Kesavan is one of my favorite cricket writers. I recommend his new blog and am looking forward to his new book (Men in White). I almost always find myself nodding to whatever Kesavan says. Here too, it is no different and I firmly believe he is right. My thoughts are similar on this and has been for quite a while.

Kesavan says in his latest piece, slow death of Indian cricket:

Most of my son’s classmates find greater pleasure in watching Thierry Henry, a Frenchman who captains a London club, Arsenal, than in watching Rahul Dravid turn out for India. The boys in his class who aren’t fixated on Arsenal are obsessed with Manchester United and someone called Rooney who looks worryingly like an Eighties model skinhead. I could be wrong, my sample could be too small, but I think we’re seeing a shift in the sporting culture of metropolitan Indian schoolboys of a particular class. They’re seceding from international cricket and offering their enthusiasm and loyalty to English league football.

Cricket is no longer the holy sport it once was. We had a half empty stadium at Eden Gardens for India-Windies, even India-South Africa. Cricket has competition now from football not just in the form of EPL but nationally as well. Zee Sports are doing a great job of broadcasting football and there are some very positive steps being taken for the development of the game. Football has strong roots in the country (Bagan-East Bengal sees crowds of over 1,00,000, Goa-Bengal rivalry in the sport is strong) and I do see India improving in due course - upon which the popularity will soar. Then, there are other sports which are being marketed in innovative styles - hockey in the form of PHL, chess is ever so strong among a section and shooting is gaining in profile every day.

A very significant factor is that it is impractical to follow 5 days of test cricket. If some one has 35 hours of free time in a week, he will much rather go on a holiday than sit in front of the tv. Cricket is still a spoilt son because it enjoys monopoly but I see genuine competition because of football - signs of which we are already seeing.

It isn’t a death for Indian cricket though the way I look at it. It is competition which is always a good thing because competition improves standards and gives people kicks in the backs like little else can manage to. Test cricket though it seems, is losing out and will lose out further in this fast paced world - some thing which did not seem to effect the crowds 10 years ago in Indian grounds. As a lover of test cricket and a fellow cricket tragic, I do moan the slow death as well.

41 year old former Indian captain V.P.Sathyan is dead. Reports suggest that he committed suicide.

The suicide note reads:

“I was vexed in life. I had lost my wealth as I was habituated to drinking and gambling. I had lot of respect and admiration in the society as long as I was a football player for India. But at present, I’ve lost everything. I don’t want to live in this world anymore,” read the suicide note.

Sathyan was the All India Football Federation player of the year in 1995. He was a true servant of the game though usually away from the spotlight. Read Bikash Mohapatra remembering Sathyan.

Telegraph has a detailed report:

While his other teammates in the then crack Kerala team, such as I.M. Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri, rose to become glamour boys of Indian football, Sathyan somehow remained the unsung hero…

All these years, no one really talked and discussed the classic and world-class goal he scored against South Korea in 1986 in Merdeka. A rookie defender then, Sathyan took India to the quarter-finals with a terrific 35-yard shot that had both his teammates and rivals completely stunned.

Sathyan himself never regretted it, leave alone talking about his achievements.

Read the reactions of the football fraternity.

It is a bit sad that we remember achievements and talk of the great deeds of people only when they are no more. The bigger question worth pondering is whether Sathyan would have met this fate had there been more recognition for him and had Indian football been better off. We don’t know that answer.

Regardless, this is a very tragic loss to Indian sports.

In Visitors, I invite one person each week to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Vijay Krishna, a huge football fan joins us to analyse Indian football as it stands today. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Vijay Krishna

What gives the game of football its universal appeal? The answer is simple: it is the game of the masses. That is precisely why “the beautiful game” is so popular everywhere. In that case, why isn’t it popular in India? Of course, it is popular. Why else would anyone want to watch games in the middle of the night?

But what of Indian football? Without resorting to any other means, answer one simple question. Who captains the Indian football team? Baichung Bhutia, you say? Sure of the answer? Well that underscores why Indian football isn’t taken seriously by many, though football per se is rising in popularity amongst the youth of this country.

And yet, this was the country which qualified to play in the 1950 World Cup finals. Of course, it’s another story that we didn’t travel because the football team insisted on playing barefoot. It might also surprise many to know that some of the country football clubs are older than most popular football clubs in Europe, including Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan.

So what ails Indian football? Is it politics, lack of money, lack of interest or are we simply condemned to support Brazil, Italy, England and the like? To understand the situation better, I spoke to a few officials in some football associations. People in such positions will hardly concede that it is internal politics which stalls the development of the game. Lack of money is the reason everyone cites.

Lack of money for what? Officials argue at the national level, domestic football is more popular than domestic cricket. There is a lot more money on offer too. But football associations do not command the same amount of resources as does the BCCI. One of the major expenses is in conducting national-level competitions. This entails a lot of spendings; but everyone claims that competitions are the only way to popularise the sport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anju falls short. Even the brainy chess guys are not winning. Indian sport continues to see an upward trend while all this happens, especially football.

Priya Saini at Economic Times writes:

Indian football is taking on glitzy hues as more and more corporates are coming on board as sponsors. It would seem outrageous that a sport in which India is ranked so low, is seeing major Indian TV networks bidding some ridiculous amounts for its TV rights and corporates making a beeline for sponsorships.

The piece is a must read if you want to know more on the recent Indian football trends. I had touched briefly on Indian football here. There is huge potential for growth in football (else why would it be the most popular game in the world!) and the scenario for India is no different. A few wins can propel the growth of the game very, very quickly.

Some would say that P.K.Banerjee was the greatest. A newer generation fan would say the answer is easily Baichung Bhutia. Others yet will believe it was some one else. Amitabha Das Sharma writes on Sailen Manna and speaks on why Manna is the greatest in the latest issue of The Sportstar:

Who was the only Asian footballer ever to be named among the best 10 captains in the world? The man in question is Sailendra Nath (Sailen) Manna — the former Indian captain who fetched the country a host of international laurels including the first Asian Games gold in 1951.

Today, Manna, 82, is the representative of the period when Indian football was at its peak. Manna’s exploits at the helm of the Indian national team had prompted the England Football Association to rate him among the 10 best skippers of the world in its yearbook of 1953. That was the best of times. The euphoria of newly gained independence was sweeping across the nation…

The Asian Games triumph came as the high point of achievement. “We had matched our strength with the best in Europe. It was natural that we would be claiming the Asian honour,” says Manna. “Our team had matured in three years after the Olympic voyage and we possessed the best attack in the continent.” India beat Iran 1-0 in the final. “It was the realisation of a dream,” says Manna. “The whole nation backed us to win our first big medal in football.”

Manna’s period coincided with the high points Indian football reached. Football has gone downhill ever since. Indian Football has taken some bold initiatives in the recent past. Here is hoping we regain some lost glory in the future.

The Hindu reports that the National Football League will be revamped. It was launched with much gutso 10 years ago but lost steam midway. Football got a new lease of life with intentions shown to maximise the crowd power the game commands. Zee Sports was brave enough to take a long term contract.

Now comes the news that steps will be take to restructure the league itself. The right noises are being made:

Addressing a press conference at the AIFF headquarters in Dwaraka, the general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Dato Peter Velappan, categorically stated that the NFL had been professional only in name so far. Reiterating that the health of the country’s football was dependent on the quality of the clubs, Velappan said that India should stop calling substandard foreign players for the league for the next five years as the country had enough talent that deserved to be developed.

Indian football has a strong base in Goa and Bengal. There is the strong rivalry between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. When more than 100,000 people attend a game between the two clubs at the Salt Club Stadium, Calcutta, you know that there is potential to tap in sponsors. Kingfisher came and went a few years ago but the changes now look more steady.

There is a need to do away with a lot of unnecessary football teams play. A Calcutta club has to play it’s city league, millions of Cup matches. Plus the players play in the state level Durand Cup. Quantity is existant rather than quality. A strong structure is needed. Fan base is already there. The national interest creation is a bit difficult though. You cannot expect interest levels to reach the level which cricket enjoys before the National team starts performing.

However, proper packaging and format can at least be the driver which fuels influx of money. This money, if goes into proper channels, can result in improvement of over all standards. So the trigger which would fuel Indian football to an upward growth trend has been been shot. The growth would be slow as you cannot expect miracles. At least the effort is there for improving standards as the potential seems to be finally understood in quarters which matter.