When and how did Bharat Army come into being? What was the thought behind forming the Bharat Army?
The Bharat Army was founded in 1999 during the World Cup in England
where 4 passionate followers of Indian Cricket met for the first time
while following the Team during the World Cup. Since then we have been
supporting and following Team India around the world for the past 15
years!
We felt with the passion Indians around
the world have for the game we needed a common voice in support of
Indian Cricket so the First Official Team India Supporters Group was
Born.
How much planning goes into preparing for a match/tour? What are
your preparations for tours ? And how do you guys manage work and
finances ? What has been the largest contingent of Bharat Army at a venue/tour till date?
The Bharat Army is now a non-profit
making organisation, in the past we worked with a Travel Company that
was recommend to us by the Barmy Army to sell Tours to the 2007 World
Cup in the West Indies. We ended up taking 900 Supporters to the World
Cup but unfortunately it turned out to be a disaster as we got knocked
out early!
As we are now recognized around the
world for being Team India's No.1 Supporters Group we manage to get
block bookings for tickets in the stadiums around the world, you would
have seen a strong presence this summer in England but also during the
World Cup in 2011 in India going back to South Africa in 2007.
We
raise funds to run the Bharat army by selling Merchandise and use the
profits for the running of our Website and Social Media activities but
also contribute to Indian Charities. This year during the summer in
England we supported Yuvraj Singh's YouWeCan Foundation and also a
Charity in India called The Aware Foundation which supports the
Education of Underprivileged children on India.