If Kohli can love ‘strays’, so can you: The Sporting Life by Rudraneil Sengupta

“Here we will meet some close friends,” Zareen said. As if on cue, a group of campus indies came running towards her. Zareen squatted to pat them, greeting each dog by name: Kalu, Kali, Bhura, Bhoori, Rocky, Sweety.

“They are the best,” she said, smiling. “I like to spend time with them. It reduces my stress immediately. They are pure love.”

Then, to the dog named Kali, she said, “What do you think? Will I get a gold medal?”

Kali wagged her tail, looking with great concentration into Zareen’s eyes. “She says she’s sure I will get one,” the boxer said, laughing.

Zareen did win gold, on March 26; her second consecutive world championship title.

That walk and our encounter with the “stray” dogs — the stray in quotes because the more accurate term would be community dogs, since they are loved and looked after by athletes, coaches and staff — felt like déjà vu.

Almost a decade earlier, I had walked the same lanes with another athlete, a broken one looking for redemption, who found love and solace in the community dogs on campus.

The 400m sprinter Ashwini Akkunji had been on top of her game in 2010, as part of the quartet that won the 4x400m relay before a roaring crowd at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

A year later, she and the rest of the quartet tested positive for a banned substance, ahead of a major championship. They were banned for two years. Even as they maintained their innocence, they were vilified by authorities.

When I met her in 2014, in Patiala, Akkunji was mounting a comeback and had been picked for the national squad. Yet, bitter memories of her experience lingered.

At dusk, after an intense training session, holding a bag full of rice mixed with milk and paneer, Akkunji walked to a corner near her hostel, where she was met by three dogs and eight cats, whom she proceeded to feed.

“Cats and dogs make me happy,” she said. “They are my life here.”

She would rather be with them than with people, Akkunji said. “People, I have learnt to avoid.” After the doping ban, Akkunji added… “we were treated like animals that people throw stones at or kick or hit with sticks.”

In these times of polarised opinions about dogs who live on the streets, it is important to point out that at our elite sports training facilities, community dogs and cats live in perfect harmony with athletes and staff. Virat Kohli and his wife, actor Anushka Sharma, run a foundation that feeds, sterilises, vaccinates and takes medical care of hundreds of Mumbai indies. Kohli additionally funds the feeding and medical care of 15 paraplegic dogs at a Bengaluru shelter. Sharma and he fed the dogs near their home regularly, during the Covid-era lockdowns.

It is worth pointing out that MS Dhoni forgets human beings when he is around dogs, and used to spend time with stadium indies and security and sniffer dogs at every venue he played at. He has an adopted indie named Leah. Sachin Tendulkar has an adopted indie named Spike. Shikhar Dhawan has two adopted indies, named Chloe and Valentine. Neeraj Chopra feeds the dogs at every sports centre he trains at. Hockey player Jasjit Singh Kular, along with his friends, fed over 500 dogs across Jalandhar during the Covid lockdowns, and continue to do so today.

Here’s to our athletes and their best friends.

(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com)