state trials but there was no information anywhere so i joined social media to look for information says mohsin i used to write a lot about cricket on my facebook wall and that is where i met abid and had a conversation with him and joined the magazine in 2016see a sports journalist in kashmir has no value abid tells mirror anyone who wants to become a journalist has to either do political reporting or conflict reporting even the organisations you work for they dont give you that kind of mileage they dont even consider you a journalist if you are covering sports conflict is the king here everything is seen through the prism of conflict and politics sports becomes trivial in this emotional cocktailthrough the magazine and the website they have tried to highlight local issues and players mohsin gives examples we raised issues like an attempt to build an athletics track at the sherekashmir stadium in bandipore now this stadium is basically used for cricket and football this track would have made things difficult for footballers and cricketers ultimately the union sports minister intervened and now they are looking for an alternative place to build an athletics trackabid tells the tale of a bridge there is a cricket ground in shhapora wathora budgam area players had to cross a nullah to reach that ground and for that they had constructed a wooden bridge but that is very risky we raised this issue and now the local administration is planning to build a permanent bridgethen there was a battle between a sports ground and a college we did a story about a sports ground in hajin in district bandipore local administration wanted to construct a degree college at that site there were huge protests from the local residents and players we gave coverage to this on our website and the district administration is now looking for an alternative place to construct the college abid saysdilemma of sportswe come back to the dilemma of being a sportsperson in kashmir and about the struggles and perceptions it triggers abid explains it south kashmir is brimming with talent parvez rasool rasikh salam and jasia akhter who played in the womens t20 challenge last year are all from south kashmir now when the national media highlights them they bring in conflict even in that if there is a player from kashmir who wants to play at the top level he or she has to play for india but that doesnt mean they are profreedom or proindiaif someone plays for india he is labelled as proindian and then the separatists have their own reservations about that player media highlights that player as the true face of kashmir and that comes with a stigma you dont know where the players stand politically but once he or she plays for india he is projected as proindian if a player from south kashmir dreams of playing for india does that make him proindia and antifreedom no please