He never shied away from experimentation as he never wanted his teams to
play tedious drawn games. In his own words, ‘the beautiful game must look
attractive and beautiful’ — Beyond the
Goal.
It’s been a year since Amal Dutta passed away. Above somewhere, he must
be drawing some sketches on team formation.
Four summers ago, I had met him for the last time at his Baguihati
residence in Kolkata to compile one chapter for my book.
"For me, a football team is like a society. Everyone must contribute to
its development. The Diamond System was aimed at utilising each and every
player when they attacked," Amalda explained his philosophy during that
three-hour conversation.
He was the Euclid of Indian football, but also possessed a vast
knowledge on literature, physiology and music.
Amalda understood the sport’s drawback in the country, but the people
weren’t interested to listen to him. Maybe, they couldn’t fathom his ideas and
formations, which were way ahead of his time.
His Diamond System with Mohun Bagan in 1997 made him even more famous and immediately hailed as a genuine thinker of formations and football ideologies.
“I derived the idea from Total Football. If everybody contributes with
some earnings in a family, it’ll not only grow, but strengthened. You just
can’t depend on a single person’s earnings to run a family,” he explained.
A caring coach, who instilled confidence in his players, he groomed
young players from the scratch just the way Achyut Banerjee, Bagha Shome or Sir
Dukhiram did before him.
I still remember when he patted and tamed the highly temperamental Chima Okorie after the Nigerian broke into tears following Bagan’s 1-3 defeat against FC Kochin in the 1997 Durand Cup final at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium.
After his era was over, most Kolkata teams discarded few good home grown
tacticians and opted for foreigners.
This season, the clubs may have reposed faith in the Indian coaches, but
probably they’ve already damaged the sport and also careers of some promising
footballers.
Amalda wasn’t used properly in the Indian football setup. After the 1986
Nehru Cup, he was never recalled to the national team.
The AIFF, which always depended on borrowed ideas, dumped him and never gave
him any coaching assignments.
He was the perfect guru, who could’ve guided India’s grass-root
programmes but the federation ignored him due to his straight-forward and curt
remarks.
They didn’t let him excel at the national level, but he cared less of
their approval because his innovations always sparkled like a diamond.
