Bhagyashree to skipper Maharashtra U-15 team

by Kaushal Shukla May 4, 2015

India international Bhagyshree Dalvi of Thane has been appointed captain of the Maharashtra team which will participate in the AIFF Sub-Junior Girls’ Under-15 National Football Championship to be played at Cuttack, Orissa from May 8 to 24, 2015.

Bhagyashree, who was part of the Indian team playing in the AFC Championship, in Kathmandu, Nepal, which was devastated by recent earthquake, was the clear choice to skipper the team.

A total of five girls from the city of Mumbai and six from Thane are part of the 20-member squad, which was selected after a lengthy trial process, which was conducted in two phases for aspirants from the districts of Maharashtra.

Nelson Sebastian of Mumbai has been appointed as the coach and he will be assisted by Annie Paul from Nagpur. Durva Vahia of Mumbai will accompany the team as acting manager and goalkeeper coach.

Maharashtra is placed in Group-E along with Sikkim and Uttarakhand. They take on Uttarakhand in the opening match on Sarturday, May 9 and then face off against Sikkim on Wednesday, May 13.

The winners from each of the eight groups will qualify for the quarter-final leg which will be played from May 15 to 20 followed by the semi-finals May 22 and the finals on May 24.

The team: Komal Garad (GK), Bhakti Pawar (both Kolhapur); Ark D’Silva, Reva Sankhe, Tricia Colaco, Gauhar Nithaiwala, Atiriya Narayan (all Mumbai); Anjali More, Annie Anthony (both Nagpur); Gia Sundaram (GK), Ella Dubey, Aishwarya Gadekar, Toshita Yadav (all Pune); Mayuri Waghmde (Satara); Shemchui Ningsheng, Mili Doshi, Siddhi More, Bhagyashree Dalvi (C), Reetika Sahani and Ruchita Sonawne (all Thane).

Coach: Nelson Sebastian (Mumbai), Assistant coach: Annie Paul (Nagpur), Manager: Durva Vahia (Mumbai).