Wannabe cyclist hawker forms, coaches and mentors IGCL team

Abhay Singh Rana (25) wakes up at 3:30am everyday, picks up his stack of 600 newspapers and cycles around Aliganj till after 8am distributing it to different homes. Abhay has been unerringly following this routine since the past 15 years. He is nurturing the dream become India's number 1 cyclist.

For now, he has formed a unique cricket team which will play its first match in the Indian Grameen Cricket League (IGCL) tomorrow. It all started last year, when while watching young boys play gully cricket he spotted in them a streak. He spoke to the boys, all zardozi artisans, welding workers and boys who stick posters and enlisted them in his team 'Aliganj Spartans'. For the last 1 year, the team has relentlessly practised for 2 hours on weekdays, and all of Sundays.

Inspite of rigorous training and enthusiasm, the missed out on registering at IGCL last year and hence this year they were the first team to register.

With an ailing father who is also a newspaper hawker, Abhay never lets up his routine. In fact, over the years it has become more gruelling, he practises cycling for almost 70 km a day, works as a part time salesman at a mobile store all day, practices cricket for 2 hours in the evening and teaches them for the next 2 hours. And in all this, Abhay finds support and help from his friend, Mukesh Kumar whom he considers an elder brother.

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"These kids all belong to poor families, who cannot even support basic government school education. They work as artisans and on other jobs all day and then practise. We are also giving them basic education," said Mukesh, who is preparing for the civil services exam. Together, the friends have managed to get 4 boys admission to a well-known private school through the Right to Education provision.