Stories from Indian Football
Jaydeep Basu
UBS
2003
Sports
Pages:
Price: Rs 195
Paperback
IBSN: 817476454-2
This is one of the finest books on Indian sports ever written. It is what one has come to expect from the Hindustan Times’ football correspondent Jaydeep Basu, who has been a leading authority on the game for over two decades.
Football’s beauty lies in its simplicity. “It’s a simple game,” India’s legendary coach Syed Abdul Rahim is quoted as saying in the book. “Give and take the ball, that’s all. But you should know how to play without the ball also.” The beauty of this book indeed also lies in the simplicity of its narrative. It does not pretend to be a sociological study of football in India nor does the author have any pretensions to great literary heights.
Personally I found it a gripping read. Basu’s greatest asset no doubt is his undying love for football. That shines through on every page and lifts what could otherwise have been a dry historical account to great heights of excitement. Basu has unearthed nuggets of information thanks to his diligence and research. Remember, apart from cricket no other sport in India has a great wealth of literature.
In that sense this book opens a new chapter in Indian sports writing. The publishers would do well to make this a series and bring out books on the same lines for other sports as well.
For today’s generation of Indian sports fans, weaned on a cable TV diet of Man United, the UEFA Cup and the Spanish league (and of course the World Cup), it must come as a revelation that in a golden period between 1956 and 1964, Indians were the giants of Asia and produced footballers of world class skills.
The first positive signs were seen at the 1948 London Olympics while the slide began from the 1974 Asian Games. It has been halted to a certain extent thanks to the likes of brilliant modern players like Bhaichung Bhutia and I.M. Vijayan.
{{/usCountry}}The first positive signs were seen at the 1948 London Olympics while the slide began from the 1974 Asian Games. It has been halted to a certain extent thanks to the likes of brilliant modern players like Bhaichung Bhutia and I.M. Vijayan.
{{/usCountry}}The rise and fall of Indian football, in a way, mirrors that of Indian hockey. Hockey, of course, was India’s pride and joy for nearly 50 years before its fall from grace from the Eighties onwards. Football never reached such heights in India but it has sadly plumbed to even greater depths. Basu leaves us in no doubt that it is officialdom, in the guise of the blundering All India Football Association, that has caused this downfall.
Fifteen years before C.K. Nayudu smashed the MCC (English) bowlers to bits in Bombay, it was Mohun Bagan (the first great Indian football club) that lifted the spirits of their countrymen when they beat the East Yorkshire Regiment in the final of the IFA Shield in Calcutta on July 29, 1911. It was football that proved to the Indians that the British could be bested, that too at their own game. ‘Immortal Eleven’ is the author’s tag for the trailblazing Bagan side.
Calcutta has always been recognised as the cradle of Indian football. While East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting followed Bagan onto the maidans, it was not till the 1948 Olympics that India first came to international notice under the captaincy of Talimeran Aao of Nagaland. This was as much for its valiant display at the hands of France (losing 0-1) as for the fact that the Indian players all played barefoot. According to Basu, though, this method held back Indian football and was largely responsible for a crushing 10-1 defeat at the hands of the mighty Hungary in the 1952 Olympics.
Two years earlier, India had qualified for the World Cup staged in Brazil, though by default as Burma and the Philippines both had pulled out. Sadly, the AIFF did not have the funds to send the team and thus missed a golden opportunity.
A fourth place finish at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics was the start of the “great era” culminating in India’s dramatic gold medal triumph at the Jakarta Asian Games in 1962 in front of a violent and hostile anti-India crowd.
Jarnail Singh, P.K. Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Peter Thangaraj, Tulsidas Balaram — their exploits are all brought out in great detail and with immense regard and affection.
A year after Jakarta, the architect of these triumphs, coach Rahim died of cancer and the downslide began. A full chapter is rightly devoted to ‘Rahim Sahib’.
Factionalism, petty politics, regionalism and religious bias all combined disastrously to cause this slide.
The glimmer of hope comes in the victory at the LG Gold Cup in Vietnam last year, the first title of any real worth for over 30 years. Every triumph and setback in Indian football has been faithfully covered by Basu. This book itself is a triumph.