Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

The slide is unending and the thought that India was not only the Asian giant but also a semi finalist in the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 is a fairy tale. But looking at the response of the spectators in strife torn Kashmir during the Santosh Trophy matches football can be assured that it has not been abandoned and that people still love it. The failing has been at other levels. 

Born in India and who also played cricket in India, Dennis Compton, one of the legends of English cricket also holds the distinction of representing England’s national football team. During the war years when he was in India, he was amazed at the skillful football played by Indian footballers. Many among those who pitted themselves against the best of the day were those who did not even have shoes and yet they matched skill for skill, prowess for prowess.

This was hardly surprising as the natives had come to love a sport that they were taught by their masters and they had also learned to turn the tables on their white masters when Mohun Bagan defeated the white army team to herald a new era. From then onwards the football standard only continued to improve till Compton saw and commented upon the high level of football played at the club level.

This is how football stood when India attained independence. Football leagues were mandatory in all the districts and the smaller Rajas and Zemindars prided in patronizing teams that competed with the best. Even in small towns the spectators followed the fortunes of their favored club in the league matches and thus fan following and loyalty to the game and the club was passed on to the next generation.

Not surprisingly, India was the leader in Asian football, a place it continued to occupy till 1962. In between there was the Olympic of 1956 where history was made by scoring a hat trick and then reaching the semi finals. Ever since, there has been the slide, endless and humiliating. Today we are almost at the bottom as during the recent years we have been beaten by all the South Asian countries except Afghanistan and Bhutan. Pakistan, ever competing with India in every sphere has achieved the feat and so has Sri Lanka which is inspired by the nationalism fuelled by the LTTE. But we have also been beaten by Nepal and now to fill our cup of misery, by Maldives. The last mentioned defeat came during the recent edition of SAAF championship and was preceded by victory over Bhutan that was secured by the skin of the teeth.

While our national players were bumbling around during the SAAF championship to finally end up as runner up to Maldives, mixed signals were emanating from the Jammu and Kashmir Santosh Trophy championship conducted in Srinagar. The national championship had returned to the valley after a lapse of three decades and therefore there was some apprehension about it. Has the period of terrorism and internal strife destroyed the enthusiasm of the spectators? Will the local team be able to hold its head high and restore some of the Kashmiri pride? These were questions that were quickly answered and in answering them raised many uncomfortable questions for the authorities.

The response that football gets in the valley is the same that is found in Kochi, Goa and Kolkata, indicating that it is not the spectators who have abandoned football. Of greater significance is the fact that in valley, where the sport is much less organized than in any of the other places it is a relief and an expression of the self as also a statement as a team. It is in this light that one is surprised by the fact that a country that needs to remain vigilant at all times because of the activities of , the divisive forces has not used football as a tool of unity and reconciliation. The world over societies that enjoy multi culturalism have used football to foster brotherhood and unity. Thus it is football that brings the black half of France in the mainstream. Even the strife torn African countries have found it to be the glue that binds various regional and tribal interests. Then there are countries like South Africa and Holland and also England that has found new expression to its national aspirations through football.

More than these countries, it is India that needs football, as Srinagar recently demonstrated. It is a more potent weapon than all the guns that the authorities can muster and for every Ashfaq Ahmed there would be no greater joy than to graduate from the Mohun Bagan to the national team. The Kashmiris would celebrate his donning India colors and if the state team were to regularly reach the quarter finals of the national championship they will feel more integrated to the rest of the country than any amount of central financial assistance can goad them to.

It must be said that a few army officers have attempted this route sporadically but then it needs be remembered  that an effort from a person in uniform cannot be matched with the effort of a civilian leader. The big question though is: are those in high places listening?