Fighting past life’s struggles, SSB skipper Dular Marandi ready to shine for India

Kadokhicha village of Dumka district in Jharkhand, she lost her mother and then her father, and even one of her two brothers, at a young age. But she never gave up hope and has continued with her passion for the beautiful game. In the Indian Women’s League this season she has already scored five times including a hat-trick in their opener.

However, she isn’t content with just performing for the club and dreams of playing for the national team one day. But she will need work harder and keep improving for that to happen. Speaking to TOI, SSB coach Juliet Miranda, who used to play for Goa, said, “Tactically she is good, but she needs to work on hitting the target more often.

She needs to take advantage of the opportunities that come her way. The good thing is with every match the improvement is there.” While getting a call-up to the national team will be the icing on the cake, her journey has been quite an eventful one so far. “I took up the game in 2006 when I saw the boys play in my village and started to play with them.

We used to roll up pieces of cloth and play with it,” said Marandi over the phone. Local people took notice of her and one day a friend of hers, Ekta Soren, asked her to take part in a women’s tournament in Shivnagar. There she was noticed by a Father of a local church, who took the responsibility to make sure she gets proper training and education.

“At that time, we were very poor and didn’t even have the money to get a proper meal. So, Father came and told my parents that he would take care of everything. At first, they were reluctant to let me go but after his two-three visits they agreed,” she added.