Monday, August 31, 2009
When at a German's house, Do as the Germans Do!!!
Thursday, the 27th of August, was one of the weirdest training sessions i've ever had. And certainly one of the most fun. I know that my friends back home r gonna kill me when they read this coz what the title means is we had our own little Oktoberfest at the end of august i.e. just a month earlier and that too in the middle of the week. To begin with our training was cancelled coz no one showed up n our coach was bored so he said lets just go drink coz we deserve it as we have worked this hard throughout the season. A few minutes later people started showing up but we had made up our minds so no one trained and we all went to the uni pub called 'The Gryph' to get some drinks and relax. But then we all got carried away n drank a lot. I myself had almost 1 1/2 jugs of beer. We were all having fun when the guy at the pub said that they were closing. Thats when our inglourious german basterd, Thomas came up with the idea of "POWERHOUR" the game that guarentees to screw ur head within an hour and if it doesn't then u r a German. So we all headed off to Thomas' place half 'HAPPY'-thats the term we use for tipsy coz tipsy just sounds gay. When we got to his home what we saw was truly a breathtaking scene for all of us at that time. Shit loads of beer just lying around. so what's the game u ask? According to the game Thomas plays a video that has 60 song clips that change every minute and every time when the song changes u have to drink a shot of beer. How bad could a shot of beer be u ask ehh??One shot is nothing but when u have had 60 shots thats equivalent to almost 2 1/2 litres of beer. So we started this seemingly impossible game and went of cheering after every song. When we started we had 17 people but only 4 could make it and i dont kno if i'm proud or ashamed to say that i made it too.Sorry guys but i enjoyed it coz it was with my whole team n it was really good for team morale.So you could say me, Thomas, Jacob and Alberto made a huge sacrifice for the team. When i got home at 12 i was completely 'happy' not 'drunk' i was just 'happy'.But the next day was hell with the worst hangover ever. And on top of that i had to attend school n i didn't get a thing of what the teachers said. But then i realised that i dont get that crap even if i'm not hungover so that cheered me up for a while but the headache kicked the cheers in the nuts and brought bsck that terrible feeling again. So I think I should only take the german road while playing football and not for any other purposes. I know, Poorva, that u r gonna kill me but m sorry i guess there's a little german in all of us! So cherish him before he dies off because low blood alcohol levels.But don't u dare go drinking the german way n never ever try the "powerhour" even with coca cola!Got it?? Sorry I'm just used to putting the "powerhour" in double inverted commas coz it was a legendary where bets were made, heads were shaved and morale was rocketed into outer space. BUT THESE STUNTS WERE PERFORMED BY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS and me. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!
The Nehru Cup stays where it deserves to stay!
Football does that you. You chew your nails, you skip a beat and you play havoc with your blood pressure. More so, when the Indian team takes to the ground for an encounter like Nehru Cup final.It wasn’t any different this Monday as well. Emotions were at their wildest best as Syria’s Hamzeh Alattouni missed the penalty and India defended their Nehru Cup title in style. As India triumphed 6-5 over the last edition’s runners-up Syria, fans jumped the barriers and ran onto the field to congratulate their heroes of the day. And, at that moment even the police personnel were rendered helpless.
After both the teams failed to reach a conclusion in the allotted 90 minutes, Rennedy Singh put India ahead in the 114th minute. The crowd had just started the celebrations, when Syria’s Ali Dyab proved them to be premature. He led his side back into the contention in the very last minute of the extra time. With the crowd shocked and the stadium going pin-drop silent, India coach Bob Houghton and his Syrian counterpart Fajer Ebrahim prepared their sides for the penalty shoot-out.Both the sides made sure that the match, which had started on a high note, ended the same way. Egged on by the crowd, Houghton’s wards had started raiding the rival area right from the first minute. As India skipper Bhaichung Bhutia and his younger partner Sunil Chettri led a slew of attacks into the Syrian half, they, however, just could not breach the physically-superior rival defence. Bhutia was cautioned by the referee for going down in the 28th minute after a rumble in the Syrian area.The visitors, who had a comparatively quieter outing in the first half, came out all firing in the second part of the match. But the Indian custodian Subrata Pal was at his best as usual and warded off the danger every time the Indian defence went into a momentary lapse. India almost put a lid on the encounter in the 80th minute. Steven Dias played an accurate volley to Chettri in the 18-yard box. But the striker’s header just went off the mark by a whisker.With both the sides exchanging shots at each other’s post regularly, the tie advanced into the extra time. Houghton threw in Rennedy into the battleground in the 100th minute. The senior midfielder proved his coach right when in the 114th minute he landed his free-kick into the Syria net, leaving custodian Mosab Balhous stunned and stands going wild.The winning feeling was yet to sink in when Syria reminded all that it was not yet over. Dyab’s sharp header went zooming past the Indian custodian, Pal, and referee blew the whistle for the end of the extra time. Thrillers don’t get better than this. It was time for the nervous moments of the penalty shootout.Climax Lawrence easily slotted the first ball home. Syria’s Raja Rafe followed suite. The twist of fate then made its presence felt when India’s goal hero Rennedy missed the following spot-kick. Pal made amends for that as he got his hand to Wael Ayan’s shot and the ball went out after hitting the post. Chettri took the lead for India as the Delhi boy calmly lodged the sphere into the net. Then it was time for another master display from Pal. This time Ahmad Haj Muhmad’s shot met with Pal’s left hand and it kissed the crossbar before flying out. Steven Dias had no difficulty in converting the next one.Now, with Syria in a position to lose in case of missing their fourth strike, skipper Balhous took the mantle upon himself. He didn’t break his side’s hopes. India’s Mehrajuddin Wadoo, however, failed to convert which could have been the winning stroke. Abdul Fatah Alaga made no mistake with the fifth one to keep his side in the contention.With the match delicately balanced, Anwar walked towards the goal area to take the first shot in the sudden death. Fans heaved a sigh of relief as the sturdy defender sent Balhous the wrong way and scored.Alattouni’s shot then flew above the woodwork and Houghton’s boys got their third international title in three years. And, this time it wasn’t the customary. “We are the champions” but our very own “Chak De India” to cap a memorable evening.Football does that you. You chew your nails, you skip a beat and you play havoc with your blood pressure. More so, when the Indian team takes to the ground for an encounter like Nehru Cup final.It wasn’t any different this Monday as well. Emotions were at their wildest best as Syria’s Hamzeh Alattouni missed the penalty and India defended their Nehru Cup title in style. As India triumphed 6-5 over the last edition’s runners-up Syria, fans jumped the barriers and ran onto the field to congratulate their heroes of the day. And, at that moment even the police personnel were rendered helpless.
After both the teams failed to reach a conclusion in the allotted 90 minutes, Rennedy Singh put India ahead in the 114th minute. The crowd had just started the celebrations, when Syria’s Ali Dyab proved them to be premature. He led his side back into the contention in the very last minute of the extra time. With the crowd shocked and the stadium going pin-drop silent, India coach Bob Houghton and his Syrian counterpart Fajer Ebrahim prepared their sides for the penalty shoot-out.Both the sides made sure that the match, which had started on a high note, ended the same way. Egged on by the crowd, Houghton’s wards had started raiding the rival area right from the first minute. As India skipper Bhaichung Bhutia and his younger partner Sunil Chettri led a slew of attacks into the Syrian half, they, however, just could not breach the physically-superior rival defence. Bhutia was cautioned by the referee for going down in the 28th minute after a rumble in the Syrian area.The visitors, who had a comparatively quieter outing in the first half, came out all firing in the second part of the match. But the Indian custodian Subrata Pal was at his best as usual and warded off the danger every time the Indian defence went into a momentary lapse. India almost put a lid on the encounter in the 80th minute. Steven Dias played an accurate volley to Chettri in the 18-yard box. But the striker’s header just went off the mark by a whisker.With both the sides exchanging shots at each other’s post regularly, the tie advanced into the extra time. Houghton threw in Rennedy into the battleground in the 100th minute. The senior midfielder proved his coach right when in the 114th minute he landed his free-kick into the Syria net, leaving custodian Mosab Balhous stunned and stands going wild.The winning feeling was yet to sink in when Syria reminded all that it was not yet over. Dyab’s sharp header went zooming past the Indian custodian, Pal, and referee blew the whistle for the end of the extra time. Thrillers don’t get better than this. It was time for the nervous moments of the penalty shootout.Climax Lawrence easily slotted the first ball home. Syria’s Raja Rafe followed suite. The twist of fate then made its presence felt when India’s goal hero Rennedy missed the following spot-kick. Pal made amends for that as he got his hand to Wael Ayan’s shot and the ball went out after hitting the post. Chettri took the lead for India as the Delhi boy calmly lodged the sphere into the net. Then it was time for another master display from Pal. This time Ahmad Haj Muhmad’s shot met with Pal’s left hand and it kissed the crossbar before flying out. Steven Dias had no difficulty in converting the next one.Now, with Syria in a position to lose in case of missing their fourth strike, skipper Balhous took the mantle upon himself. He didn’t break his side’s hopes. India’s Mehrajuddin Wadoo, however, failed to convert which could have been the winning stroke. Abdul Fatah Alaga made no mistake with the fifth one to keep his side in the contention.With the match delicately balanced, Anwar walked towards the goal area to take the first shot in the sudden death. Fans heaved a sigh of relief as the sturdy defender sent Balhous the wrong way and scored.Alattouni’s shot then flew above the woodwork and Houghton’s boys got their third international title in three years. And, this time it wasn’t the customary. “We are the champions” but our very own “Chak De India” to cap a memorable evening.
After both the teams failed to reach a conclusion in the allotted 90 minutes, Rennedy Singh put India ahead in the 114th minute. The crowd had just started the celebrations, when Syria’s Ali Dyab proved them to be premature. He led his side back into the contention in the very last minute of the extra time. With the crowd shocked and the stadium going pin-drop silent, India coach Bob Houghton and his Syrian counterpart Fajer Ebrahim prepared their sides for the penalty shoot-out.Both the sides made sure that the match, which had started on a high note, ended the same way. Egged on by the crowd, Houghton’s wards had started raiding the rival area right from the first minute. As India skipper Bhaichung Bhutia and his younger partner Sunil Chettri led a slew of attacks into the Syrian half, they, however, just could not breach the physically-superior rival defence. Bhutia was cautioned by the referee for going down in the 28th minute after a rumble in the Syrian area.The visitors, who had a comparatively quieter outing in the first half, came out all firing in the second part of the match. But the Indian custodian Subrata Pal was at his best as usual and warded off the danger every time the Indian defence went into a momentary lapse. India almost put a lid on the encounter in the 80th minute. Steven Dias played an accurate volley to Chettri in the 18-yard box. But the striker’s header just went off the mark by a whisker.With both the sides exchanging shots at each other’s post regularly, the tie advanced into the extra time. Houghton threw in Rennedy into the battleground in the 100th minute. The senior midfielder proved his coach right when in the 114th minute he landed his free-kick into the Syria net, leaving custodian Mosab Balhous stunned and stands going wild.The winning feeling was yet to sink in when Syria reminded all that it was not yet over. Dyab’s sharp header went zooming past the Indian custodian, Pal, and referee blew the whistle for the end of the extra time. Thrillers don’t get better than this. It was time for the nervous moments of the penalty shootout.Climax Lawrence easily slotted the first ball home. Syria’s Raja Rafe followed suite. The twist of fate then made its presence felt when India’s goal hero Rennedy missed the following spot-kick. Pal made amends for that as he got his hand to Wael Ayan’s shot and the ball went out after hitting the post. Chettri took the lead for India as the Delhi boy calmly lodged the sphere into the net. Then it was time for another master display from Pal. This time Ahmad Haj Muhmad’s shot met with Pal’s left hand and it kissed the crossbar before flying out. Steven Dias had no difficulty in converting the next one.Now, with Syria in a position to lose in case of missing their fourth strike, skipper Balhous took the mantle upon himself. He didn’t break his side’s hopes. India’s Mehrajuddin Wadoo, however, failed to convert which could have been the winning stroke. Abdul Fatah Alaga made no mistake with the fifth one to keep his side in the contention.With the match delicately balanced, Anwar walked towards the goal area to take the first shot in the sudden death. Fans heaved a sigh of relief as the sturdy defender sent Balhous the wrong way and scored.Alattouni’s shot then flew above the woodwork and Houghton’s boys got their third international title in three years. And, this time it wasn’t the customary. “We are the champions” but our very own “Chak De India” to cap a memorable evening.Football does that you. You chew your nails, you skip a beat and you play havoc with your blood pressure. More so, when the Indian team takes to the ground for an encounter like Nehru Cup final.It wasn’t any different this Monday as well. Emotions were at their wildest best as Syria’s Hamzeh Alattouni missed the penalty and India defended their Nehru Cup title in style. As India triumphed 6-5 over the last edition’s runners-up Syria, fans jumped the barriers and ran onto the field to congratulate their heroes of the day. And, at that moment even the police personnel were rendered helpless.
After both the teams failed to reach a conclusion in the allotted 90 minutes, Rennedy Singh put India ahead in the 114th minute. The crowd had just started the celebrations, when Syria’s Ali Dyab proved them to be premature. He led his side back into the contention in the very last minute of the extra time. With the crowd shocked and the stadium going pin-drop silent, India coach Bob Houghton and his Syrian counterpart Fajer Ebrahim prepared their sides for the penalty shoot-out.Both the sides made sure that the match, which had started on a high note, ended the same way. Egged on by the crowd, Houghton’s wards had started raiding the rival area right from the first minute. As India skipper Bhaichung Bhutia and his younger partner Sunil Chettri led a slew of attacks into the Syrian half, they, however, just could not breach the physically-superior rival defence. Bhutia was cautioned by the referee for going down in the 28th minute after a rumble in the Syrian area.The visitors, who had a comparatively quieter outing in the first half, came out all firing in the second part of the match. But the Indian custodian Subrata Pal was at his best as usual and warded off the danger every time the Indian defence went into a momentary lapse. India almost put a lid on the encounter in the 80th minute. Steven Dias played an accurate volley to Chettri in the 18-yard box. But the striker’s header just went off the mark by a whisker.With both the sides exchanging shots at each other’s post regularly, the tie advanced into the extra time. Houghton threw in Rennedy into the battleground in the 100th minute. The senior midfielder proved his coach right when in the 114th minute he landed his free-kick into the Syria net, leaving custodian Mosab Balhous stunned and stands going wild.The winning feeling was yet to sink in when Syria reminded all that it was not yet over. Dyab’s sharp header went zooming past the Indian custodian, Pal, and referee blew the whistle for the end of the extra time. Thrillers don’t get better than this. It was time for the nervous moments of the penalty shootout.Climax Lawrence easily slotted the first ball home. Syria’s Raja Rafe followed suite. The twist of fate then made its presence felt when India’s goal hero Rennedy missed the following spot-kick. Pal made amends for that as he got his hand to Wael Ayan’s shot and the ball went out after hitting the post. Chettri took the lead for India as the Delhi boy calmly lodged the sphere into the net. Then it was time for another master display from Pal. This time Ahmad Haj Muhmad’s shot met with Pal’s left hand and it kissed the crossbar before flying out. Steven Dias had no difficulty in converting the next one.Now, with Syria in a position to lose in case of missing their fourth strike, skipper Balhous took the mantle upon himself. He didn’t break his side’s hopes. India’s Mehrajuddin Wadoo, however, failed to convert which could have been the winning stroke. Abdul Fatah Alaga made no mistake with the fifth one to keep his side in the contention.With the match delicately balanced, Anwar walked towards the goal area to take the first shot in the sudden death. Fans heaved a sigh of relief as the sturdy defender sent Balhous the wrong way and scored.Alattouni’s shot then flew above the woodwork and Houghton’s boys got their third international title in three years. And, this time it wasn’t the customary. “We are the champions” but our very own “Chak De India” to cap a memorable evening.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Busking on the bridge at Footscray Station.
I'm not much of a poetry guy but i read this poem on the train while goin to a game and absolutely loved it.Its called 'Busking on the bridge at Footscray Station' and its by Peter Davis, a 42 yr old Bus Driver from Sunshine.
The wind rhymes with the sounds of their pants brushing against their legs.
The music must shift to a higher register whenever the diesel trains roar.
And my free to anyone miniature chapbooks of poetry and flute perhaps alter by one second a real hour's beat.
I'll try to hit the bum notes with the same amount of pleasure as the perfectly played ones.
Hit a fast thrill when the coins land.
The most regular givers are the most recently arrived immigrants.
So i wonder, as i play my flute, about the other people who are playing instruments with bare feet on dirty streets for different sounding lands.
With a cloud to guide each note,
With a train track in my throat.
The wind rhymes with the sounds of their pants brushing against their legs.
The music must shift to a higher register whenever the diesel trains roar.
And my free to anyone miniature chapbooks of poetry and flute perhaps alter by one second a real hour's beat.
I'll try to hit the bum notes with the same amount of pleasure as the perfectly played ones.
Hit a fast thrill when the coins land.
The most regular givers are the most recently arrived immigrants.
So i wonder, as i play my flute, about the other people who are playing instruments with bare feet on dirty streets for different sounding lands.
With a cloud to guide each note,
With a train track in my throat.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Lady Luck screwed us!
Yesterday was one of the unluckiest days in the history of Monash Gryphons.An away game against Kensington city- the team that's ranked second in the league.And we were on a high after a 4 game winning streak.We stated well but as i said lady luck screwed us.A simple lobbed ball by the opposition was carried over our keeper Alfred by the wind into the goal and it was 1-0 and the first half finished that way. We started the second half well and i think 20 mins into the second half a corner was handled by the opposition in the box and there it was;a penalty was awarded to r team.Mickey, the south african, stepped up to take the penalty and as he had scored a penalty in the previous game the team was confident. But may the keeper burn in hell for this but he stretched to the right and saved. A couple of minutes after that incident, our defenders were out numbered by the attackers on a counter attack and Alfred was caught out once again and it was 2-0. We started pressing for a goal again n a couple of mins later a pass from Vernon to Arthur was crossed in and guess who was there to receive it?Mickey tapped it in and it was 2-1 and it was game on for us. Rejuvinated by the goal we kept pressin for the equaliser.Approx. 3 mins from the end a ball cleared from the opposition box rolled towards the half line and Mark, our centre back, attempted a screamer from the half line and by the looks of it, it was destined to be in the back of the net but screw the keeper, he got his finger tips to the ball and the ball hit the post and out. The final whistle was blown and we were left wondering what would have been if Lady Luck would have been on our side. There goes our four game winning streak down the crapper and next week we start again away against Swinburne.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Got a NEW TATTOO!
Got a new tattoo!!It somehow makes me feel better.Dont kno what it does but i just feel better.I decide to get a tattoo a month ago.i actually worked hard for the first time to earn cash to get the tattoo.M not gonna disclose the amount as itz a subject of great controversy but i tell ya it was all worth it!Finally on the 4th of August, I went to TATTOO MAGIC and 3 hrs of tattooing later Caleb from NZ put the final touches on the face of Buddha and there she was the beauty that i dreamed of all those nights.Itz been almost 3 weeks now n she looks beautiful!check her out!
The slow rise of Indian Football
The slow rise of Indian football
By Jesse Fink
While Manchester United was shellacking Hangzhou Greentown and Liverpool was putting Singapore to the sword in two grossly mismatched encounters this week in Asia, a far more interesting assignment involving an Asian team was taking place in Catalonia, Spain: Spanish third-division club Unió Esportiva Castelldefels versus India at the Estadi La Bóbila de Gava.India? In Spain?It's rare enough to even hear of any Indian football match, let alone one taking place in Europe, but this is a football nation that is aggressively trying to shed the weight of its oppressive history on and off the park. Oppressive because this country of 1.1 billion people, one of the fastest growing economies on earth, hasn't qualified for a World Cup since 1950. And it didn't even turn up for that event because at the time some of the national-team players preferred, believe it or not, playing without boots. FIFA wouldn't have it and so India withdrew from the tournament in Brazil. IndianFootball.com, the premier Indian football site on the web, gives a good account of the Catalonia match, admitting India "were having difficulty" coping with the "polished Spanish football" from the "taller and stronger" Castelldefels players but they surprisingly opened the scoring in the 24th minute through a long-range strike from Surkumar Singh and only conceded in the second half through a penalty to the home side. Not a bad effort for a team playing its first practice match of the year, even if the opposition wasn't the best team in Barcelona. Much more than the result, however, the game speaks volumes for India's ambition to get better at football, a sport that has a long and illustrious history on the subcontinent (as far back as the 1850s) but appears to have not seized the imagination of the public in the way cricket has. The truth is, though, football is wildly popular in India. It's just that Indian football isn't. Starry-eyed kids and the upwardly mobile middle class, as elsewhere in Asia, favour watching and supporting teams such as Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester United over the likes of Dempo, Mohun Bagan and Pune. European football is not only of a high standard, it is aspirational. Indian football is neither - and it has the added misfortune of being compared to Indian cricket, which boasts arguably the most exciting players in the world who are paid sums of money even staggering by the standards of professional sportsmen in the West. If you were a kid in Mumbai or Kolkata with some athletic talent and a desire to own a fast car and marry a Bollywood actress, what would you choose? It's a no-brainer. That is just part of the problem. The other is an unwieldy football bureaucracy that you would expect of a nation made up of 35 states or territories covering over three million square kilometres. But that is slowly being dismantled and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is currently in the process of overhaul, calling for new blood in the key positions of AIFF secretary-general I-League (the Indian domestic competition) chief executive. One of the secretary-general candidates, Goa Football Association secretary Savio Messias, says a World Cup is unrealistic. "Let us accept the ground realities. We can't dream of playing in the World Cup. We have to go step by step, think of Asia first and then the world."He may have a point.Until it qualified for Qatar 2011, India hadn't qualified for an Asian Cup since 1984 and it does seem a logical place to start. But, even still, a World Cup is not an impossible dream. Qualifying for the biggest sporting event on earth might be decades away, but who thought India would be the power in cricket it is today when for two decades between 1932 and 1952 it couldn't win a Test against England? Now, 50 years on, India virtually runs the sport. If the 21st century is India's to own, which on all the evidence at hand it appears to be, football has to be part of that story. It's time to write a new chapter.
By Jesse Fink
While Manchester United was shellacking Hangzhou Greentown and Liverpool was putting Singapore to the sword in two grossly mismatched encounters this week in Asia, a far more interesting assignment involving an Asian team was taking place in Catalonia, Spain: Spanish third-division club Unió Esportiva Castelldefels versus India at the Estadi La Bóbila de Gava.India? In Spain?It's rare enough to even hear of any Indian football match, let alone one taking place in Europe, but this is a football nation that is aggressively trying to shed the weight of its oppressive history on and off the park. Oppressive because this country of 1.1 billion people, one of the fastest growing economies on earth, hasn't qualified for a World Cup since 1950. And it didn't even turn up for that event because at the time some of the national-team players preferred, believe it or not, playing without boots. FIFA wouldn't have it and so India withdrew from the tournament in Brazil. IndianFootball.com, the premier Indian football site on the web, gives a good account of the Catalonia match, admitting India "were having difficulty" coping with the "polished Spanish football" from the "taller and stronger" Castelldefels players but they surprisingly opened the scoring in the 24th minute through a long-range strike from Surkumar Singh and only conceded in the second half through a penalty to the home side. Not a bad effort for a team playing its first practice match of the year, even if the opposition wasn't the best team in Barcelona. Much more than the result, however, the game speaks volumes for India's ambition to get better at football, a sport that has a long and illustrious history on the subcontinent (as far back as the 1850s) but appears to have not seized the imagination of the public in the way cricket has. The truth is, though, football is wildly popular in India. It's just that Indian football isn't. Starry-eyed kids and the upwardly mobile middle class, as elsewhere in Asia, favour watching and supporting teams such as Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester United over the likes of Dempo, Mohun Bagan and Pune. European football is not only of a high standard, it is aspirational. Indian football is neither - and it has the added misfortune of being compared to Indian cricket, which boasts arguably the most exciting players in the world who are paid sums of money even staggering by the standards of professional sportsmen in the West. If you were a kid in Mumbai or Kolkata with some athletic talent and a desire to own a fast car and marry a Bollywood actress, what would you choose? It's a no-brainer. That is just part of the problem. The other is an unwieldy football bureaucracy that you would expect of a nation made up of 35 states or territories covering over three million square kilometres. But that is slowly being dismantled and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is currently in the process of overhaul, calling for new blood in the key positions of AIFF secretary-general I-League (the Indian domestic competition) chief executive. One of the secretary-general candidates, Goa Football Association secretary Savio Messias, says a World Cup is unrealistic. "Let us accept the ground realities. We can't dream of playing in the World Cup. We have to go step by step, think of Asia first and then the world."He may have a point.Until it qualified for Qatar 2011, India hadn't qualified for an Asian Cup since 1984 and it does seem a logical place to start. But, even still, a World Cup is not an impossible dream. Qualifying for the biggest sporting event on earth might be decades away, but who thought India would be the power in cricket it is today when for two decades between 1932 and 1952 it couldn't win a Test against England? Now, 50 years on, India virtually runs the sport. If the 21st century is India's to own, which on all the evidence at hand it appears to be, football has to be part of that story. It's time to write a new chapter.
The Mystery of Indian Football
India is vast, fast developing and passionate about the game. So why, Titus Chalk asks, has no Indian player made his mark in Europe?
Originally published in issue 35 of Champions, the official magazine of the UEFA Champions League.The UEFA Champions League is missing something. There are 1.2 billion Indians. Four million of them (or their descendants) live in Europe. Yet no Indian footballer has featured in the competition, let alone in its showpiece final.It's not that India lacks passion. In May last year, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn made his farewell appearance for Bayern Munich in front of an ecstatic 125,000-strong crowd - not at the club's own ground (which holds nearly 70,000) but at the home of Mohun Bagan in Kolkata, India. In the same city, last December, 50,000 locals cheered Diego Maradona's regal progress from the airport. And the cumulative TV audience for the 2006 World Cup in India - 675 million - was on a par with the country's most popular soaps.Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Garth Crooks told Champions: "That crowd! The potential! It's absolutely extraordinary." Crooks visited India in 2007 to represent FIFA at the opening of India's first fully professional national league, the I-League. "Sepp Blatter is right to have one eye firmly on India," he says.India's mission is to climb the world rankings from 144th to a berth more befitting a country with the world's second-largest population where clubs battle over two of football's oldest trophies. No easy task. But Japan, South Korea and the USA have all proved that concerted long-term development can pay off. Leading the charge for India's national side is head coach Bob Houghton, who surprised Europe by steering Malmö to the 1979 European Cup final. "Every boy in that side was from Malmö," he points out. "There's only 300,000 people there, so it shows Sweden got the development right."?This time, Houghton must work miracles in a vast country with a Byzantine bureaucracy, a clogged domestic calendar, and 28 states focusing on their local competitions. He knows the national side's fate will be shaped by the new I-League, so he lobbied successfully for its players to be spared midweek games in state-level competitions. "The I-League has to be the engine," he says. "It's improved a lot in two-and-a-half years. We're bringing club coaches together regularly, and when we next meet, we'll get someone in from overseas so our coaches get fresh ideas. That's where we can help the most."German-born journalist Arunava Chaudhuri, founder of the respected website IndianFootball.Com, says: "Bob has been given a mission to change Indian football and the players love him. He's had a lot of experience and success across continents in the last 30 years, and he really shows what you can achieve with a high-profile manager."His achievements? In August, Houghton led India to victory in the AFC Challenge Cup and qualified for the Asian Cup finals for the first time since 1984. The Asian Cup is a traditional proving ground for emerging football nations in this part of the world. "It was the culmination of a lot of hard work," says Houghton. "I hope it's a catalyst for our players to work hard, get fitter and be better."Crooks says: "Houghton doesn't strike me as someone who's there for the short term. He was attracted by the potential talent and India's passion for football."Chaudhuri, who watched Kahn's farewell in Kolkata, knows this passion may attract recession-hit European clubs intrigued by a lucrative business opportunity. "In the past year, European clubs have realised India is a huge market. The success of Indian Premier League cricket helped. When they saw it could raise £1.1bn (€1.2bn) out of the blue, they knew there was something in India for football, too."Some fear that England's Premiership sides, ever on the commercial front foot, see a territory ripe for exploitation. As Chaudhuri says: "Whoever finds the Indian David Beckham will be sitting on a gold mine." Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton have sent scouts, run training days and tournaments, and mulled over football development centres to find - and nurture - the best among the 20-million Indians who play the game competitively. But how deeply are European clubs committed to improving Indian football?Houghton is sceptical. "In October 2007, Manchester United had 5,000 kids in the Nehru Stadium in Goa to select eleven boys to go to Manchester for a week's training. It was horrendous. They were all believing they'd end up playing for United after three days of judgement. That sort of marketing is in nobody's interest."Crooks says it is a question of give and take: "If you're going to compete with cricket [in India], having Premier League clubs generating enthusiasm has to be a good thing. But clubs may tap into the talent and deprive the Indian public of seeing that talent develop on home soil. It would be wrong for a club not to put something back into India if they feel they can take a large financial payday from here.""It's every club's right to showcase themselves in India," says Piara Powar, director of anti-racism group Kick It Out. "But to be effective they need middle- to long-term commitment." For Chaudhuri that means: "Not three years, not five years, but ten years to get a return on investment. If clubs come and play in India, they must leave a legacy."That's not to say he's against Indian players moving abroad. "We have talent at junior level that needs to go to Europe to be taken to the next level," argues Chaudhuri. Tellingly, he reveals: "Last summer, young players in the national side were offered contracts in Portugal but didn't take them. They were offered less money to play in Portugal's second division than they get in India."Bayern are a better advert for European involvement. After Kahn's farewell, the club's head of international affairs Martin Hägele said: "On our way home, we decided on long-term involvement in India. We had an offer from the West Bengal government to build up a football school. We will consult on how to build a small stadium, pitches and a football school with the philosophy of our Bayern Munich school." Last November, club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge flew to India to sign the deal. "We're not there to sell shirts," says Hägele. "We want to show young Indian people that our know-how and coaching experience can create something new in Indian football, and you can only do that if you start with the basics, with the very young guys."In China and South Korea, the success of local players in Europe has ignited interest in football. But there are very few Indians or Europeans of Indian descent in Europe's top leagues. Chaudhuri says: "Clubs, especially in England, have to work in their own back yard to get players of Indian origin to the standard required to market themselves in India."Why England especially? Because the country has 1.6m Indian-British people, roughly 40% of Europe's ethnic-Indian population. Yet there are only four or five professional players of Indian heritage in English leagues. "England is a real problem," admits former France star Vikash Dhorasoo, an Indo-Mauritian. "I've been to Asian schools to see the kids, and they love football. They play and they're good. I didn't see why they couldn't become professionals." The people Champions spoke to identified three reasons: racial stereotyping, cultural pressure, and a lack of grassroots professional structures. Netan Sansara, a 19-year-old left-back at first-division club Walsall, said: "I used to get called 'Paki' - even by my own team." Powar says this is "quite a common experience" for young Asian footballers.Racism is especially insidious when it comes to talent spotting. Kuljit Randhawa, founder of grassroots organisation the Asian Football Network, says: "It's good that scouts are going to India to look for talent, but they should look closer to home. West Ham has 250,000 Asians living next to it. The talent is there, we see it every weekend, but those players aren't being approached."Pakistan central defender Zesh Rehman, the first British Asian to play in the Premiership, agrees. "I don't think [being an Asian kid] is a barrier if you are good enough. It doesn't help that there are no Asian role models - kids need someone to aspire to being. We need more scouts to look at the players. The talent is out there, it just needs to be seen.""The game's not doing enough to educate scouts and coaches," says Powar. "If you had a white, a black, and an Asian player in front of you, all equally talented, the Asian player would be the first to go. Talent doesn't always win through." This reinforces the dim view of the game held by England's Indian community. Sansara says: "Some of my family on my mum's side ask if I'm working, and I say: 'Yes, I'm a footballer.' They just look at me and say: 'Isn't that just for the weekends?'""Asian families are very aspirational, like most immigrant populations," says Powar. "They see education as the means of moving on, so there's been reluctance to offer kids to the academy system. They can't see a career path at the end of it.""I understand why insularity exists in the community," says Crooks. "They have to break that open. When you've got some of the best kids in Europe coming through at 18, you realise Asian kids need to be playing not just at school, but at county level and in the academies." The key, Randhawa says, is at the grassroots: "We weren't seeing a progression from the age of 16. Asians were setting up teams, but often the standard of coach education was poor. And they might not know how to turn their teams semi- or fully professional. This is the biggest barrier to getting Asians into football."So when will we see Indian players starring in a Champions League final? "I'll be mortified if someone doesn't come through in the next ten years," says Crooks. "I want to see top players from India making the same impact as in cricket.""It would be a dream come true," says Chaudhuri, who cites PSV as a salutary example. "When the South Koreans Ji-Sung Park and Lee Young-Pyo came in, everyone said, 'What's Guus Hiddink doing?' They proved themselves. I really hope we see players of Indian origin, born in India or elsewhere, at the highest level. If that happens, Indian football will go forward in leaps and bounds."?A Bhoy in bandagesIndia has a long tradition of playing barefoot. The Mohun side that helped end British rule in India wore no boots. And in 1950, footwear scuppered India's one brush with the World Cup. Invited by Brazil after other teams had dropped out, they opted out on cost grounds, though FIFA's boots-only rule may have deterred them. They have failed to qualify since.But in 1937, Mohammed Abdul Salim proved bare feet could compete when he played for Celtic not in boots but bandages. After his second match, a 7-1 thrashing of Galston, he was dubbed the Indian Juggler. The Daily Mail noted: "He balances the ball on his big toe, lets it run down the scale to his little toe, twirls it, and hops on one foot round the defender."Salim caught the eye at Mohammedan Sporting in Bengal, where he won the Calcutta league in 1936. Selected for two national friendlies against a Chinese Olympic XI, he played the first match and vanished before the second - prompting a police search.He told them a friend had convinced him to try his luck in Britain, so he'd taken the next ship. His friend knocked on the door of Celtic manager Willie Maley and announced: "A great player from India has come by ship." International transfers were less complicated in those days.Beef eaters v Bengalis? The clash that shaped Indian footballFootball flourished when the British brought it to the Raj in the 19th century, - especially in West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. By the 1870s, British army teams and local clubs were burgeoning, and in 1888, India's foreign secretary Sir Mortimer Durand established the Durand Cup - the game's third-oldest competition after the FA Cup and Scottish Cup. But 120 years later, India is not even one of the 100 best footballing nations. What happened?Nationalist politics in India became entwined with football in 1909 when a Bengali side, Mohun Bagan, were finally allowed to compete in the IFA Shield. In 1911, they faced the East Yorkshire Regiment in the final. Special trains, trams and steamboats were needed to transport local fans, and one magazine set up a temporary telephone exchange to relay the result across Bengal. When Mohun won 2-1, thrilled columnist Nayak wrote: "It fills every Indian with joy and pride to know that rice-eating, malarial-ridden, barefooted Bengalis have got the better of beef-eating, Herculean booted John Bull in the peculiarly English sport."Legend has it that after the match, someone pointed to a Union Jack and asked when it would come down. "When Mohun win the shield again," came the reply. The club next won the trophy in 1947, the year of Indian independence.The steady shift of power away from the British was matched by India's gains on the pitch, yet football never became the nation's favourite game. Why? In The Ball is Round, David Goldblatt says India was reluctant to play football against poor neighbouring teams - and that cricket, far more suited to a country dominated by its caste system, gave the new nation a chance to test itself against the Commonwealth.
Originally published in issue 35 of Champions, the official magazine of the UEFA Champions League.The UEFA Champions League is missing something. There are 1.2 billion Indians. Four million of them (or their descendants) live in Europe. Yet no Indian footballer has featured in the competition, let alone in its showpiece final.It's not that India lacks passion. In May last year, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn made his farewell appearance for Bayern Munich in front of an ecstatic 125,000-strong crowd - not at the club's own ground (which holds nearly 70,000) but at the home of Mohun Bagan in Kolkata, India. In the same city, last December, 50,000 locals cheered Diego Maradona's regal progress from the airport. And the cumulative TV audience for the 2006 World Cup in India - 675 million - was on a par with the country's most popular soaps.Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Garth Crooks told Champions: "That crowd! The potential! It's absolutely extraordinary." Crooks visited India in 2007 to represent FIFA at the opening of India's first fully professional national league, the I-League. "Sepp Blatter is right to have one eye firmly on India," he says.India's mission is to climb the world rankings from 144th to a berth more befitting a country with the world's second-largest population where clubs battle over two of football's oldest trophies. No easy task. But Japan, South Korea and the USA have all proved that concerted long-term development can pay off. Leading the charge for India's national side is head coach Bob Houghton, who surprised Europe by steering Malmö to the 1979 European Cup final. "Every boy in that side was from Malmö," he points out. "There's only 300,000 people there, so it shows Sweden got the development right."?This time, Houghton must work miracles in a vast country with a Byzantine bureaucracy, a clogged domestic calendar, and 28 states focusing on their local competitions. He knows the national side's fate will be shaped by the new I-League, so he lobbied successfully for its players to be spared midweek games in state-level competitions. "The I-League has to be the engine," he says. "It's improved a lot in two-and-a-half years. We're bringing club coaches together regularly, and when we next meet, we'll get someone in from overseas so our coaches get fresh ideas. That's where we can help the most."German-born journalist Arunava Chaudhuri, founder of the respected website IndianFootball.Com, says: "Bob has been given a mission to change Indian football and the players love him. He's had a lot of experience and success across continents in the last 30 years, and he really shows what you can achieve with a high-profile manager."His achievements? In August, Houghton led India to victory in the AFC Challenge Cup and qualified for the Asian Cup finals for the first time since 1984. The Asian Cup is a traditional proving ground for emerging football nations in this part of the world. "It was the culmination of a lot of hard work," says Houghton. "I hope it's a catalyst for our players to work hard, get fitter and be better."Crooks says: "Houghton doesn't strike me as someone who's there for the short term. He was attracted by the potential talent and India's passion for football."Chaudhuri, who watched Kahn's farewell in Kolkata, knows this passion may attract recession-hit European clubs intrigued by a lucrative business opportunity. "In the past year, European clubs have realised India is a huge market. The success of Indian Premier League cricket helped. When they saw it could raise £1.1bn (€1.2bn) out of the blue, they knew there was something in India for football, too."Some fear that England's Premiership sides, ever on the commercial front foot, see a territory ripe for exploitation. As Chaudhuri says: "Whoever finds the Indian David Beckham will be sitting on a gold mine." Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton have sent scouts, run training days and tournaments, and mulled over football development centres to find - and nurture - the best among the 20-million Indians who play the game competitively. But how deeply are European clubs committed to improving Indian football?Houghton is sceptical. "In October 2007, Manchester United had 5,000 kids in the Nehru Stadium in Goa to select eleven boys to go to Manchester for a week's training. It was horrendous. They were all believing they'd end up playing for United after three days of judgement. That sort of marketing is in nobody's interest."Crooks says it is a question of give and take: "If you're going to compete with cricket [in India], having Premier League clubs generating enthusiasm has to be a good thing. But clubs may tap into the talent and deprive the Indian public of seeing that talent develop on home soil. It would be wrong for a club not to put something back into India if they feel they can take a large financial payday from here.""It's every club's right to showcase themselves in India," says Piara Powar, director of anti-racism group Kick It Out. "But to be effective they need middle- to long-term commitment." For Chaudhuri that means: "Not three years, not five years, but ten years to get a return on investment. If clubs come and play in India, they must leave a legacy."That's not to say he's against Indian players moving abroad. "We have talent at junior level that needs to go to Europe to be taken to the next level," argues Chaudhuri. Tellingly, he reveals: "Last summer, young players in the national side were offered contracts in Portugal but didn't take them. They were offered less money to play in Portugal's second division than they get in India."Bayern are a better advert for European involvement. After Kahn's farewell, the club's head of international affairs Martin Hägele said: "On our way home, we decided on long-term involvement in India. We had an offer from the West Bengal government to build up a football school. We will consult on how to build a small stadium, pitches and a football school with the philosophy of our Bayern Munich school." Last November, club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge flew to India to sign the deal. "We're not there to sell shirts," says Hägele. "We want to show young Indian people that our know-how and coaching experience can create something new in Indian football, and you can only do that if you start with the basics, with the very young guys."In China and South Korea, the success of local players in Europe has ignited interest in football. But there are very few Indians or Europeans of Indian descent in Europe's top leagues. Chaudhuri says: "Clubs, especially in England, have to work in their own back yard to get players of Indian origin to the standard required to market themselves in India."Why England especially? Because the country has 1.6m Indian-British people, roughly 40% of Europe's ethnic-Indian population. Yet there are only four or five professional players of Indian heritage in English leagues. "England is a real problem," admits former France star Vikash Dhorasoo, an Indo-Mauritian. "I've been to Asian schools to see the kids, and they love football. They play and they're good. I didn't see why they couldn't become professionals." The people Champions spoke to identified three reasons: racial stereotyping, cultural pressure, and a lack of grassroots professional structures. Netan Sansara, a 19-year-old left-back at first-division club Walsall, said: "I used to get called 'Paki' - even by my own team." Powar says this is "quite a common experience" for young Asian footballers.Racism is especially insidious when it comes to talent spotting. Kuljit Randhawa, founder of grassroots organisation the Asian Football Network, says: "It's good that scouts are going to India to look for talent, but they should look closer to home. West Ham has 250,000 Asians living next to it. The talent is there, we see it every weekend, but those players aren't being approached."Pakistan central defender Zesh Rehman, the first British Asian to play in the Premiership, agrees. "I don't think [being an Asian kid] is a barrier if you are good enough. It doesn't help that there are no Asian role models - kids need someone to aspire to being. We need more scouts to look at the players. The talent is out there, it just needs to be seen.""The game's not doing enough to educate scouts and coaches," says Powar. "If you had a white, a black, and an Asian player in front of you, all equally talented, the Asian player would be the first to go. Talent doesn't always win through." This reinforces the dim view of the game held by England's Indian community. Sansara says: "Some of my family on my mum's side ask if I'm working, and I say: 'Yes, I'm a footballer.' They just look at me and say: 'Isn't that just for the weekends?'""Asian families are very aspirational, like most immigrant populations," says Powar. "They see education as the means of moving on, so there's been reluctance to offer kids to the academy system. They can't see a career path at the end of it.""I understand why insularity exists in the community," says Crooks. "They have to break that open. When you've got some of the best kids in Europe coming through at 18, you realise Asian kids need to be playing not just at school, but at county level and in the academies." The key, Randhawa says, is at the grassroots: "We weren't seeing a progression from the age of 16. Asians were setting up teams, but often the standard of coach education was poor. And they might not know how to turn their teams semi- or fully professional. This is the biggest barrier to getting Asians into football."So when will we see Indian players starring in a Champions League final? "I'll be mortified if someone doesn't come through in the next ten years," says Crooks. "I want to see top players from India making the same impact as in cricket.""It would be a dream come true," says Chaudhuri, who cites PSV as a salutary example. "When the South Koreans Ji-Sung Park and Lee Young-Pyo came in, everyone said, 'What's Guus Hiddink doing?' They proved themselves. I really hope we see players of Indian origin, born in India or elsewhere, at the highest level. If that happens, Indian football will go forward in leaps and bounds."?A Bhoy in bandagesIndia has a long tradition of playing barefoot. The Mohun side that helped end British rule in India wore no boots. And in 1950, footwear scuppered India's one brush with the World Cup. Invited by Brazil after other teams had dropped out, they opted out on cost grounds, though FIFA's boots-only rule may have deterred them. They have failed to qualify since.But in 1937, Mohammed Abdul Salim proved bare feet could compete when he played for Celtic not in boots but bandages. After his second match, a 7-1 thrashing of Galston, he was dubbed the Indian Juggler. The Daily Mail noted: "He balances the ball on his big toe, lets it run down the scale to his little toe, twirls it, and hops on one foot round the defender."Salim caught the eye at Mohammedan Sporting in Bengal, where he won the Calcutta league in 1936. Selected for two national friendlies against a Chinese Olympic XI, he played the first match and vanished before the second - prompting a police search.He told them a friend had convinced him to try his luck in Britain, so he'd taken the next ship. His friend knocked on the door of Celtic manager Willie Maley and announced: "A great player from India has come by ship." International transfers were less complicated in those days.Beef eaters v Bengalis? The clash that shaped Indian footballFootball flourished when the British brought it to the Raj in the 19th century, - especially in West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. By the 1870s, British army teams and local clubs were burgeoning, and in 1888, India's foreign secretary Sir Mortimer Durand established the Durand Cup - the game's third-oldest competition after the FA Cup and Scottish Cup. But 120 years later, India is not even one of the 100 best footballing nations. What happened?Nationalist politics in India became entwined with football in 1909 when a Bengali side, Mohun Bagan, were finally allowed to compete in the IFA Shield. In 1911, they faced the East Yorkshire Regiment in the final. Special trains, trams and steamboats were needed to transport local fans, and one magazine set up a temporary telephone exchange to relay the result across Bengal. When Mohun won 2-1, thrilled columnist Nayak wrote: "It fills every Indian with joy and pride to know that rice-eating, malarial-ridden, barefooted Bengalis have got the better of beef-eating, Herculean booted John Bull in the peculiarly English sport."Legend has it that after the match, someone pointed to a Union Jack and asked when it would come down. "When Mohun win the shield again," came the reply. The club next won the trophy in 1947, the year of Indian independence.The steady shift of power away from the British was matched by India's gains on the pitch, yet football never became the nation's favourite game. Why? In The Ball is Round, David Goldblatt says India was reluctant to play football against poor neighbouring teams - and that cricket, far more suited to a country dominated by its caste system, gave the new nation a chance to test itself against the Commonwealth.
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