AFC Challenger Cup Triumph

The 4-1 convincing win in the final of the eight-nation AFC Challenge Cup over Tajikistan has earned India a place in the 2011 Asian Cup at Doha. This triumph is indeed indicative of the progress that our national soccer team has made with coach Bob Houghton at the helm of affairs since 2006 and has offered the team a chance to rub shoulders with the Asian football giants like South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Even as it was a splendid team effort that helped India tame the strong Central Asian team, striker Sunil Chhetri’s hat-trick stood out and made the difference at the end of the day. Needless to say that the Nehru Cup success, a year ago, marked the beginning of a revival of Indian football. Twenty-four years ago, there was a similar resurgence when under a Yugoslav coach, India with promising players in its repertoire, qualified for the Asian Cup. There was a ray of hope then that Indian football was not too far from emulating the feats attained by the players during the golden era of the 1950s-60s. Unfortunately, that was not to be and thanks to cricket taking centrestage, the beautiful game never lived up to its name in the country. Nevertheless, the fact that Indian football, today, is not just about captain Bhaichung Bhutia and his emergence as the sole star player, but also about a diminutive but fearless Chhetri and his goal-scoring abilities.


While the AFC Challenge Cup has since its inception in 2006 promoted lower-ranked teams of the Asian region and offered the winners an opportunity to take part in the elite league, it remains to be seen whether India can sustain a similar tempo at the Asian Cup three years down the line. The launch of the football league in Kolkata should help locate upcoming talents and similar professional leagues in other cities in future will woo more funds and followers for sure. Even as Indian football seems to have come of age, as some former greats have hinted, consistency would determine its progress apart from other factors like fitness levels of players, infrastructure at the grass-root levels and of course the pattern and standard of the system that promotes the game. Besides, the coach, who has been instrumental in sowing the seeds of revival, must be given a fair deal