Save the game
Is soccer dead in India? Think again. Revisit Salt Lake Stadium, the Mecca of Indian football. The occasion is simple, the return leg of the National League between two age old foes, green-maroon and red-gold. Stakes are massive and the Kolkata sky is the evidence. At 7 pm. the colossus was breathtaking, it was a beauty. Imagine Trojan War being fought in a neutral landscape with Hector and Achilles about to embark on the fight of their lives. The next 90 minutes will decide the future of two powerful kingdoms. Under the blazing lights and just around 100,000 screaming, chanting, imploring fans unmistakably segregated in accordance to their loyalties , the gigantic flags being their identities, the battle of colors that day would have definitely made a Nou Camp or an Old Trafford look mediocre. The stage was set for a battle of epic proportions.
As the ball started tolling on the lush green lawn, passion reached its summit. The most beautiful game in the world has come alive! An attack would give rise to a deafening roar from one side; the other half would bite all their nails off. Expert opinions, threats and instructions were in the air every moment. “Zonal marking won’t do”, “use the flanks”, “control the midfield”, “kick the foreign recruit out”, were the orders of the night. Highly innovative adjectives were overflowing. As the ball crashed into the net, the hysteria on one side contrasted amazingly with the eerie silence on the other half of the scene. At the end of the stipulated time, the southern stand was almost a desert with the maroon-green colors vanished from the face of the earth. The northern stand was draped in red-gold. Colored torches, crackers and mass celebration. East Bengal 3 Mohun Bagan 1. Photographers and pressmen were chasing the stars to have one click of the victors. Stanford Bridge can look up for inspiration as Chelsea move closer to the title.
The tragedy is that not one soul present there on that night can utter India’s FIFA ranking with pride. It is so shameful. Our previous generation in their heydays could, we can’t. Out of 100 crore Indians, is it very unrealistic to expect eleven world class players with football being such a grass root level game. Whom do we blame? The administrators, lack of training programs or is it the body structure of Indians?Comparing ourselves with some of this year’s World Cup finalists would make matters worse for us.
The remedy lies in professionalism. We don’t need any Tom, Dick and Harry enjoying the status of foreign recruits. India is rich enough in its resources. Just the satellites should be well positioned to pick them up. With so much FDIs and FIIs showering the economy, why should soccer be left out? Investments in infrastructure& technology, new professional approaches in the way the game is run are the needs of the day. The meteoric rise of Japanese soccer can be a good example to follow. What Indian football lacks today is vision. Once that is framed, the rest will follow. Maybe one day, the Salt Lake Stadium will be draped in tricolors dancing away to the World Cup finals! It will be a long, long night. Who knows?
(I am a Mohun Bagan and Brazil fanatic)
Is soccer dead in India? Think again. Revisit Salt Lake Stadium, the Mecca of Indian football. The occasion is simple, the return leg of the National League between two age old foes, green-maroon and red-gold. Stakes are massive and the Kolkata sky is the evidence. At 7 pm. the colossus was breathtaking, it was a beauty. Imagine Trojan War being fought in a neutral landscape with Hector and Achilles about to embark on the fight of their lives. The next 90 minutes will decide the future of two powerful kingdoms. Under the blazing lights and just around 100,000 screaming, chanting, imploring fans unmistakably segregated in accordance to their loyalties , the gigantic flags being their identities, the battle of colors that day would have definitely made a Nou Camp or an Old Trafford look mediocre. The stage was set for a battle of epic proportions.
As the ball started tolling on the lush green lawn, passion reached its summit. The most beautiful game in the world has come alive! An attack would give rise to a deafening roar from one side; the other half would bite all their nails off. Expert opinions, threats and instructions were in the air every moment. “Zonal marking won’t do”, “use the flanks”, “control the midfield”, “kick the foreign recruit out”, were the orders of the night. Highly innovative adjectives were overflowing. As the ball crashed into the net, the hysteria on one side contrasted amazingly with the eerie silence on the other half of the scene. At the end of the stipulated time, the southern stand was almost a desert with the maroon-green colors vanished from the face of the earth. The northern stand was draped in red-gold. Colored torches, crackers and mass celebration. East Bengal 3 Mohun Bagan 1. Photographers and pressmen were chasing the stars to have one click of the victors. Stanford Bridge can look up for inspiration as Chelsea move closer to the title.
The tragedy is that not one soul present there on that night can utter India’s FIFA ranking with pride. It is so shameful. Our previous generation in their heydays could, we can’t. Out of 100 crore Indians, is it very unrealistic to expect eleven world class players with football being such a grass root level game. Whom do we blame? The administrators, lack of training programs or is it the body structure of Indians?Comparing ourselves with some of this year’s World Cup finalists would make matters worse for us.
The remedy lies in professionalism. We don’t need any Tom, Dick and Harry enjoying the status of foreign recruits. India is rich enough in its resources. Just the satellites should be well positioned to pick them up. With so much FDIs and FIIs showering the economy, why should soccer be left out? Investments in infrastructure& technology, new professional approaches in the way the game is run are the needs of the day. The meteoric rise of Japanese soccer can be a good example to follow. What Indian football lacks today is vision. Once that is framed, the rest will follow. Maybe one day, the Salt Lake Stadium will be draped in tricolors dancing away to the World Cup finals! It will be a long, long night. Who knows?
(I am a Mohun Bagan and Brazil fanatic)
1 Comments:
This is the first time I am going through your site boss. Trust me I am not at all surprised by the beauty of your writing skills because over the last 2 years that I have known u every presentation which you gave or every aritcle which u made us read that was written by u was always a step ahead of the others so we are so used to u getting improved day by day that its hardly a surprise for me at least anymore to see u come up with wonderful topics written in a manner which can at best be described by me as an inspiration for others to follow.
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