Footballers got a rousing welcome at Cuttack railway station on Thursday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack / Bhubaneswar, May 19: The Orissa team, which won the 19th Senior Women’s National Championship yesterday at Bhilai, arrived to a grand reception by football lovers and authorities of the Football Association of Orissa (FAO) at the Cuttack railway station this morning.

“It was a dream come true which was possible only due to team-effort and support of the people from the state,” said skipper Alochana Senapati.

However, the celebrations were tinged with a bit of disappointment as the team members were upset with the fact that three key players – Sasmita Mallick, Pinky Bompal Magar and Suprava Samal – were likely to relocate to Bihar which had helped them secure employment with the East Central Railways.

Of the three, Sasmita and Suprava reached Bhubaneswar last evening ahead of the team’s arrival in Cuttack while Pinky headed for Jharsuguda, her home town. “None of us wants to leave Orissa and represent another state. If the state government gives us jobs, we would not have to leave,” said Sasmita, who was the leading scorer for the state in the national championship at Bhilai with 14 goals.

Orissa registered a thumping 5-0 win over Bengal in the finals to clinch the Senior Women’s National title for the first time.

Defender Suprava Samal echoed Sasmita’s views: “We cannot wait endlessly for the government to respond to our pleas. We need some security and so have decided to take up the jobs.”

Senior player Shradhanjali Samantaray said the absence of the three star performers would create a “vacuum” within the team and affect the team’s overall performance. “Despite winning several national championships, unfortunately, not many players have been given jobs by the state government. But we are hoping that they would return to the state,” she said.

Lauding the performance of the women footballers, FAO secretary, Sanjay Behera said the migration of the three players to Bihar would be a great loss to the state. “Naturally, they have accepted the job offers as they failed to get any in the state. But they would always be known as players from Orissa irrespective of whichever team they represent in future. No doubt, it will create a void but this would also provide an opportunity to other players to prove their worth,” Behera said.

He said he has urged Orissa police to provide jobs for the players from the next year so that the players could be retained.

While the FAO announced a cash award of Rs 10,000 for each player, chief minister Naveen Patnaik did no more than conveying his “best wishes” to the champion team.

Leader of Opposition, Bhupinder Singh has appealed to the state government to “encourage the players through incentives like government jobs”.