Desert Camels welcomed in England

Rugby boys from Bahawalnagar overwhelmed by kind reception from hosts
Phone interview with Team Manager Salman Wain
By : Jawad Haroon  (PRU )

LAHORE, 8 October 2008: The "Desert Camels Rugby Club," a group of ten boys from the deserts of Southern Punjab in Pakistan, arrived in London yesterday and met with a warm welcome at the airport by the host students and families, said Team Manager Sulman Wain, speaking to the Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU) on the phone from Surrey.

The team has arrived to participate in the Touraid Tullow U13 Cup 2008, in which the British charity Touraid, with the help of sponsors, has facilitated the participation of teams from Tanzania, Namibia, Madagascar, South Africa, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, India and Côte d'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast).

The Pakistani boys are being hosted by the Hawthorn School located in Bletchingley, in the heart of Surrey England. Wain said the boys are "simply overwhelmed by the hospitality of the hosts. These families have not only welcomed them into their homes, they also bought them warm clothes because it is quite a climate change for these boys from the desert." The families are taking wonderful care of them, he added.

Wain, or Pasha as he's better known in rugby circles, a Pakistan national team player and former captain, told PRU that "today the students had the privilege of attending classes at the Hawthorn School. The classes they attended included tailored instruction in how to use the computer, the internet and email. They were also provided special classes in the English language."
 
PRU also spoke to a few of the boys on the phone. They mirrored Pasha's words, expressing bedazzlement and a sense of being overwhelmed by the hospitality, the exposure and "how clean everything is!" One boy commented: "this is like a dream land."

Each rugby player has been assigned a 'friend' who will take care of them throughout the tour, and the Team manager said some of them already seemed like they were good friends. "It's rewarding to see how much acceptance there is at this age. They're all just boys, growing up and seeing the world, and on the other end, hearing about rugby and life in a remote desert corner of it."

Tomorrow the boys will attend their first rugby practice in England. The dream in rugby terms for this group is also immense. Back home, most started playing three years ago when the Punjab Rugby Development program was launched. In 2008 they picked up the Coca Cola Interschool U14 championship trophy. They do take their rugby seriously.

"Tomorrow they will see a level they haven't imagined before, I think," said Muzammil Khan Waziri, coach of the Desert Camels and the young man who has spread rugby in the villages of Southern Punjab after becoming addicted to the sport courtesy accidentally running into the Lahore Rugby Football Club (LRFC).

Pasha told PRU that the training session will be conducted by Mr. Andy White, an International Rugby Board (IRB) First division rugby coach, and a key force behind the Touraid organization.
 
In his closing remarks, Pasha said, "they will be changed rugby players, and changed boys by the time they get back home. The tour will change completely shift their horizons, and in a way, Pakistan rugby's."