Who is the India football captain who led a first-class team to the Ranji Trophy final? This used to be an oft asked question in sports quiz competitions.
The answer, or the person in the answer, was a rare breed of versatile sportsman. Subimal Goswami excelled in most games he played. Legend has it that the person known universally by his nickname of Chuni (emerald in Bengali) appeared equally adept in tennis when he took on Davis Cup players Premjit Lall and Jaidip Mukerjea at the famed grass courts of South Club. Some say he was hard to beat even in carom.
Suffering from age-related complications for some time, Goswami passed away after a cardiac arrest in Kolkata on Thursday. He was 82 and is survived by his wife and son. Tributes poured in from every corner of the sports fraternity. The Prime Minister and President also made condolence statements.
Football was Goswami’s first love and after making a mark as a teenager for Mohun Bagan, he went on to become one of the best attackers in the continent in his times. Other than captaining India to gold at the 1962 Asian Games and silver at the Asian Championships two years later, he formed a formidable frontline with PK Banerjee and Tulsidas Balaram. Ball control and dribbling skills set him apart and made him a crowd favourite.
“It’s difficult to describe what kind of footballer he was. Suffice to say that he was the most complete player I played with,” recalled Balaram. “He had the skills, control and vision to hoodwink opponents. Defenders found it tough to contend with his dribbling. Although he was my junior in the India team considering that I made my debut before him, playing under Chuni in the 1962 Asian Games remains a memorable point of my career. Sad that we lost him and PK in such a short span of time (Banerjee passed away last month).”
Eye witnesses are few, but those with recollections of watching Goswami in Mohun Bagan and the national team rate him higher than his peers purely in terms of skills. He could perform tricks with the ball that endeared him with the crowd and won him admirers from several walks of life. Born in what is now Bangladesh, he never represented any club other than Mohun Bagan. His elder brother Manik, who passed away in 2008, was also a Mohun Bagan player.
Love for football kept Goswami from taking up serious cricket at his physical prime. Although his first-class debut happened in 1962-63 when he was an active footballer, he started paying attention to bat and ball after retiring from football in 1964. A middle-order batsman and medium-pacer, he captained Bengal to the Ranji Trophy final in 1971-72. They lost to Bombay. He was part of another final against the same team three seasons earlier, when Bengal lost despite him making 96 and 84.
Another highlight of Goswami's cricket career was a match between the West Indies and a combined East and Central Zone XI in Indore in 1966-67. Opening the bowling with Test bowler Subrata Guha, Goswami took eight wickets in the match, including 5/47 in the first innings. Rohan Kanhai was among his victims. Guha returned a match haul of 11 wickets, as their team won by an innings. Clive Lloyd and Wesley Hall were part of that team for the practice fixture.
“Chunida swung the ball at moderate pace with control over movement. He was a gutsy cricketer, who was always positive. An Asian Games gold-winning captain, he seemed to exude an air of confidence. He had good hand-eye coordination and was particularly good at playing the sweep shot, other than the square cut,” recalled former Bengal skipper Raju Mukherji, who made his first-class debut under Goswami.
The things he did and the way he did them made Goswami a star and arguably the first pin-up boy of Indian sports. They say he had the looks to go with his skills, which made him a sought after personality in various sections of the society. Author of the book Eden Gardens: Legend & Romance, Mukherji reckons his popularity was remarkable in pre-television days. “There was flamboyance in most of the things he did, on and off the field. People would seek his autograph. He would wave at fans like a star because he was one.”
Going by the big names from the list of persons who expressed grief at the news of his death — Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri among others — Goswami remained a star till the end.