Hanging up the boot: Well played, Bhaichung
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 26 2011 -

It is rare that football makes news in India; Correction, Indian football. It is rarer that Indian football stars grab the attention of the country and such a trend is not surprising given the fact that the country of 1 billion plus population has never even once qualified for the World Cup and the Indian football team has been more or less the favourite whipping boys in the international arena, occupying the 158th position in the FIFA world ranking as in August this year.

Till 1995 there was no National level football league and the genesis of the present day I-League can be traced to as recently as 1996 when its former avatar, the Indian National Football League made its debut. Football continues to live under the shadow of that other team game-cricket-and its status is directly proportionate to the status of the men who play this game.

Pele's Beautiful Game pales into comparison with the Gentleman's Game in this land of India and Bharat and while cricket has attained a position from where they can make the sponsors and the corporate houses dance to the rhythm of the bowlers as they take their run to deliver the ball as well as click with the flick of the batsmen’s wrists, football on the other hand has had to survive with sloppy television coverage, courtesy Doordarshan and amateurish commentators.

So while the Board of Control for Cricket of India is today the richest cricket body in the world, the All India Football Federation continues to chug along like a wagon which has seen better days.

This is not a comparison between cricket and football and the distinction between the two games is clear, but the brief comparison was outlined to drive home the point of where football stands in the country’s ladder of popularity.

This is however not to say that football has no followers in India and far from it, the interest with which people tune in to their TVs every time the football world cup kicks off is the testimony of its popularity.

So what ails Indian football ? Any attempt to analyse this in this column would do no justice and this comment has also nothing to do with the factors responsible for the downward decline of Indian football all these years.

Football in India has definitely seen better days, if the records of the past are anything to go by. The Indian football team finished fourth in the 1956 Olympics, won the gold in the 1962 Asian Games and finished third in the 1970 Asian Games.

After 1970, it has been a case of decline all along the way and in fact football became so localised that the only derby that one would hear was the Calcutta Derby where the big three, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting battled it out for the top honours. In fact football began and ended at Bengal, or so was the impression that was created.

Given such a scenario it was not surprising to see the gradual decline of football in the country and hectic efforts such as the introduction of the Nehru Gold Cup in the 80s failed to provide the much needed spark to ignite the passion for the game.

However as in other sports, there were exceptions, exceptional individuals who arrived on the scene to inject the much needed life giving shot to the dying game in India.

Bhaichung Bhutia was one such football star, who arrived at the right time and contributed in no small measure to resuscitate the game and was one of the architects in taking the game beyond Bengal, when he turned out for JCT, Phagwara in 1996-97.

That Bhutia was an exception was demonstrated time and again during his long career spanning nearly twenty years and perhaps no football star in recent years has been able to capture the imagination of his fellow citizens as much as the “sniper” from Sikkim.

Bhutia not only made news for his exploits inside the D Box of the football field but off it as well and nothing illustrates this better than the prime time and prime space accorded to him in the electronic and print media when he announced his retirement from international football and in the process managed to break the stereotypical image of the Indian footballer.

No other Indian football player could achieve this, in the past four or five decades. A player who could conjure magic once inside the D Box, Bhutia carried off from where IM Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri left and took Indian football to greater heights.

If his genius on the football ground is something that will be talked about for years to come, equally note worthy was his long career span. Football is a physically demanding sport, not like cricket, and playing the game at the top level till the age of 34 is something that not many can hope to achieve.

While his peers left the greens, one after the other, the man from Sikkim carried on, unflaggingly. This is perhaps what sets him apart from many other football players, who may not have fallen short on talent.

To last this long at the top level requires mental strength and discipline. And Bhutia had this to top off his prodigious talent. Bhaichung cut his teeth at the top club level in 1993 and since then there has been no looking back for him, even going on to become the first Indian to ply his trade on the European circuit when he had a stint with English side FC Bury in the latter part of the 90s. Indian football will be the poorer by his departure from the game.

Bhutia was not Maradona or a Pele or any of the other players on the European and Latin American circuit. He may not even come close to his Japanese and South Korean counter parts.

But this will not take anything away from him as his contribution as a footballer to a country will stand second to none. The vacuum he has left should be understood not only within the football field but off it as well.

Well played, Bhaichung. Football fans will miss you.