Ooty: Tribal sports development here has taken a big stride as two youth hailing from Toda tribal community in the hills, one of the primitive tribes in the county itself, have been selected to represent team India at the World Cup Mini-Football tourney that is scheduled in Tunisia in October.
The selection of P.Nasmudi Kuttan (22) and I. Marthey Kuttan (22), the Toda tribal youth residing at the Gardenmund Toda hamlet here, for the upcoming world championship tourney, has begun to showcase how the tribesmen in Nilgiris are catching up with times in the new millennium to display their prowess in sports and the soccer talent in them to carve out a niche for themselves in the sports arena.
Nasmudi Kuttan, a B.Com., graduate who studied at Hindustan University at Chennai, while speaking to DC, said that 'Mini-Football' wherein only six or seven players play in a team is making rapid strides across the globe and his stint with the Tamil Nadu Mini-Football team which participated in a national tourney recently helped to earn him a place in the Indian team.
He said that soccer is the most attractive game and he plays as a striker. He further added that Portugese soccer icon Christiano Ronaldo is his role model. On his ambitions, he said that he would look for avenues to play Indian Football league and hoped that some of the team managements in this league would give him a chance to play.
Whereas Marthey Kuttan, who is a goalkeeping talent, said that he completed his schooling at CSI CMM Higher Secondary School in Ooty and had been playing Football in the local tournaments. He too said that his selection to the Tamil Nadu state Mini-Football team, which played a nationals recently, had done a world of good for him to help find a place in the national team. Both the tribal football duo said that their selection to represent India has come as reward to the sport talents in the tribal community.
