Footy in India

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Just noticed the India figures above for 2017 and 2018.
From 2633 to 4052 which seems to be inline with their grassroots development comments but until we get State by State figures eventually we do not know for sure.
 

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The advertising for the ARIFC All India Carnival in October has appeared.

More info on the Carnival later

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The AFL Adelaide Crows have produced a video on our game in India through their local Indian Sikh connections.
Good to see an AFL Club showing interest in expanding the game overseas.
A figure of 11,000 participants across 10 Indian states was quoted and this is much higher than other reports including the 2018 AFL International report above.
Sudip said quite correctly that a 10 year period from now will be needed to see their efforts in India come to fruition.
No doubt AFL India will field a mens team at IC2020 in Melbourne. Would not think a womens team will arrive at this time but who knows.

https://www.afc.com.au/video/2019-05-06/taking-afl-to-the-world-sikh-games
 
Have noticed recently some snippetts of information on the proposed AFL Exhibition Matches in India.
First an article -No Link- mentioned that China and India are on the AFL radar and that China was progressing but India has stalled.
The Crows and the Tigers were involved in setting up the matches in India after travelling to the country last year.
David Stevenson AFL Manager of the two projects said in Shanghai when asked - What about India - He said nothing happening at the moment.

Off topic but related to International Footy--
Stevenson would be the possible AFL guy to expand his job description at first to include proper world wide development and to form an Body to supervise it.
He would need a budget of course and support from AFL House.
Any thoughts anybody.
 
Have noticed recently some snippetts of information on the proposed AFL Exhibition Matches in India.

Many articles in 2018 but nothing much in 2019.

Stevenson would be the possible AFL guy to expand his job description...

David Stevenson is involved in AFL development and only indirectly involved in grassroots football - a top down approach.
There needs to be representatives from the organic growth area.
For example, with the International Cup, there are AFL people who liase with the visiting countries to sort out many issues.
These people work extremely hard, but the AFL has little idea how to promote the International cup itself.
 
Some more news on AFL India.
In Chennai India today a meeting was held by the AFL India South Zone Committee to progress the game in that Zone.
Clubs attending =Tamil Kangaroos, Kerala Bombers, Telangana Saints, Andhra Magpies.
Plus there were other delegates from all over the Zone, and the meeting was hosted by the redoubtable Sudip Chakraborty, who for those that do not know has driven the India expansion for several years.
In the words of Sudip ===saw some amazing decisions being taken for the development of footy in south india
No doubt the effort is being put into the grassroots up there subject to budgetary restraints.
 
The video below is an official AFL promotional video on the progress of our game up there.
It focuses mainly on a Indian player- Biswajit Das -who represented India at their first International Cup in 2008, when they played as the India Tigers, and featured a mix of players from Kolkata and Melbourne. The Tigers finished 16th out of 16 and were interestingly beaten by the China Reds for 15th spot also at their first appearance in Melbourne. Progress has been made in both countries since 2008 and here we are 11 years later.
Also featured are snap shot interviews with some of the officials from AFL India who are driving the sport at the grassroots, which has currently spread to 11 Indian States with one State - West Bengal - now having 14 districts with a footy presence.
It should be noted that the official AFL participation numbers for India were.
2017 - 2613
2018 - 4052
This represents 54% growth.
The figure for this year will again record another increase.

 
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AFL India with Reclink India is working hard to develop the grassroots in India.
One program they commenced earlier this year that we have noted is their junior program - Indikick -which copies the successful Auskick prgram in Australia.
The photo below says it all with the boys and girls dressed in a huge variety of tops which cover the EPL and other sports, and it is apparent that girls are being encouraged to have a go as we say in Australia.
What is encouraging is that apart from Cricket,Soccer Football, Kabbardi there no obvious organised sports competition around the place in some areas from which we conclude that a huge opportunity exists for the establishment of our great game.
Note the school kid in the front row holding a ball and giving the thumbs up.
July 30 2019.
"Junior development program for 8-14yr old kids in India to #playfooty - launched by Australian Consulate in KOLKATA — with PM Chokshi and Jasim Akhtar at Angrail."


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Yes you are correct about India.
Overall it looks quite chaotic but everything seems to work - Take their General Election with millions of eligible voters and everybody turns up and they get a result.
It is a big country geographically and has a huge population which is tipped to pass China`s eventually, so for us to be there with our game is a no brainer.
It will be a huge project eventually for AFL India and Reclink and where do you start - They are focussing on the lower levels of their society and giving children the opportunity to play a sport and hopefully expand their horizons.

The 2019 Statitistics revealed that in India 50% of their population of 1,334,000 were under 25 years of age, not a bad market to get involved in.
At this point in time the AFL has appointed a India Manager - David Stevenson - who is also the China Manager where his main focus appears to be at this time.
Interestingly the AFL records the India participation figures in their Annual Reports, and assume the reports are supplied by the two development groups up there, and have no idea, if any funding given to those two groups directly by the AFL itself.
Essendon has sent players up there for promotion/development purposes and possibly Richmond, and Kevin Sheedy has also visits.
 

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And of course India and Pakistan and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are cricket mad, therefore you can have proper sized grounds to play on, and not arse about with soccer pitches.
Good point but I cannot prove this -There is something not right about the planned AFL/DEMO/ OR FOR POINTS matches up there as below.
Nothing more has been said about this venture from over 12 months ago.
Not a word about the trip has been mentioned as far as can be seen in the Melbourne Media, unless the readers have heard something.
Also Aussie Rules ground keepers have been up there as well outlining how we set up Cricket Grounds such as the MCG for winter use.

And further to the above - Stevenson was asked the question in Shanghai this year by the media - What about India?
He just smiled apparently and said - Something along the lines of - The Seychelles Islands have a better chance -
Make of that what you want -Was he avoiding the question or cracking a joke.

This is just my speculation - They are meeting resistance for the matches on their main First Class Cricket Grounds for -Money reasons, lack of public interest, damaging the surface of the said Cricket Grounds and so on.
Until somebody in the know comes on here and refutes the above the comments stand.

 
Have found some more info on the above topic.
The four AFL Clubs showing interest in the India project are;
Richmond.
Essendon.
GWS.
Adelaide.
The project originally planned to have at least one match in 2018, however that did not happen.
Reading a later article we noticed the time frame was put out to 2020 so it appears that negotiations maybe continuing, which confirms my speculation above.

 
The Bharat Warriors Football Club based in Melbourne which is based on Indian origins players travelled to Singapore recently and played a match for the- Lion Cup- against the Singapore Wombats.
What is interesting is that in a first they also included 6 players from India, which to our knowledge is the first occasion outside of the International Cup that Indian based players have travelled.
This is only the beginning of this type of involvement as the grassroots game matures in India.

Find below comments from the Singapore Wombats Facebook.

Playing their first game in AFL Asia, the @thebharatfc Warriors came to Singapore to take on Asia’s biggest club the @anzasingapore Wombats. Featuring a mix of Indian players from Australia as well as 6 debutants from the @reclinkaustralia Indian development program, the warriors ran out winners 88-84. In hot and steamy conditions Bharat shot out of the blocks early, but the wombats reeled then back and held a strong 16 point lead at 3/4 time. But some missed set shots from the wombats combined with sizzling pace and slick moves from some of the Warriors mosquito fleet saw them kick several crucial final quarter goals to take out the First ever Lion Cup. Hopefully we can do it all again next year!

This an older article discussing the background/origins of the Bharat Warriors Footy Club and also the development challenges in India.

https://www.indianlink.com.au/indians-for-afl/
 
2019 All India Footy Carnival.
India’s biggest footy carnival with 300+ participants, 15+ states and 50% female participants will be on October 11/13 at the Jaipur University Ground.
We assume it is the Cricket Ground in that location.
This the first indication seen that there is a footy presence in 15 Indian States.
The figures above indicate growth is still happening which augers well for the future.
Hopefully we should get some results when it has finished.
 
The Richmond Footy Club is continuing its support for Footy in India.
All items courtesy of Lincoln Harris.
Recently the Richmond Institute took a group of their young leaders to India to see first hand the challenges of grassroots Footy development up there.

 
Have extracted some key points from a longer September article in the Decca Chronical in Hyderbad in Talangana State.
1/ Grassroots Expansion in the Southern States of Tamil Nadu, Talangana, Andrha Predesh.
2/ 1500 children and 45 youth leaders will be involved.
3/ AFL India/Reclink are aiming for a presence in 20/21 Indian States so the sport can be incorporated into the official Sports Authoritory of India Curriculum.
4/ 11 Indian States currently have an official Aussie Rules footy presence with more than 11,000 young people participating.
5/ Tamil Nadu has the most juniors.
6/ Southern India will hold its first Tournament on November 26 at St Marys Group of Institutions in Gungur in Andhra Pradesh this will include a launch of "Indikick" as well.
The next National Indian Championships will be held in Kolkata in January 2020.

Elsewhere AFL India has said that the International Cup for 2023 should see some maturing of players representing home grown talent in that country.
 
The article below talks about AFL Asia participation, and am quite amazed at the number of new countries this year - It has exploded to say the least.
However my main interest is India.
They now have the biggest participation up there and will continue to expand despite being on shoestring budgets and will become the elephant in the room up there even dwarfing China.
Once they get to a presence in 20/21 Indian States they will get access to Indian Govt Sports funds which will considerably lift their profile etc etc.
There is still quite away to go but they are heading in the right direction.

Another development up there is political - Scott Morrison and a high level Tech info delegation have been officially invited on the first full blown State Visit in January to India. These visits are Big deal in the diplomatic world and the closer we get to that country the better for the future in this region of the world.
Would be a good opportunity for the AFL to get involved at this time - But it wont happen - They are focused on China at present.

https://www.afl-asia.com/24-growth-in-participation-across-asia-in-2019/
 
Any time is a good time to get involved.



Scott Morrison is a rl man.



NO. PAFL is focussed on China.
If i was to guess on what the AFL is focussed on then I's say the AFL.
Yep I laughed at that - So I guess what does David Stevenson actually do at the AFL House Silo - Love that Silo word.
He is officially connected to develop/administrate China and India, so he must have other duties because his work load would be low.
It amazes me how the AFL fans accept whatever the AFL does with out question.
 
Yep I laughed at that - So I guess what does David Stevenson actually do at the AFL House Silo - Love that Silo word.
He is officially connected to develop/administrate China and India, so he must have other duties because his work load would be low.
It amazes me how the AFL fans accept whatever the AFL does with out question.

I zeroed in on the word focus. I'm not criticising anyone within the AFL.
Where the AFL has assigned people there have been good results AFL Europe, AFL Asia and AFL South Pacific.
The last real overseas focus for the AFL was N.Z. They targetted schools, competitions, exhibitions and a ground.
 
This is extracted from the AFL Asia report.

"AFL India’s 55.21% increase in participants is the direct result of their strategical approach towards increasing the total amount of AFL playing states within the country, which has significantly risen from 8 to 12 throughout the year. West Bengal alone had an increase of over 2,000 participants and indicates further growth is imminent in the world’s second most populated country. "
 

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