Cricket is like religion to Indians, wherever they go, they blindly follow it and hardly accept any other sport due to lack of knowledge about the game. Therefore, with the intention to make Australian Football League (AFL) popular among Indian community residing in Melbourne, ambassador of AFL for Indian community has organized a "Welcome to AFL" event in association with the Huddle NGO and North Melbourne Football Club.
As Australian Rules Football is one of the favorite sports and AFL is most followed premier tournament in Australia, "Welcome to AFL" event gave a chance to Indian community to know and play the beautiful game.
"Welcome to AFL"
Participants of Welcome to AFL event Source: Kapil Thakkar
Talking about the event,Ambassador of the AFL for Indian community, Kapil Thakkar said to SBS Gujarati, "AFL is known as Australia's native game and to promote it among the Indian community, especially youngsters, we had organised a special event where participants got an opportunity to learn the history, rules and the skills of the Australian Rules Football."
Participation from 3 to 75 year olds
Volunteers of Welcome to AFL event. Source: Kapil Thakkar
According to Kapil Thakkar, "Almost 350 participants took part in the event. Some of them were first time participants in the game. The youngest participation was three years old, and the oldest was being 75 years."
"People from all the age group learned various skills of the game. Community Engagement Manager, Zac Read with support from Head of the Volunteers, Andrea Fitzgerald explained every aspect of the event."
"Other support staff from North Melbourne Football Club taught some special skills to the participants and answered their questions related to the game" Said Kapil.
Watched AFL game at the stadium
Senior citizens enjoyed the AFL match Source: Kapil Thakkar
Kids, youngsters, and adults of Indian community also got an opportunity to enjoy the AFL game sitting in the stadium where they witnessed the game between North Melbourne and Brisbane Lions where home team thrashed the visitors in a one-sided match.
