Liverpool stars guide Delhi kids

NEW DELHI, Jan 7: These Delhi kids would have never thought that they would actually get to show their prowess with the soccer ball in front of Liverpool great Phil Neal, with Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Community Coaching co-ordinator Bill Bygroves thrown in too.
But, neither had Neal and Bygroves, who are in the Capital for a 12-day coaching programme for schoolchildren, expected to find soccer-loving kids in this cricket-dominated country.Doesn't matter if only a couple of them know Neal.
"When you fly into New Delhi to promote a game that is somewhat strange to the city, you wonder what's gonna happen, but it's lovely coming here as a Liverpool ex-player doing something for the sport," Neal says, who is engaged with marketing at Liverpool and also acts as ambassador when the club start a new programme somewhere.
With the morning session on the first day having seen around 60 kids from various city schools, the afternoon session has a comparatively thinner participation. The coaches, ready in their Liverpool jerseys, don't mind the numbers though. And it's time to get going at the DPS, RK Puram ground.
"A good, accurate pass," Bygroves calls, and Neal along with LFC community head coach Eddie Sullivan, Steve Macall, Mark Bygroves and Collin Macall show the kids how to turn around the ball and give a pass.
TABS-technique, ability, balance and speed -is the first lesson Bygroves gives to a new trainee, "Most of these kids here already have a fine technique and good balance. They are natural athletes and some might have entered Liverpool's youth academy were they in England," Bygroves presents his assessment. "India just needs good infrastructure to turn them into excellent professional footballers." The programme, which started on Tuesday, is scheduled to train around 300 kids.
"And after completing their sessions, these children will get a certificate from Liverpool FC, which I hope will encourage them to continue playing soccer," says Sporting Football's Dina Dattani, who has been working for the last two years to get English Premier League clubs to help in developing the sport at grassroots level in India. While Neal and Bygroves are here till Thursday, the rest of the coaches will not only teach kids but also have sessions with school coaches.
Keshav Dutt, one of the participating coaches, is confident that these kind of events will generate interest in kids and inspire them to choose football as career. And for kids like Avyay Gujral, Romik Mitra and Arnav Adhikari, who would have liked to become pro footballers, the sport in the country still cannot provide them a good future base. And Bygroves wonders, "If India can win the cricket World Cup, what's wrong with soccer then?"