IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE STRANDED AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Robertson’s bold adventure in Kashmir turns to nightmare as 1.3billion enter lockdown
LIFE in the world’s most militarised zone — a place where suicide bombings, shootings and large-scale interventions by the Indian armed forces are regular occurrences — should have prepared David Robertson for just about anything.
But this? This feels different. Locked down and stranded in Kashmir, the former Scotland, Rangers and Aberdeen full-back has discovered that he, wife Kym and son Mason — who plays for the Real Kashmir FC team managed by his dad — cannot fly home. Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe not for some time.
India had already banned all international flights because of the coronavirus. Yesterday they announced the most wide-ranging lockdown the world has seen yet — with some 1.3billion people affected.
Speaking before yesterday’s edict stating that the lockdown will be ‘absolute’ for 21 days, Robertson claimed that his pleas for help from the British Embassy in India to go back to Scotland have fallen on deaf ears.
Terrified that food may soon run out, he is getting increasingly desperate to return to Aberdeen and insists the family have been left to fend for themselves.
‘It just feels like we are stranded,’ he said. ‘We tried talking to the British Embassy, but you wait for ages on the phone and then they tell you they can’t do anything for you. They told us to look at the website, as if we hadn’t thought of that.
‘We didn’t know about the suspension of flights, which happened on Saturday, until Friday. And because of where we are, there was no way we could get to Delhi.
‘There are no international flights in and out of India. So we are basically stuck here and domestic flights will stop, too.
‘There’s a lot of British people in the same situation as us in India and they are all saying the same about the British Embassy. They say to ask them for advice and when you do, they don’t give you any.
‘Even if we got to Delhi, we don’t know how long we will have to wait for flights and I’ve even heard stories of people being evicted from their hotels. It’s pandemonium everywhere.
‘The road from here in Srinagar to Delhi is the worst road in the world, through mountains, over cliffs. It’s single track for 12 hours.
‘It feels like we are at the end of the world here. It’s not only us. Kallum Higginbotham (former Partick Thistle, Kilmarnock and Dunfermline player) and our Scottish coach Jonathan Craig are with us, and we have four African players who are stuck, too. Two of them have new babies back home.
‘We’re in a hotel and have been here since last Wednesday. We aren’t allowed in or out and I don’t know how long the hotel will have food because if they close the roads and end the flights, it will run out through no fault of the hotel. The Indian players have gone home, so it’s only us and it feels eerie and deserted.
‘While other parts of India might be okay for provisions, Kashmir is cut off and I have no idea what we are going to do.’
With other members of his family ‘scattered all over the world’, Robertson is understandably fraught.
‘I thought life here would be easier this year,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘But it just gets more and more difficult.
‘Life here can be tough enough for people without the coronavirus.
‘It’s very unpredictable. Every day you wake up to a different problem. It’s always one thing after another in Kashmir. But it’s different when it’s a worldwide crisis.’
Since taking a gamble and moving to the region of constant unrest in 2017, Robertson has come to love the people and savour the challenge of building a club from the ground up.
He has enjoyed the adventure of trying to organise a football team — with some success — in an area where the locals have gone from apathy to fanaticism in double-quick time.
The Robertsons have been well looked after, too, in luxury hotels. But if you can’t leave a place, it can begin to feel like a prison.
‘We’re stuck here,’ said Robertson. ‘We were meant to play a game last Saturday and it was cancelled at the last minute because of the virus.
‘My wife Kym is here, she came out two weeks ago. And obviously Mason plays here.
‘I’ve got two other grown-up kids. Chelsea is back in Aberdeen and Jordan is in Mexico — he went there on holiday and is now stuck. So we’re scattered all over the world. But we can at least talk to each other.
‘Often, when Kashmir goes into lockdown, there is no internet, no phone.
‘Jordan is okay. Because we lived in Phoenix (when Robertson coached there), he has friends there. He’s had two flights cancelled but is still trying to get home.
‘We’ve got a lot of overseas players, six of them, plus three foreign coaches. We sent our Indian players from outside Kashmir back to their families. It would be nice if all the overseas players and coaches could do the same. Everyone just wants to go home.’
Since arriving in Kashmir, Robertson has learned to expect the unexpected, as anyone who watched the BBC Scotland documentary on his adventure will know.
The chaos seemed to peak last year, when the Indian government revoked legislation giving the state a degree of autonomy — and then sent in the army to enforce a curfew and curtail any thoughts of protest.
Robertson recalled: ‘The Indian government revoked article 370 — on our first day of pre-season. We were in Calcutta and couldn’t get back, with Kashmir in lockdown.
‘Obviously the Kashmiris weren’t happy with what the government had done and it caused some tension.
‘But our Kashmiri players in
Calcutta couldn’t even call home, because everything — the internet, mobile networks, even landlines — had been cut off.
‘We’ve had to stay inside before — just for one or two days — in the past. Although at least then you could walk to the local shop. We can’t even do that now.
‘We’re just not allowed out. But we’ve got internet and phone access, which is something we’ve not always had.’
Whatever happens next, disruption has become an unavoidable facet of life for Real Kashmir.
Robertson, who led the club to promotion in his first season in charge, and then third place in their first top-flight campaign, said: ‘We’re currently sitting fourth but, if we won our games in hand, we’d be up to second — and that qualifies you for the Champions League.
‘We’ve got five games to go. But it’s very unclear when the season will resume, like everywhere else.
‘There is a lot of talk about it just not happening at all. They may just decide things on the positions as they are.
‘I know the same debate is going on in Scotland, over whether you can relegate Hearts or give Celtic the title without playing the season out. It’s just as up in the air here.’
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MARK WALKER
It’s one thing after another here in Kashmir. Life is tough enough without the coronavirus.