The Hindu Business Line : Courageous strikes

She has beaten the best in the world of carrom, but back at her modest home in Chennai, Ilavazhagi struggles to beat several odds, including lack of sponsorship.

On one hand I have to think about my game, on the other I have to deal with having no money. I have been playing for the State for 13-14 years and yet, at the end of the day, feel I have not been given my due.

Sumithra Thangavelu

I. Ilavazhagi, carrom world champion, poses with her trophy at her Chennai home.

Sumithra Thangavelu

A rat scurries across the stairway leading to the home of I. Ilavazhagi, the 23-year-old carrom world champion whose unrelenting strikes on the board have won her international recognition, fans and peer respect. Off the spotlight, her life is a stark contrast: the family of five has just about enough to survive.

“Did you find the house easily?” asks the two-time SAARC champ who also holds the Asia Cup and Rajiv Gandhi World Cup titles, taking out two plastic stools from inside her one-room-one-kitchen slum-clearance flat in Vysarpadi near Chennai. A steel cot and her carrom board take up most of the space. “If you ask for the ‘girl who plays the board’, anyone here will tell you.”

They did. But Ilavazhagi is no poster girl in India despite a string of big wins, including the 5th World Carrom Championship held at Palais Des Festivals at Cannes in France on January 13-17, 2008, where she beat another Indian, P. Nirmala, 25-11, 25-11, in the finals. The game doesn’t give her the pedestal that the mega-money-guzzling cricket or tennis gives to its big players.

Unnoticed winner

Her win at the Rajiv Gandhi 2nd World Cup tournament in November 2006 in New Delhi went unnoticed. As did many other victories at the district, zonal, inter-zonal and national championships.

In fact, her Cinderella story ends soon after a match when worries about sponsorship, finding a job, requesting for a bigger home “which will help me practise better” take over.

Her big collection of trophies lie scattered around her home. Some have been given to neighbours for lack of space. “That’s the one I won at Cannes,” she says, stooping down to pick up the prized award lying forlornly on the ground.

“On one hand I have to think about my game, on the other I have to deal with having no money. I have been playing for the State for 13-14 years and yet, at the end of the day, feel I have not been given my due,” she says.

Despite pressures of these kind, Ilavazhagi maintains a cool poise that easily defies her circumstances. What is really difficult for her to deal with is the apathy she often faces within the carrom fraternity — she almost didn’t make it to Cannes for want of a sponsor to pay the entrance fee!

On her return to Delhi after her historic win, she had to cancel her flight to Chennai thrice in a bid to meet the President, Pratibha Patil, and had to bear the additional expenses too.

Early days

Ilavazhagi’s interest in the game was kindled by her father Irudhayaraj, himself an ardent carrom player, when she was four. She played her first match in the fifth standard, and since then there has been no looking back .

“Those days, buying a board was beyond my means. A friend would keep his board room open for us at night, and we would practise into the morning hours,” says her father, recalling the early years when he taught young Ilavazhagi to “strategise and focus”.

Irudhayaraj, who earns Rs 300 on a good day as a fish-cart driver, dropped out of college for want of money. “If I had thought ‘why am I in such a job?’ I couldn’t have raised three girls. I am able to see God in any kind of work, and that attitude has helped me,” he says.

Ilavazhagi credits her father for imbibing in her qualities such as hard work and perseverance, saying she couldn’t have made it to the top without him “who never asked why I lost a game” and her mother, Selvi, “who never burdened me with chores”. Since 2003, Dr R. Christodas Gandhi, Secretary to Government, Youth Welfare and Sports Development Department, has been supportive with funds and motivation, she says.

Ilavazhagi won the 9th South Zone Championship at Puducherry held during February 27-29 — her first win after Cannes. Her next match will be the 6th Inter-zonal championship.

Last week, Kanimozhi, Member of Parliament, presented her with Rs 1 lakh on behalf of NGO Tamil Maiyam while Akhila Srinivasan of Shriram Group promised Rs 50,000. “It’s perhaps the first time in the history of the game in India that a carrom player isgetting so much attention,” says Ilavazhagi. For her, this is the biggest monetary reward so far.

The youngster is currently looking for a tutor to learn English and Hindi to better manage her tournament trips. Her ambition, she says, is to win the Olympic gold in 2012 and the Arjuna award some day. “I have to look beyond my everyday life to bring the best to the game. I forget everything once the game starts. Then, it is just the board, the disc and I.”