India was the first Asian country to qualify for the semi-finals of the Olympic Games football tournament. Striker Neville D’Souza was the first Asian to notch a hat-trick in Olympic soccer. These incredible feats were achieved during the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. India is also the first country to win the Asian Games football gold in 1951 when the inaugural event was held in Delhi. India repeated the gold medal-winning feat in 1962 at Jakarta. The national team was the runner-up in the 1964 Asia Cup and bagged the bronze in the 1970 Asian Games at Bangkok. In the Junior Asia Cup, India was joint-winners with Iran in 1978.
India entered the World Cup in 1950 when Brazil hosted it. But due to various problems, mainly travel and finance, India withdrew and did not participate. Had India participated, Indian soccer might well have had an entirely different history. That was because the soccer team which played in the 1948 Olympic Games soccer tournament in London had some truly outstanding players. Sweden won the gold while Denmark won the bronze putting it across hosts Great Britain 5-3 in the third-place play-off.
Many top British, Italian, Portugese and French defence teams came to India to participate in tournaments like the Durand cup (Delhi), the Rovers Cup (Bombay) and the IFA Shield (Calcutta), some of India’s top clubs, specially in Bombay like Western India Automobile Association XI (WIAA XI), South Indian XI, Tatas, Caltex etc.
Bangalore clubs like Bang-alore Blues and Bangalore Muslims produced players of sheer class and quality. So much so that goalkeeper KV Varadaraj, SA Basheer, B N Vajravelu, (the Stanley Mathews of India) Dhanraj, Sarangapani Raman and Ahmad Khan (The snake-charmer) hailed from Mysore in that illustrious team led by Assam’s Talimeren Ao who represented Bengal as he was with Mohun Bagan.
Add the likes of Sailendra Nath Manna, Taj Mohammed, Anil Nandy, Mahabir Prasad, S M Kaiser, S Nandy, Robi Das and Sew Mewalal from Bengal and giants like Ramachandra Balaram Parab, goalkeeper Sanjeeva K Uchil and T M Varghese or Papen from Bombay, and a virtual Dream Team lined up in London.
It is rather tragic, that apart from Ahmad Khan, 92, there are no survivors from that team of London 1948. The most recent to reach the abode of God was goalkeeper Varadaraj, who also figured in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Ahmad Khan was also in that team.
The story goes that Sanjeeva made the team only because the WIAA goalkepeer Kadrivelu, Varjravelu’s elder brother, had a head injury during a Rovers Cup game and was dropped. It is also said that players and officials of English clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers who had seen Kadri or the ‘black panther’ in action, were eager to watch him play in London but were hugely disappointed that he wasn’t in the team. Varadaraj, modest to his bones, himself always admitted it in interviews that Kadri was India’s best goalkeeper.
Sweden won the gold and Swedish club FC Goteborg (Gothenburg) which toured India after the Olympics, were mesmerised by Ahmad Khan’s dribbling skills and offered him a contract to play on the professional circuit in Europe. That speaks volumes of the talent in India.
“I was with East Bengal and so I asked my father (Baba Khan) what to do. He asked me to talk to JC Guha (East Bengal’s secretary) and decide. Guhada said because it was very cold in Europe, it might affect my game and that I should stay back. I simply agreed to what he said and did not take up the offer,” says Ahmad, whose hearing is now slightly impaired, recalled. “Yes, we had a very fine team in 1948. Many of us had played against European clubs in tournaments in India. It was also the first time that we were playing together for India after Independence and it meant a lot. We felt very proud with the tricolour at the march past. France had a good team also and after putting up a good fight, we lost narrowly. Raman scored the goal after I and Vajra had combined to beat the defence and passed the ball to him to finish. It was the equaliser but they scored the winning goal a minute or two before the end and we were very disappointed but we had done our best and were proud of that,” he added.
“Most of us played together and we went on to win the Asian Games gold in 1951 defeating Iran in the final. I think Mewalal scored the winning goal. Yes, we had entered the World Cup in 1950. There was also a camp in Calcutta. But suddenly we were informed that the team had withdrawn. In fact, I was very keen on playing in Brazil as I was told that Brazil was football crazy. We have heard more of Brazil only after Pele came in 1958 but we were told that even before that Brazil had some great players,” Ahmad added. “Perhaps, had we played, Indian football might have benefited. It is unfortunate that football standards have dropped badly in India and I hope the AIFF and the
government does something
to improve it,” Ahmad
signed off.