How to catch the world's attention with snow cricket if you are a remote Kashmir village

Bagtore is a small village in northern Kashmir, so obscure and so cut off from the rest of the world that you would struggle to find it on Google Maps.

Marnus Labuschagne, the No.1 ranked Test batsman, last month quote-tweeted a video of men playing cricket on foot-deep snow in Bagtore. "How good is this," Labuschagne mused. Bagtore's cricketers have been waiting for a long time to hear someone ask this.

Bagtore is in the Gurez Valley, in the district of Bandipora in North Kashmir, around 130 kilometres from Srinagar city.

The Line of Control between India and Pakistan is just a few miles north of Gurez, nearly parallel to it. In 1947, the Gurez Valley was declared off limits to anyone other than local tribespeople, security forces and administration officials. This ban, placed for security reasons, would last an incredible 60 years, till 2007.

In October 2018, Reliance Jio conducted a trial run for voice calls and 4G internet in Dawar tehsil of Gurez valley, where Jio towers had been installed a year ago.

Before this, the only mode of communication available for all the residents of Gurez was through a single Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) tower in Dawar.

The fact that an international cricketer had thrust what was their casual wintertime hobby to a global audience which was entirely out of bounds for them has taken Bagtore's young players aback. It has also given them the rare opportunity to talk about their lives.

"This isn't the first time we've played cricket here. We've been doing it for a long time, but it's interesting to see how it's gone viral now," a local cricketer, Sameer Nazir tells The Bridge.

Bagtore Maidan is an upland area on the edge of the village. In winter, cricket enthusiasts treat the 'pitch' – a sunken patch – with water. Once it freezes, the surface evens out on its own.

All these years, locals had been keen for the government to notice the potential for winter sports activities here. To do this, they kept organising tournaments. These matches also helped occupy youth during the four months in winter when Gurez is cut off entirely due to snow.

"We have been playing cricket on the snow for many years, but nothing happened. It is interesting that this year, thanks to the network system that came last year, our snow cricket is now being explored all over the world through social media," says Nazir.

A winter sports hotspot waiting to be discovered

Nazir plays for a local cricket team which lost in the finals. But he has bigger troubles.

"You may have noticed in the videos that we do not even have complete cricket equipment. That is our horrible reality. We hope the authorities take note and provide the youth here with proper equipment" Nazir adds.

For centuries, Gurez Valley has had little to occupy itself other than subsistence farming and grazing goats, sheep and cows.

In 1895, the British author Sir Walter Lawrence called the Gurez Valley "one of the most beautiful scenes in all of Kashmir," writing that it would soon become one of Kashmir's most popular Himalayan tourist destinations. Over 130 years later, its residents feel that the time is ripe for this to happen.

Samoon Irshad, a social activist from Gurez, says, "This snow cricket needs the attention of the UT cricket council."

Among Kashmiris too, Gurez's snow cricket was a thing to discover.

When a local cricketer from Bandipora's Main Town saw the video of boys playing cricket on the snow, he was enthralled. "I, too, wanted to play cricket on the snow, but the road to Gurez remains closed during the winters due to heavy snowfall in the area," he tells The Bridge.

His team has already decided to spend next winter in Gurez to circumvent this problem and enjoy a full season of snow cricket.

"Last summer, our team played there in a tournament. It was an awesome experience. The beauty and serenity of this place adds to the pleasure of playing cricket. We used to leave home in the morning and return around sunset," he adds.

"In future, I hope that more teams will participate in the cricket tournament to happen in Gurez Valley. Playing cricket there has a different feeling. You will experience cricket on a ground not surrounded by buildings but by beautiful mountains," he says.