Dreams of Dhar footballers Jyoti and Sarita to play their first international tournament came down crashing wh... Read More

INDORE: Dreams of Dhar footballers Jyoti and Sarita to play their first international tournament came down crashing when on Saturday they could not board the flight from New Delhi as the School Games federation was unable to get the tickets for Australia.

Dhar girls, Jyoti Chauhan and Sarita Ninama selected for Indian football squad to participate in the under-18 Pacific International School Games at Adelaide, Australia that began on Sunday.

"We reached Delhi on November 18 and were told to board the flight on November 20 but on the last moment we were told to submit the death certificates of Jyoti and Sarita’s fathers for visa clearance as both the girls are minors and needed consent from the head of the family. I somehow managed to submit the documents on time after which I was assured to get tickets for the next day that was November 21."

"When we reached the airport on Saturday early morning we were told that the organizing committee was unable to get the tickets for the connecting flight from Singapore so we had to come back to Dhar empty handed," said coach, Shailendra Pal.

According to him, the School Games Federation officials have assured the girls that they will be a part of the next international tournament to be held in a few months and won’t have to go through a selection trail again.

Apart from the Dhar girls many other players from Assam and some other parts of the country also could not take part in the tournament because of such visa and ticketing issues.

Reportedly, the girls had worked hard for to participate in the tournament and wee very excited to represent the country for the first time coming from a small village.