Street Children Cricket World Cup 2023

It was 8 electrifying days of non stop activity for the TUMI supported PSD cricket team in Chennai who were able to pull through their participation at the Street Children Cricket world Cup 2023 with a corporate grant from Grant Thornton. This exciting event included not just a series of cricket matches but also opportunities for creative expression through art , cultural performances at the packed “late night shows” a chance to forge new friendships with young people from 12 other countries and most importantly articulate their concerns on identity, education, health and protection through role plays, posters and presentations. To mentally prepare the Pro Sports Development’s team, India Crocodiles, for this once in four year event The Upamanyu Mallik Initiatives (TUMI) had swung into action with PSD to bring them to Delhi for preparatory matches and a mock congress and workshops as well as to co organise the Upamanyu Mallik Cricket tournament in their home grounds at Bhubaneshwar. This was followed by a workshop on leadership and rights. Putting together this team was perhaps the most challenging task as they did not belong to the same school and could play together only on Sundays. Since all of them live in their communities there were challenges when it came to travelling to Chennai for more than a week as in many of the households unless they helped with younger kids or helped out in some way in the household their parents would find it difficult to go out as daily wagers which is the source of their livelihood. This team was exclusively put together through PSD’s phenomenal outreach attempt rather than working with a specific shelter with an organized curriculum and a cricketing coach. It targeted multiple schools where underserved communities sent their children. They did not allow the fact that they could practice only sporadically or the last minute drop outs dampen their spirit. The fact that they were selected from the 20 or more teams that applied was itself an achievement and though none of the Indian teams made it to the finals the learning curve for all teams made it worth every moment of the time spent here. They created a lifetime of memories and ties and learnt life oscillates between winning and losing but the lessons learnt at this event – of fair play, compassion, kindness, inter connectedness – are eternal gifts that will stay with them. They learnt that they were indeed “somebody”.