PANJIM: Goa’s team – Boom Boom – will represent India at the Four-2-Score tournament finals to be held in Leipzig, Germany from August 4. The team will leave from Mumbai on Wednesday morning.
The 6-member team left Goa on Sunday unsure if they would get their visas afresh after the Schengen visa was initially rejected by the German Consulate in Mumbai. It was only on the intervention of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant that the Consulate issued the visas on Monday.
The team was dejected after their application for visas was rejected and it was one of their friends, Rahul Tendulkar, who approached the Chief Minister, who promptly took up the matter with the Consulate authorities. He also sought the help of the German delegates who were attending the G20 conference in Goa. Sports Minister, Govind Gaude, also came to the rescue of the boys, taking up the matter with AIFF President, Kalyan Chaubey, who promptly went out of his way, put a word with the German officials in New Delhi, even when the sport is not officialy recognised under the Federation.
But for the CM’s as well as Sports Minister’s, AIFF’s intervention, the Goa team would not have been able to participate in the world event.
It is a Goan team participating for the first time in a world event finals, with five players – Faiz Mohammed, Stephen Satarkar, Devendra Pednekar, Valeriano Rodrigues, Dishu Singh and Sanroy D’Sousa as manager, all students, which perhaps could be one the reasons for visa rejection, although their journey, lodging and boarding requirements were being looked after by the commercial sponsors of the event.
Sanroy placed on record the assistance provided by the authorities, without whose intervention they would have been left stranded high and dry.
