Soccer for charity in Assam
Highlights
It was a high spirit football match, where a team of performing artistes challenged the journalists’ eleven for a noble cause. The charity soccer’s idea to generate funds for the flood affected hundred thousand families of Assam was conceived by popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, which was responded positively by the media fraternity of the State.
It was a high spirit football match, where a team of performing artistes challenged the journalists’ eleven for a noble cause. The charity soccer’s idea to generate funds for the flood affected hundred thousand families of Assam was conceived by popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, which was responded positively by the media fraternity of the State.
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Assam in northeast India faces perennial flood as the mighty river Brahmaputra and its tributaries inundate the low-lying areas of the State in every monsoon season. The last wave of food claimed the lives of over 50 persons and destroyed the crops in 35,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Nearly one million residents in the districts of Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Morigaon, Golaghat, Sonitpur, Cachar, Nagaon, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Goalpara, Dhubri etc was seriously affected by the recent flood. Started at 6 pm in the floodlit Nehru stadium, Guwahati on 26 September 2015, the football match was enjoyed by thousands of football fans as well as millions of general audience through the live coverage by local news channels.
The media XI scored five goals (scorers include Banajit Bhuyan, Piter Alex, Sunil Bora, Debashis Mandal and Gautam Sarma), where Ajay Phukan, Pabitra Rabha and Pankaj Ingti scored for the artiste team. Led by Zubeen Garg himself the other members of the Artiste XI included Sasanka Samir, Partha Pratim Goswami, Pradhan Deori, Mahadev Deka, Shekhar Goswami, Achinta Shankar, Rohit Sonar, Hemanta Gogoi, Shiddharth Sarma, Bhaskar Dutta, Hitesh Gogoi, Manash Phukan and Dhanjeet Kalita. Radio jockey (Sasanka) Samir was adjudged as the best payer of the match.
Similarly, other members of the winning team included Atanu Bhuyan, Sanjive Narain, Kishor Talukder, Niloy Bhattacharya, Amarendra Deka, Dasarath Deka, Pitambar Newar, Naba Pegu, Dhruba Mahanta, Siddhartha Sankar Deka, Dhiren Sarma, Hitesh Deka, Anupam Chakrabarty, Tibra Bairagi, Prasanta Dutta, Kumud Talukder, Partha Chakrabarty, Vicky Das, Sibanu Bora and Mukul Kalita. Senior television journalist Pranay Bordoloi captained the media team, which was formulated by the Electronic Media Forum Assam with the inclusion of media persons from both the print & electronic media.
Senior sports journalist Subodh Malla Barua was the coach and environment journalist Nava Thakuria the team manager of Media XI. Over Indian rupees one lakh was generated from the match with the selling of tickets and also donations from football fans. Moreover, the media team donated the championship prize money of rupees 20,000 for the benefit of flood victims. The Guwahati based Dispur Hospitals also joined the mission extending free of cost emergency medical services to the players.
By NJ Thakuria
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