Rajesh Dhar
The State of Jammu and Kashmir which is striving hard to carve a space on the Country’s sports map, can boast of outstanding sportspersons, who despite lack of infrastructural facilities, with sheer-dint of hard-work and dedication, have made their State’s presence felt, kept its flag high and succeeded in casting spell at the International scene.
Going down the memory lane, one finds J&K struggling in the field of sports at almost all the levels, yet presence of top class individual performers had always been there in some sports disciplines. Majeed Kakroo, Surinder Singh Bagal, Sonia Sharma etc are a few former outstanding sportspersons to name. However, from last decade or so, Jammu and Kashmir has produced a good number of sportspersons, who have not only blossomed at the State or the national level, but also at the international level.
Leading from the front in this race is India cricketer Parvez Rasool Zargar, followed by the ace sportspersons like Atul Pangotra, Arjun Gandotra, Krupali Singh, Shubam Khajuria, Mehrajudin Wadoo, Ishfaq Ahmed, Arun Malhotra, Palak, Rashid,Ujjwal, Harleen Kour and last but not the least, Kuldeep Handoo. These sportspersons are simply pride of the State of Jammu and Kashmir as they have done what others would never have dreamt of doing.
While Parvez Rasool and Shubam Khajuria became the first cricketers from Jammu and Kashmir to represent Team India and India Under-19 cricket team respectively, the other sportspersons have brought laurels to the State as also to the Country in various sports disciplines.
Atul Pangotra, is the only medalist from Jammu and Kashmir in Commonwealth Taekwondo Championship in the year 2011-12 and a recipient of prestigious Sher-e-Kashmir Award for outstanding performance in sports. He was selected for 7th WTF World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship, but unfortunately could not make it due to financial problem. Atul has the distinction of winning gold medal in Senior National Taekwondo Championship for Medalists held in Bhopal.
Under his guidance as coach, the State teams of Jammu and Kashmir have fetched good number of medals at the zonal as well as the national level championships.
Gymnast Palak and coach Krupali, Promising gymnast from J&K, Palak Kour was selected to represent the Country in the 32nd Seniors World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at Kiev-Ukrain recently. Only two Gymnasts from the Country including Palak Kour (J&K) and Nishtha Shah (Maharashtra) and coach Krupali Singh (J & K) were selected for this prestigious World Championship.
Student of Presentation Convent, Palak has also represented the country in the Asian Gymnastics Championship held at Tashkent and Youth Asian Games held at Yakutia, Russia and have earned many medals for the State in various National Games and Championships. She is the trainee of Krupali Singh-Arjuna Awardee, a coach in J&K State Sports Council.
Apart from these two names, J&K can boast of many gymnasts of the State and golden girl Mitali, Harleen and Sonia are a few to name.
Arun Malhotra, an International footballer from Jammu and Kashmir has brought laurels not only to the State but to the Country as well. Arun has landmark achievements to his name at the Club, State and at the International level. Arun was the member of the squad that clinched gold in Independence Cup in the year 2001-02 at Birganj in Nepal. He was the part of the team that won LG Cup in the year 2002-03 in Vietnam and also team member in Asia Cup involving North Korea and India in 2003-04, besides being part of the team that clinched gold medal in the year 2003-04.
Apart from the above achievements, Arun had been part of Thailand and Singapore Invitation and Afro Asian Games etc.
Mehrajuddin Wadoo, born on February 12, 1984 in Sarai Balla, Amira Kadal, Srinagar in the State of Jammu and Kashmir is an Indian football player, who also have represented the Indian national team. Wadoo started out as a striker but then shifted to the defence and played in midfield also. He started out with Iqbal Sports and then to J&K Police and with the passage of time moved to HAL, ITI, Sporting Club de Goa, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. He was member of U 21 team of J & K and was noticed at the National level.He scored the winning goal against Bangladesh in the SAFF Cup Finals at Karachi in December 2005 and was a member of the Indian squad that won Nehru Cup 2007, the AFC Challenge Cup 2008 and the Nehru Cup in 2009. He played in the I-league 2011/2012 with Salgaocar.
Ishfaq Ahmed, born on March 17, 1983 in Srinagar is an Indian football player, who is currently playing in IMG Reliance. Ishfaq, in his early career joined Mohan Bagan AC on June 2, 2007, during his first season with the Indian Club, the former Dempo SC player was the most consistent left-sided midfielder in the I-League. Despite an excellent 2007-08 season, Ishfaq was not called up for the Indian National squad. He signed with I-League Champions Salgaocar SC in June 2011 and in 2012, Ahmed signed for East Bengal for 2012-13 season.
Fencers Rashid and Ujjwal, have brought laurels to the State at National and International level many a time. They were the part of Indian team that won gold and bronze medal in the team event in South Asian Games, besides clinching galaxy of medals in the National Championships.
Kuldeep Handoo, has the distinction of helping India to clinch medals in the discipline of Wushu as coach in International Championships. Apart from representing India as player and fetching medals, Kuldeep has the honour to guide budding Indian Wushu players to success at the International scene.
Parvez Rasool Zargar, after a marvelous Ranji trophy season in 2012-13, was included in India A squad to play a warm-up match against England on January 6, 2013 to become first cricketer from the Valley to be picked for India A team. Born on February 13, 1989 in Bijbehara, Anantnag, 24 year old, all-rounder Rasool wreaked havoc in his three spells as he took 7/45 in 28.3 overs, which helped Board President’s XI to bowl out the visiting Australian side for a modest 241 runs. His seven scalps included top-order players like regular Test opener Ed Cowan, stand-in captain and wicketkeeper Mathew Wade and all-rounder Steve Smith.
On February 14, 2013, Parvez became the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to bag an IPL contract by signing with Pune Warriors India, wherein he got the wicket of Jacques Kallis with the figures of 1/23 off 4 overs in his first game against formidable KKR team. Thereafter, Parvez got the National selectors nod to be part of Team India against West Indies and India A team against South Africa. Now, he has been selected in India A squad bound to play 3 unofficial Tests against West Indies A starting from September 25, 2013.
Shubam Pradeep Khajuria, born on September 13, 1995 is an opening batsman, who is presently with the India Under-19 team to play in Quadrangular Series starting from September 23, 2013 and involving four countries including Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and host India.
Shubam after scoring over 700 runs with 3 centuries and 4 half-centuries in Cooch Behar Under-19 boys Cricket Tournament, was selected for India Under-19 team for Sri Lanka Tour recently. He scored 52, 36, 15 and unbeaten 34 runs in the four innings he played during the Tour. Experts believe that Shubam possessed all that is required to sparkle at the highest level. For that matter, the Quadrangular Series will be an acid test for this gritty and gutsy cricketer.
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