Sport - Football

A tribute to Aditya Kashyap

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: A little more than two decades ago when an enterprising TISCO Director travelled to Brazil to study iron-ore mining, he came back with many goodies for Indian football.

"Like many, I was also mad to see the Brazilian style of football," said the Indian Football Association President Aditya Kashyap as he walked down memory lane, in Kochi early this year. He approached football officials in Brazil, spoke to his boss Russi Mody and a little later, the Sao Paulo Juniors came on an Indian tour in 1984.

Thus began the Super Soccer Series, which brought some of the best clubs of Brazil, Germany, Holland and Norway to the country. Aditya Kashyap, who passed away in Kolkata on Sunday, was also the brain behind the country's best football academy.

"We saw how Sao Paulo trained its juniors and we wanted to start something similar in India. That was how the Tata Football Academy started," he said. The academy's products were so good that often they made half the Indian team.

Kashyap seemed to be in a big hurry to help Indian football on the fast track to big time.

Our future

"Right now, we are just doing a fifth of what we should be doing. To qualify for the next World Cup is very tough but we can hope to qualify in 2014. We have to have a multi-pronged attack... our future is with the eight to 10-year-olds," he said.

Football is a powerful medium to reach out to people in the rural world, felt Mr Kashyap. "The majority of the football fans are in the villages. So, the sport is a very strong way of advertising in these areas."

He felt the Super Soccer Series has got people interested in football. "It has exposed our players to world standards. This is something which will mature," said the former Mumbai IITian who was a decent footballer, shot-putter and javelin thrower during his college days.

Kashyap had some big plans for the sport but unfortunately, he ran out of time.

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