By K. Datta, IANS
New Delhi : Less than three months after the Baichung Bhutia-led team gladdened the hearts of Indian football fans by winning the ONGC Nehru Cup here, the display of the national under-16 team in the recent Asian Football Confederation Group C qualifiers at Dammam, Saudi Arabia, has come as another breath of fresh air.
The boys, under the overall care of Colin Toal, director of the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) youth development programme, moved into the final stages from their six-team group with an unbeaten record — four wins and a draw against Iraq, a match in which they showed their fighting qualities by coming back from 0-2 down to finish on level terms.
The entire team that played in Dammam will be also be eligible for next October’s final. The team’s coaching staff is aware that the finals will be a much tougher proposition.
The following countries have qualified for the finals:
Group A: Yemen and Syria.
Group B: Iran and Bahrain.
Group C: Iraq and India.
Group D: Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Group E: China and Singapore.
Group F: Japan and Indonesia.
Group G: Korea and Australia.
Group H: Republic of Korea.
After Dammam, the boys are confident of giving a good account of themselves against Asia’s best under-16 teams.
As for the coaches and the AIFF, the Dammam showing was proof that the youth development programme was moving in the right direction.
An old drawback of our teams has been lack of height and smaller physique, something for which you can’t blame the players. But still Toal and his staff decided to do something about it. They selected the right kind of young footballers and put them through rigorous training camps.
To start with, 60 boys were selected for camps at Kolkata and Gandhinagar, 30 at each centre, coach Sanjay Sen told IANS. The list was then pruned to 33 for the next camp at Goa. Of these, 11 were sent home because of suspicions about their exact age following medical tests.
According to the Kolkata-based Sen, the team was a mixture of tall and not-so-tall boys who were able to hold their own against opposing teams at Dammam, in football skills as well as physique, the tallest being Gurpreet of Chandigarh who stands well over six feet.
Gurpreet was, in fact, the second choice goalkeeper, but took over the responsibility under the bar after Harshad Mehr of Maharashtra was injured.
But the team functioned on the principle that all were equal, no first and second choices, said coach Sen, something that stood the squad in good stead, as things turned out.
Gurpreet gave an outstanding display, according to Sen.
Another positive outcome of the youth development programme is that players have started emerging from hitherto unlikely places, as is also the case with Indian cricket in recent times.
For example, for the first time in the history of Indian football there were two boys from Haryana, both from Hissar and also from the same school, St Sophia Higher Secondary School. They were strikers Manandeep, who is 5ft 10in tall and still growing, and Vivek Kumar, a couple of inches shorter. Manandeep scored two of the 18 goals the team aggregated in five matches.
Back in Hissar, principal Varsha Rana said with understandable pride that for St Sophia it was a unique distinction that two of its boys had created football history. Manandeep celebrated his birthday Nov 3 in Dammam.
Besides Haryana, Chandigarh and Maharashtra there were also boys from Gujarat, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim, not to mention Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal. They came from all directions, but at the Goa camp they were moulded into one cohesive unit.
Malsawamfela was India’s top-scorer with four goals, followed by Lalringdika (3), Manandeep (2), Akshay Mal (2), Brijinder Rai, Bikramjit Singh, Tanmay Ghosh, Deepak Devrani, Ashish Chhetri and Abhishek Das.
The boys were taught to enjoy the game and always be on their best behaviour. Five yellow cards in as many outings is a fair record.
More important, there is no question of resting on their laurels. They have to keep working hard to improve their game and be stronger, taller and better footballers by next October.
Meanwhile, the AIFF would do well to arrange adequate exposure in the shape of some games against foreign teams.