The 2009 edition of the Nehru Gold Cup is scheduled to be held in New Delhi between August 19 and 31. What is India’s best ever performance in the tournament? Winning the 2007 edition of the invitational international football tournament? The national team’s first victory in the tournament: against Yugoslavia in 1982, with goals from Manoranjan Bhattacharya and Manas Bhattacharya? Reaching the semifinals in 1997?
Maybe none of these performances. Given the quality of the football the Indian team produced and the class of the opposition it faced, the best showing is arguably the 0-1 defeat to Argentina in Kolkata in 1984, when Ciric Milovan of Yugoslavia was the coach.
With the likes of Asian all-star goalkeeper Atanu Bhattacharya, Prem Dorji, Krishnendu Roy, Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Tarun Dey, Aloke Mukherjee, Abdul Majid, Bikash Panji, Prasanta Banerjee, Parminder Singh, Victor Amalraj, Babu Mani, Bidesh Bose, Shabbir Ali, Krishanu Dey, Biswajit Bhattacharya and Narender Thapa, the Indian team was not short on talent. Milovan had managed to knit together a combination that could test the best. Simultaneously, Argentina, under coach Carlos Bilardo, was preparing for the 1986 World Cup — which it eventually won, inspired by captain Diego Maradona — and wasn’t playing around.
test against the best
With the notable exception of Maradona, most players in the Argentine 1986 World Cup-winning line-up were in Kolkata for the 1984 Nehru Cup. Goalkeeper Nery Pumpido, defender Jose Luis Brown, midfielder Sergio Batista and striker Jorge Burruchaga, to name a few, appeared along side many talented youngsters as part of a combination Bilardo was trying out in India.
The 1984 Nehru Cup provided a near-perfect platform for Argentina’s preparations for the biggest event in the game coming up in 1986. It must be said that the reputation of the South American team meant nothing to the then battle-hungry Indian team. The players fought bravely till the very end, going down by the lone goal in the 88th minute of the game. Bilardo was so rattled by India’s display that he often came off the bench to question refereeing decisions and was eventually ordered off the bench into the stands. India had lost to a team that was to occupy football’s loftiest peak — the World Cup — in 1986. The performance of the team was credit-worthy and it was not until the 1993 edition of the Nehru Cup in Chennai that the national team was able to come up with a comparable performance.
need to raise the bar
In the 1993 tournament, Finland and Cameroon came with players who had figured in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. In fact, Cameroon had six players who had done World Cup duty. Despite being loaded with players short on height, what with the pint-sized Subir Ghosh, Tejinder Kumar, Gunabir Singh, Aqueel Ansari and Sabir Pasha in its ranks, the team under coach Jiri Pesek of Czechoslovakia stood tall by holding both Finland and Cameroon to draws. In the return game against Cameroon, the Indians lead 2-0 but were held 2-2.
In that edition of the Nehru Cup, the late VP Sathyan, stopper-cum-midfielder, was the skipper. Wily striker IM Vijayan was at his best and with the midfield coming good thanks to Subir, Gunabir, Aqueel and Tejinder, the Indian team was able to hold its own against strong opponents.
In 1997, India reached the semifinals before losing to a superior Iraqi outfit in Kochi — another performance of note. However, for reasons best known to it, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) did not organise the Nehru Cup for a decade. It was only in 2007 that the tournament was revived and India defeated Syria to win the trophy for the first time. But in terms of quality, Syria cannot be compared to most former finalists in the event. Moreover, while the 2007 Nehru Cup provided a fine opportunity to other nations as they prepared for bigger assignments in the future, India, despite organising the tournament and winning it, cannot claim to have benefited as much.
In 1997, for instance, China had sent a young team that was preparing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup — co-hosted by Japan and South Korea and marking the first time that the event was held in Asia. China did qualify for the 2002 World Cup, after gaining from its Nehru Cup experience. Ironically, India’s current coach Bob Houghton subsequently took charge of the Chinese team.
wasted opportunity?
All this brings up the question: why is India wasting the opportunities offered by the 2009 Nehru Cup at a time when preparing the national team for the 2011 Asia Cup should be the focus?
Consider this: most countries participating in this year’s tournament lie below India in the FIFA rankings. Ranked 156, India should be looking at climbing up the slope. But Syria (at 95, the highest-ranked team in the fray), Sri Lanka (156), Kyrgyzstan (166) and Lebanon (169) are not teams from which India can learn what it takes to play world-class football.
As it is, money and time has been invested in the Indian team going all the way to Spain to play against third and fourth division teams there. Returning home to play against national teams that could possibly be weaker than those Spanish teams would appear to serve little purpose.
If the idea of organising the Nehru Cup is to win the trophy by playing against weak teams, then nothing positive will result from this year’s tournament. More respect can be earned while losing to a world-class team than by defeating weak teams. As former national coach and Dronacharya award-winner Syed Nayeemuddin says: “If you have the fear of losing, you can never win.”
India has a good chance to win the trophy in this year’s Nehru Cup but even if this is accomplished, what would be the value of such a victory? Football administrators in the country would appear to be short-sighted. Ultimately, if other nations benefit more from this year’s Nehru Cup than India, the only consolation would be that we played the perfect host yet again.
shreekumars@hotmail.com
what needs to be done
■ Infrastructure in terms of football grounds and stadia must be improved.
■ Quality can only emerge from quantity. More tournaments need to be conducted, especially at the school, college and university level.
■ Just one I-League (on the lines of Japan’s J-League and the Korean K-League) is not enough. Better representation from all parts of the country must be ensured. The Santosh Trophy can be converted into the I-League with state teams playing on a home and away basis. Clubs can play knockout tournaments as they did up to the mid-1990s.
■ Inter-club transfers must be conducted professionally. Money paid to players must be made public. Only then will people be convinced they can make a living out of playing football.
■ The Super Soccer Series must be revived to attract foreign teams to India.
■ The Super Soccer Series must be revived to attract foreign teams.
■ For football to grow, major football tournaments must be spread all over the country rather than just one or two centres.
nehru cup: roll of honour
year venue winner runner-up
1982 Kolkata Uruguay China
1983 Kochi Hungary China
1984 Kolkata Poland China
1985 Kochi Soviet Union Yugoslavia
1986 Trivandrum Soviet Union China
1987 Kozhikode Soviet Union Bulgaria
1988 Siliguri Soviet Union Poland
1989 Margao Hungary Soviet Union
1991 Trivandrum Romania Hungary
1993 Chennai North Korea Romania
1995 Kolkata Iraq Russia
1997 Kochi Iraq Uzbekistan
2007 Delhi India Syria