scottish coach, David Robertson, who played a significant role making a team of students and semi-professionals qualify for India's top league. Robertson told The Sunday Telegraph, “We've got six or seven different faiths, four or five nationalities and kids from across India here”. Team Real Kashmir's other owner, Sandeep Chattoo, is a hotel owner and Hindu priest, and is a close friend of Meraj, a Muslim.
The I-League is different from the Indian Soccer League, but is known for some of the country's oldest clubs. Robertson, who joined the club 18 months ago, said that Kashmir “reminds me a lot of Scotland – there's mountains, it rains, there's four proper seasons”.
