An arduous journey ahead

HE WAS the sort of footballer who had the potential to light up the proceedings on the field.

No, we are not talking of Bhaichung Bhutia or I. M. Vijayan, two redoubtable names that would immediately spring to mind but someone who had the calibre to be mentioned in the same breath as the famed duo. C. M. Ranjith is that unsung hero of Indian football.

A native of Kannur in Kerala, Ranjith's initiation to football was but natural.

The passion for the game in the Malabar region even today is such that a youngster getting lured by the `world's most popular sport' is not a surprise. Ranjith was no different.

Football helped Ranjith, a champion sprinter in his school days, to rise in his sports career.

From a school in the vicinity of his home to G. V. Raja Sports School in Thiruvananthapuram and then from being a top scorer of Calicut University, a force in all India inter-varsity football to the Kerala state squad. And later to the Indian junior squad, which he also captained.

Everything was smooth just as the way he scored goals, a facility which he developed at a young age, through sheer perserverance.

He calls his ability to score a god's gift, something that was to make his performance always compulsive to watch. What can be a better sight on a football field than watching a beauty of a goal.

Ranjith scripted many such moments in his career and yet, he was a player who reached no where in the end. That is the irony of some sportsmen.

Ranjith's big moment came in the 1983 Santosh Trophy in Chennai. That was not his debut for Kerala.

In fact he had played in the previous two nationals at Durgapur and Lucknow but Chennai was special, a morale booster to his career as events turned out thereafter.

Such was his form then that media and football lovers were praising the star in the making.

He and Camilo Gonsalves eventually finished top scorers of that nationals.

They became the darling of the crowd but Ranjith earned special admiration for the way he scored a goal against Bengal, beating Atanu Bhattacharya with a scorcher of a rising shot.

And yet in the end, recognition from the parent body came only to one - the Goan, who was given a place in the team for an overseas trip while Ranjith was excluded because ``he was too young''.

But Ranjith still had an unforgettable moment when State Bank of India, Chennai offered him a job.

Later offers from Kerala Police and Titanium came which if he had accepted, Ranjith could have remained in Kerala and perhaps made it big. Just the way Vijayan was to do, a few years later.

Not a tall order for one, who had hardly missed a goal in any match he had played and would have been a delight for any coach. But Chennai was his destination.

Not even in his dreams did Ranjith ever think that his decision to hop from one state to another would create such a upheaval in his career.

The hints were there at the time of the selection of the Indian team for the Kochi Nehru Cup in 1985.

For coach Ciric Milovan, Ranjith was a certainty in the 22 to be registered and local papers in Kerala even published the likelihood of Ranjith being in the team. But for the men at the helm, such a happening was untenable if the youngman did not return to his native land, or so it would seem to him now as he looks back.

``When I expressed my inability to leave SBI and accept another job in Kerala, I thought I had only made my position clear and not put my football career to the sword'', Ranjith said for events thereafter had the trappings of a young talent being snuffed out for good !

When the team for the Nehru Cup was announced, Ranjith's name was conspicuous by its absence. Only 21 names (when provision for 22 was there) were registered. A shattered Ranjith had coach Milovan pacifying him and assuring him that better days were ahead! As if to console him, Ranjith was sent to Delhi as captain of the Youth team to play a couple of Test matches against an Italian combination. That completed his banishment.

Though he was recalled into the probables list, more than once thereafter, he only went through the motions.

The agony was too acute to be forgotten so easily. Indian football never saw his career blossom.

Years have gone by but the scar remains. Mohammedan Sporting wanted him in Calcutta but SBI promptly told him to resign and go.

Thus another opportunity to gain national attention was lost. Still he believes, in fact prides that his association with SBI has been the best phase of his career.

For 17 years, till last season he was a regular in the Chennai senior division league, in between playing for Tamil Nadu in the nationals, and brought countless moments of joy to his fans, not to mention his team mates and colleagues.

For his yeoman service and loyalty, none would possibly grudge if the Management honours him with a rise. The man deserves no less.

To take to serious coaching is Ranjith's future move. An AFC `C' licence was the inspiration. `B' licence is his next goal for that will help him to qualify to coach the state or national team.

In the meantime of course he has the SBI team to take care of, as a first step in bringing it back to senior division and media glare.

It is an arduous journey ahead but Ranjith believes, for one who has seen the worst despite being sincere and disciplined, things can only be better.

S. R. SURYANARAYAN

Chennai

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