Lemon juice, Chhetri and Amirican futbal

Friday must have been astonishingly a great day for Sunil Chhetri. For us in India, I am sure, we will be keeping a tab on Kansas City Wizards in the coming days. Just like we did for Baichung Bhutia almost a decade back when he had turned out for Bury FC in England.

A day after this significant move by Chhetri to MLS, here comes a stunner from Delhi where Chhetri was born, brought up and made his debut with City Club. I took a stroll down the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and landed up at the Ambedkar Stadium where two local teams (New Delhi Heroes and Simla Youngs) were engaged in a I-League second division match. I thought the local association (DSA) would be all geared-up to cash in on the good news.

Let me recount the step by step account of what transpired on the Saturday afternoon at the Ambedkar Stadium, a day after Chhetri was officially presented by KCW in MLS.

On the dais, I found some DSA and some club officials caught up with some mundane discussions. One of them requested me to pull a chair and take a seat. Firmly ensconced, I began to observe them and their football talk. In the meanwhile, some more officials huddled near the VIP stand. Their eyes were fixed on the match. Down the dusty and uncleaned stairs, I noticed a top DSA official chatting with a laptop-wielded journalist.

After the discussion got over, he lifted his ageing body and he took a slow walk towards the VIP box. Then he shook hands with me and asked if I would require some refreshments. I said: "A lemon juice would quench my thirst." Then he sat in the middle of his trusted comrades and started to scribble on a piece of paper. I took a chance and asked him what he was writing. "Nothing," he smiled. The usual pen and paper work so ideally suited for these DSA officials. I wondered, if DSA was planning to do something for Chhetri’s achievement.

Enjoying the action on the field, none of these officials however had Chhetri on their mind. I don't know whether it was their pretension. Or if they hadn't browsed through the morning newspaper. Maybe, they are more keen on publishing their own DSA-centric events. So I guess they must have ignored the Delhi boy's tie-up with Kansas City Wizards in the MLS.

Do they know David Beckham also play in MLS? Hmmm. Wait. Wait. Next time, I plan to throw a question at them: What does MLS stands for? I'm sure they would say "Amirican football." But I promise, I won't laugh. No matter how much you make an effort to teach them, these officials want to stay in the unknowing world.

Let me recount another hilarious incident. The I-League second division got inaugurated by a pot-bellied Delhi cop who tried his best to show his footballing skill by whacking the ball. You can expect such drab and dull inauguration with DSA. Still you cannot blame them because apparently it all happened in the presence of a newly appointed I-League CEO and a couple of other All India Football Federation (AIFF) officials. They too sipped the lemony juice alongwith me. Even munched some biscuits with good quality tea. Yet they lacked the qualitative idea on the promotion of Delhi soccer. They could have cash in on Chhetri’s joining a MLS team with congratulatory message spread all over the ground with his pictures (I hope they have them).

Alas, there were only lemon juice, tea and biscuits. Even Chhetri would laugh if he were told about this story.

Indian Football vs Indian Hockey

Twice I had to dump the idea of going to the refurbished National Stadium to watch a World Cup. I was a tad disappointed. Not because I couldn't watch a single World Cup game at home but Indian team's early ouster was highly discouraging. I wanted to watch Jose Brasa-trained Indian team. I wanted to follow another national team coached by a foreigner. Post World Cup, the media has done lot of incisive and indepth reasoning behind Indian team's failure in the World Cup. But apart from the technical aspect, none of the writers wrote about the ground realities.

Look at Australia. Just a couple of years back we shown the door to Aussie Ric Charlesworth. Back at the helm as Australia's chief coach, this man has produced some outstanding result. Here we made a mistake. We should have allowed the expert (Ric) to do his duty as Indian hockey's chief advisor. He would have done a decent job, I am sure. Here the Indian hockey administrators made a huge mistake.

Lot of people ask me the difference between Indian hockey and Indian football. Well, I tell them that Indian football has a structure in place unlike hockey. Soccer is played in schools, colleges and universities. In the gullies, in parks. There are so many national age-group football events organised by AIFF or even by state associations and academies. Many would still argue that in hockey you need astro-turfs while it is easy to kick a football on any pitch. But then given the presence of quite a number of astro-turfs, how many national events have been organised by our hockey federation. I remember, I saw a tattered astro-turf the last time I had visited SAI Centre in Calcutta.

Soccer has flourished in India because there is a definite plan. But above all, every affiliated unit is answerable to FIFA who has a strict guideline pertaining to soccer promotion. It doesn't happen with FIH. In India, we have bungled everything. From resources to grassroot programmes and even our national championships. Besides, the faction war within the hockey administration and a myopic vision were enough to strangle India's national sport.

Now contrast this with football. Though Indian football team hasn't played in a single World Cup (I'm not going into the comparison with hockey and even with cricket World Cups because the qualification process in football is quite tough) even then I would say the game has got a well set-up plan. I am not sure if Brasa would be continued after Indian team's eighth position finish in World Cup. But if the Spaniard is asked to go, then Indian hockey would again go down the drain. Look at Indian football. We have reposed faith on Bob Houghton ever since he has joined in 2006. That's quite a good idea if you consider the long-term plan. The U-16 and U-19 teams are groomed by yet another revered coach Colin Toal. Houghton has been able to create a supply line which I guess augurs well for the future senior teams.