Footballers made to clean seats in Indore for 4th ODI

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INDORE: They are champions in their own rights having been crowned champions of Indore Football League last Sunday but 15 footballers of Anand XI FC are now cleaning the seats of 30,000 capacity Holkar Cricket Stadium for ODI between India and West Indies on December 8.

The likes of Manoj Khare, Rohit Girije and Ankit Chirawande who have represented Madhya Pradesh in various national level football tournaments are being paid Rs 3 for cleaning the seats. The reason being lack of funds to football kits, says Anand XI coach Sanjay Nidan.

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But that's not all. Nidan would tell you that Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) entrusted them with the duty as they did a "good job" during last edition of the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League.

"Our players did the cleaning work for the Indian Premier League 4 matches in May also and this is not the first time our boys are doing this job. The organisers of the India-West Indies have given us this work keeping in mind our good cleaning record. The boys are required to sweep seats," informed Nidan.

Most players come from poor backgrounds and have no option but to double up as daily wage laborers to make their ends meet even though they are blessed with skills just like a sportsman from any other discipline.