Downtown Srinagar to Durand: Story of how football became antidote to drugs

AN MBA from Srinagar’s Downtown, Hinan Manzoor can never forget meeting a school kid from his area who was addicted to drugs. The incident broke his heart. Later that evening, during a kahwa session, he and his friends decided to help the youngsters in the neighbourhood kick the habit that was spreading dangerously.

Within a year, Hinan and three of his buddies — NGO owner Irfan Shahmiri, ad man Mushtaq Bashir and activist Kaiser Bhat — would join hands to form a football club that they would call Downtown Heroes FC.

What started as a rag-tag team, consisting mostly of local players from the troubled area, would finish second in I-League 2 and is currently leading the Jammu & Kashmir Football Association (JKFA) Professional League. Next month, the Srinagar club will be hitting the national football circuit and participating in the Durand Cup in Guwahati.

Hinan cites Udta Punjab, the hit Hindi movie based on Punjab’s drug problem, to explain the situation in Downtown Srinagar. “Our area has become like Udta Kashmir now,” says the 29-year-old. “Many think that Downtown Srinagar is like the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Once it used to be the hub of everything, be it art, culture, sports or business. Over a period of time, because of turmoil and political instability, the Downtown changed. There is a perception that we carry guns all the time, and that’s not true.”

He went on to say that it was their conviction that sports has the power to effect change that made them start a football club. “The adage goes: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ Out of love for this place called Downtown, we decided to do something for our locality, and that’s how we came up with Downtown Heroes FC. Sport is the only thing that can keep