4 Play-The Genesis

In the beginning was the word;and the word was with the captain;and the word was the team. The word is  4 Play(no phonetic pun intended), which went on to become a team that imbibes the spirit of sportsmanship.

Two years back, on a rainy July night, Mr.Ashwin Panicker  expressed the desire to play football;along with despair because of the fact that there weren't any vacancies available in the existing college football clubs.

'Why don't you make a team yourself? Thats the only way you can play" retorted Mr. Jason Johny

But I was cynical and vehemently ridiculed the idea of football illiterates floating a team. But that encouraged Jason and Ashwin more.

"It wouldn't be a team for winning;but just for the sake of playing.A team for play. Ya, let that be the name. Team 4 Play." Mr.Panicker formally announced.

"Then you be the captain". I said sarcastically.

But no one got the sarcasm intended and the comment was taken seriously. Also the fact that, Ashwin had successfully created a pool of talent during his tenure as group captain in school, enhanced his claim to captaincy.Thus Ashwin Panicker was made the captain of Team 4 Play and he diligently started the hunt for prospective players. There were no preconditions. Anyone with two legs and a desire to play could play in the team. Yes, there were two conditions:the players had to wholeheartedly accept the captaincy of Ashwin; and had to accept the name 4 Play.Thus, with great difficulty, a hotch-potch squad of eleven members were made. The team formation was decided not on the basis of any inherent skills, but purely on the physical attributes of the players.The ones who could run fast became the forwards; the stocky immobile ones were made the defenders; the residues were the mid-fielders; and the one with the longest limbs became the goal keeper.

Squad: Ashwin Panicker(c),Anuj Kapoor, N.C.Raghav, Eeshan Chaturvedi, Sushant Pednekar,Ganesh Sangeeth, Ranjith Mathew, Rajesh Kumar,Himanshu Singal,Adarsh Kumar,Shariq Shakir.M, Ankit Singh, Udit Garg and myself. And I was made the vice-captain for some reason, maybe due to my proximity to the captain(And some idiots twisted it as the 'captain of vices','captain with vices' etc.)

Before the beginning of the tournament, the captain made the policy of the team clear, by quoting Pierre de Coubertin, the conceiver of Modrern Olympics:

 

"The important thing in life is not the triumph 

but the struggle;the essential thing is not to 

have conquered but to have fought well"

Taking inspiration from these words, Team 4 

Play set out for its first official match

     ******************************************

 (To be continued) 


P.S: Sincere gratitude is expressed to Jason 

Johny, who despite being a rival team 

member,rendered all kinds of encouragement 

and support necessary for the crystallization of

the team.
 

 

Disclaimer: This is not a matter-of-fact 

reporting of events; but a recreation of them 

from memory with a bit of artistic 

exaggeration.

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