It remains India's best till date

INDIA WILL not be among the contestants when the world's most popular sport - football - kicks off at the Olympics in Sydney. It is a lamentable fact that India which at one time was one of the leading countries in Asia now finds itself unable to qualify for the Olympics.

While other countries have improved by leaps and bounds India has not made progress and as a result has got left behind. Gone are the days when the team could hold its own at the international level at least in the Asian region. Countries which were not half as good as India a few decades ago, are now the leading teams in the continent and are able to take part in the Olympic Games and even the World Cup while India has faded from the scene.

As far as the Olympic Games are concerned, perhaps the best performance that India had was the fourth place it got at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. It was one of the memorable moments of Indian football.

A creditable showing at the London Olympics in 1948 gave rise to hopes among fans then that the Indian team was capable of achieving greater heights. That coupled with the triumph in the first Asian Games sent hopes soaring when the national squad went to take part in the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki. But as it so often happens in Indian sport, the hopes came crashing down with an ignominious defeat at the hands of Yugoslavia. In a hopelessly one sided contest, Yugoslavia thrashed India 10-1 and sent the team packing off much earlier than expected.

One of the members of that team, Noor Mohammed passed away a couple of months ago in Hyderabad. Once while talking to this writer before his demise, Noor had recalled the performance of the Indian team then. According to him the match was played under very cold and windy conditions - something totally alien to the players. As a result the Indians could hardly play. Unable to make use of their ball skills under the extremely cold conditions, they were slaughtered by the tall and strong Yugoslavs.

But that catastrophe spurred the competitive spirit of one of the greatest coaches the country has seen - S. A. Rahim - who was then the coach of the national squad. Rahim studied the methods of the European teams, their strategies and their stress on speed and precision, and then he got down to formulating methods to counter them.

After returning from Helsinki, Rahim immediately began building up a team for the Melbourne Olympics. Rahim was lucky that he found the type of players he wanted in order to put his theories into practice. With a band of tried and trusted men he began to forge an unit that could make amends for the disastrous loss at Helsinki.Rahim put his boys into action against the Russians on a tour of the Soviet Union in 1955 and again in 1956 on Indian soil before embarking for Melbourne. Against the Russians the team lost most of its matches but its performances improved with each experience. Clearly the team was learning new methods and adapting to them. It was an encouraging sign.

By the time the Melbourne Olympics came around, the Indian squad was primed for action. Luck too was on its side. India was given a bye straight away into the quarterfinal round due to the withdrawal of two of the other teams in the fray. But in the quarters, India was up against the host Australia.

The Aussies backed by a vociferous home crowd used robust tactics to intimidate the unfancied Indians but the visiting side held firm under tremendous pressure. At the end of regulation time the score read two all and the match went into extra time. Here the fighting spirit of the Indian players came to the fore and to the surprise of one and all when the match ended it was India which triumphed. Neville D'Souza scored three goals and Kittu scored one in that memorable match. At the end the home crowd was stunned into shocked silence.

An interesting sidelight was the fact that the Indian team's return tickets had already been booked by those in charge of these affairs since they felt it was likely that Australia would win the contest. Tickets had to be cancelled when it was found that the national squad had put in such an outstanding performance.

So India entered the semifinal and found itself up against an old enemy - Yugoslavia. The Indian players were really fired up and determined to take revenge for that loss in the previous Olympics. It was a hard fought battle and neither team gave any quarter. In a nail biting, action packed match, Neville D'Souza drew first blood for India and gave India a 1-0 lead. India seemed to be on the verge of achieving its dream - that of beating Yusgoslavia and entering the final of the Olympics for the first time in history.

But in the last quarter the Yugoslavs seemed to have tapped some unexplored reserve of stamina. It mounted tremendous pressure on the Indian citadel and constantly pounded the target with long range shots. The physical superiority of the European players in terms of strength and stamina gave them the edge as the match wore on. Despite their best efforts the Indian team began to wilt. In the second half the Indian defence was breached no less than four times and the Yusgoslav shots found their target.

To top it all luck also deserted India at this crucial stage. Its key stopper Salam was injured and since no substitutes were allowed, the player remained on the field and gamely tried to fulfill the tasks required of him with the dice loaded in favour of the opponents.

The defeat was a psychological blow for the team. The emotional build up, the physically tiring match and the eventual defeat after the initial lead, was a great strain on the nerves and faculties of the players.

In the next match among the losing semifinalists for the third spot, the Indian players were a drained lot. The team lost to Bulgaria which pumped in three goals without reply from the Indian side. So India had to be content with the fourth place. It was a case of so near and yet so far. Many of the players were in tears when they trooped off the field.

``If we had beaten the Yugoslavs in the semifinals and entered the finals then the resulting boost to our confidence, morale, and emotions, could well have given us a victory in the final and we may have got the coveted gold medal,'' Noor had recalled a few years back.

But the efforts of the team did not go unnoticed. Neville D'Souza was the top scorer of the tournament. The FIFA Chief Sir Stanley Rous congratulated Neville and the team for a superb display.

Some consolation came during a match after the Olympics in which the team once again proved its mettle. The Australians stung by the loss in the Olympics, challenged the Indian team to a match at Sydney before going home. The Indians took up the challenge and once again put up a fine show to thrash Australia. The home team again used extremely robust methods designed to make the best use of their superior physical qualities but the Indians gave as good as they got.

Goalkeeper S. S. Narayan and Noor Mohammed himself were bleeding profusely from cuts suffered as a result of the rivals brutal methods. But then they never gave in. The team played its heart out and eventually walked off with its reputation in tact.

ABHIJIT SEN GUPTA

Hyderabad

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : East Bengal completes hat-trick of titles
Next     : Recalling Neville's extraordinary exploits in
           Olympic football