KOCHI: Last month, the Kerala team unsurprisingly found their way out of the senior national women’s football tournament in Assam in the group match itself. However, their performance featuring two wins, two draws and one defeat was seen in many quarters as an improvement from those in the previous years.
“That is ridiculous,” said Bentla D’Couth, a former international and one of the referees in the tournament. If anyone saw improvement in the state side’s performance, she said, it was because of their lack of expectation from the team.
“I am not saying they did badly in the nationals, but their performance was not in keeping with how the team used to do 10-20 years ago,” Bentla said. Till a decade ago, Kerala were a force to be reckoned with in the national championships. They were in league with top notch teams like Manipur and Bengal. In the 1990 senior nationals held in Maharashtra, the state side emerged champions, defeating the current title holders, Manipur. They were also a regular feature in the semis and finals till the break of the 21st century.
During that period, the Indian national team invariably had at least five players from Kerala but as years went by, the number dwindled to three (Soona K, Rita V K and Bentla) in 1995, two (Sreelatha P and Bentla) in 1997 and one (Bentla) in 1999. For the last decade, the national side had no players from Kerala.
“During our time, we had good players in all the positions, be it defence, forward or midfield. Our defenders, P Sreelatha and V K Reeja, were a challenge for other teams. But look at our team today. They just run around and kick the ball,” Bentla said. She said that when her batch retired, there weren’t many trained players to replace them. “All we had was just one batch of women footballers. Nobody bothered to develop a women’s team along with the seniors,” she said.
P V Priya, who coached the senior women, attributed the present state of the team to lack of playing opportunities and disinterest among government-owned institutions to recruit women players. “Unlike in basketball or badminton, none of the government departments like the Railways or ONGC have a women’s football team from South India. We don’t even have enough tournaments happening in the state. Then how can we attract girls to play football,” she said.
Though Kerala Football Association president KMI Mather agrees with Bentla and Priya, he said the association was planning to bring in a set of reforms in the hope of improving women’s football in Kerala.
“We are mulling over a proposal to appoint a designated official to identify football talents among young girls and to train them under the grass-root development programme envisioned by the All India Football Federation,” Mather said.