Australian football: Kick start

Footy helps Pakistani expats assimilate into Australian society.

To an outsider, the athletes practising ‘footy’ or Australian football at the Carlton Football Club in Melbourne, Australia, might appear like a bunch of misfits. The group of sweaty players, some of who are working full-time as cab drivers, restaurant staff, cleaners and console operators or studying with a part-time job, have been brought together to play a sport they are not familiar with.

But that has not deterred them from vying for a position in the Pakistan Shaheens, the first-ever footy team to officially represent Pakistan in the prestigious Australian Football League (AFL) to be played in Melbourne in August this year.

Kashif Bouns, founder and managing director of the Shaheens Sporting Club, glances at the players from his office window. “This is what I want my players to be,” he announces. “Sooner or later, they will achieve the glory they have aimed for and make Pakistan proud.” The Pakistan Shaheens is the club’s first venture and has also been officially endorsed by former Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Malik Abdullah.

Pakistan Shaheens practising at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during half-time break of another match.

PHOTO: ZAIN NABI

When the Shaheens initiative kicked off, Bouns hosted a large gathering of Pakistani expats and asked them to take ownership of the project. For those who have become part of this venture since then, either as players or volunteers, it is not so much about fame and money as it is a heartfelt effort to represent their community and integrate into the wider Australian society that exhibits the same passion for footy as Pakistanis do for cricket. Although well settled, the Pakistani expat community and the students who arrive each year remain scattered across the country, and Bouns hopes a Pakistani footy team will bring them together on one platform.



Hence, Pakistanis from diverse backgrounds have made it to the team. For Bilal Khan, a business intelligence analyst who has also composed and sung the Shaheens’ anthem, this was a fascinating overture. “I could not even imagine that players from Pakistan would be playing footy let alone competing in the International Cup,” he says. “When I tell my local Australian friends that I am playing footy, they, too, get very excited [and] give me advice on how to get better.”

Shaheens during training. PHOTO: ZAIN NABI

Since there is no monetary compensation, those involved in the venture are only doing it out of passion. “Money is not everything here,” says Farrukh Salahuddin, a hospitality student who works as a pizza delivery boy. “The fact that I can keep in touch with members of the Pakistani community through this sport is satisfying,” he says. “Moreover, the idea that you can represent your country on a foreign soil in itself is very motivating. The hectic training keeps me fit too.”

However, forming a footy team from scratch with players who know nothing about the game was no easy task. Australian football is played with slightly different rules from traditional football as it allows the use of any part of the body to move the ball, with certain rules of course. The Shaheens initiative involved gruelling homework on the part of the club’s committee members — all Pakistani expatriates — before the idea could be sold to the greater community. They came up with a catchy logo, a slogan (Believe and Achieve), an anthem and dealt with an abundance of paperwork. “We were not talking about cricket,” says Bonus. “It was something that had never been thought of before. This indeed added a sense of exclusivity to our project, but at the same time it exposed us to hydra-headed technical problems.”

Shaheens during training. PHOTO: ZAIN NABI

Bouns has so far managed the entire cost of this not-for-profit entity, from arranging training facilities to buying gear and other equipment, mostly on his own. Some local businesses have supported the club and a marketing team of volunteers are actively seeking sponsors, both locally as well as from Pakistan.

Advocating the cause successfully with official authorities was not as difficult as finding good athletes who could make up the team. In a promising start to the project, the Shaheens received expressions of interest from over 50 players. However, when called for training and selection, many fell below the mark, while some did not even show up.

Coach Richard Kerbatieh briefs players during training. PHOTO: ZAIN NABI

Bouns could not expect his players to be physically competent right off the bat, but says he wanted discipline and commitment from day one. “We were willing to give them the due training but they had to commit to a hectic training schedule.”

Once selection was complete, the players were trained rigorously including workouts and sessions on the technicalities of the game. However, many of them started dropping out and there came a time when the number of available players was barely 10. “I think it was good for us.” Bouns recalls. “It showed us how many of them were genuinely interested and we then built on from there to reach the stage where we have a bunch of dedicated players, some of whom will feature in the international cup.”

Coaches Andrew Clarke, Richard Kerbatieh and Wassim Rafihi. PHOTO: ZAIN NABI

For a team just starting out, the Shaheens needed a crash course in footy with the help of professional coaches. Fortunately, they rounded up three: Andrew Clarke, an author and an accredited AFL coach, Richard Kerbatieh, an active campaigner for promoting Australian football among expatriate communities and Wassim Rafihi who has two Premierships under his belt — one as a player and the other as coach. Given that they have never played footy before and are brought up in a culture where no one mentions footy, the players have made commendable strides. The coaches are obviously impressed. “Some of them did not even know how to handle this oval-shaped ball,” Clarke recalls the first few weeks of training with the Shaheens. “But I am amazed how quickly and impressively they have responded to my training methods.”

The team’s management is quite optimistic about their team’s inclusion, among 20 other international teams, in the 2014 AFL International Cup. The Shaheens may even have to face India in the competition, fuelling excitement around the initiative. Yet the coaches, even Bouns for that matter, are cautiously optimistic of their chances of winning the AFL International Cup. “It is our first year and our goal is to show the world that we are here, and we matter,” he says. “Through our game we want to give a positive reflection of Pakistan.” With that remark, Bouns gets up energetically and heads towards the changing room. It is time to play.

Zain Nabi is a masters student of Journalism and International Relations. He tweets @zain97

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, May 18^th, 2014.