On every street
The many faces of sport in India, through the eyes of its most keen street photographers
Deepti Unni
25-Apr-2017
A young sportsman juggles two different sports on the beaches of Mumbai • Getty Images
Sports, in India, largely happens outside of glitzy stadiums and clubs - it's on the streets, in the maidans, on beaches, on rooftops, in mud pits. In each of these places it takes it own form and rules, characteristics shaped by the city, the locality it's being played in. And now there's a new breed of photographers - Instagrammers - cellphones primed to capture the many idiosyncrasies of sport across the country.
Veteran photojournalist Ritesh Uttamchandani has an eye for the unexpected in the mundane, and on his Instagram feed, every picture comes with a story - humourous, poignant, silly, profound. Here, a father waits for his son to finish his water break, so they can continue with bowling lessons at Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
Siddesh Khanekar captures a young malakhamb performer in Mumbai balancing precariously on an 8.5-foot tall pole at the Republic Day parade.
In Mumbai, you make the place for cricket wherever you can find it. Sunday is match day on the beach, and here a young player, Mangesh, fields at mid-on, in an outfield made of trash.
Time, tide and cricket wait for no man, it seems, in Prakash Prabhu's picture taken on Vasai beach on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Mumbai's Nagpada is a tough neighbourhood that also produces some of India's best basketball players. Here a game is in session at the community court at the Nagpada Basketball Association. The question is: where exactly is photographer Hashim Badani perching?
The 900-year-old Banganga Tank in Mumbai has seen countless games of cricket, and all kinds of ducks.
Karim Mostafa captures a young wrestler taking a break between matches in an akhada (training hall) in Mumbai.
A school kid trains at a soccer school in Whitefield, Bengaluru.
Games in stadiums can be photogenic too, as Delhi photographer Ravi Choudhary shows in this photo taken at the Nehru Stadium.
Wrestlers are popular muses on Instagram. Here, a pehelwan has his game face on as he wrestles his opponent into the mud in an akhada in Delhi. Don't worry, everyone lives.
Asif Khan captures a football game in progress before the Mahgrib prayer at a madrassa in Delhi.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a cricket ball? Nope, it's definitely a football kicked wide in the maidans of Pune.
If you can't find Santa on Christmas, it's probably because he's playing cricket in the bylanes of Kolkata. Calcutta Instagrammers, a curated city Instagram feed, featured this photo by Supriya Biswas.
The Beautiful Game is also a celestial event - local footballers inadvertantly cause a total solar eclipse in this picture by Sourav Pal Chowdhury, taken in Kolkata.
No storm threatens a game of football in Kolkata, photographed by Sayan Raha.
Florals are all the rage this football season. Photo by Amitava Chandra
Every day is weights day for the pehelwans of Kolkata, says photographer Ananya Das
Cricket and football aren't the only games being played at Kolkata's Maidan.
Horsemen in action at the Sikh festival of Hola Mohalla, which takes place the day after Holi, at Anandpur Sahib, 84kms from Chandigarh.
A cyclist attempts a tailwhip stunt in Chandigarh in this picture by Samar Singh Virdi.
A runner assesses the competition at a marathon in Rajkot.
The lack of open spaces may constrain a lot of sports but, for parkour, the city is the playground.