Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia in a free and frank talk, reveals his heart and comments on affairs in Indian football.

 His story is much similar to the ‘make believe’ Bollywood films.  As the hero of such films, more often than not, comes from a small town and in no time mesmerises    all in a big city with his hidden talents, he also comes down from Sikkim and makes a permanent place in the hearts of the people with his superb soccer display and becomes another star on the Indian sporting horizon. Today, having numerous admirers he is the most sought-after sportsperson in          the country after Sachin Tendulkar and Viswanathan Anand. He is  none other than Baichung Bhutia, captain of Indian football team and the first Indian to play professional league in England.

 Beyond doubt, Baichung has come a long way. The boy who started playing football just for fun, found himself in the big league in unusually quick time and since then, there is no looking back for him. He played for the famous East Bengal club of Kolkata and JCT of Punjab, represented India even before getting his driving licence.

 Was it a smooth journey to the top? Why he left the country and went to England to play professional football? What does    he think about Indian football?  Why the once Asian champions Indian team are now finding it more and more difficult to defeat teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka?

 Who could be the best person to answer all these questions other  than Baichung Bhutia. Recently, he was in Delhi en route to Sikkim. During his stay in Delhi, North East Enquirer met Baichung to ascertain his views.

Excerpts:   

North East Enquirer: What are your experiences in English professional league?

Baichung Bhutia: The basic difference between Indian football and English football is that everything is planned there. Professionals from various fields manage the show there. The entire system move like a machine. Everything is meticulously planned. They don’t take any chance, while arranging their league; knock-out tournaments and football calendar. I found this professional attitude missing in India.

NEE: What is your experience as a player?

Baichung Bhutia: It’s a mixed bag. Initially, it was very tough     for me to adjust with the English conditions and playing styles.     But, over the years, I managed to overcome all such hurdles to establish myself there.

NEE: But your critics say that Baichung Bhutia is a ‘flop story’ in England.

Baichung Bhutia: It is their view. I don’t want to comment  about such remarks apart from saying that these so-called experts know nothing about football. In Bury, I was asked to play in the midfield, which is not my usual position. Anyone, having little knowledge about football will  easily understand that I was asked  to perform a difficult task. Moreover, the environment was new, the club was new, and faces around me were unknown. Even then, I did not lose heart and prepared myself for the challenge. And my performances for          Bury would tell you my success story.

NEE: At present, you are out of action due to a knee injury. Isn’t it frustrating? How serious is it?

Baichung Bhutia: It is frustrating in the sense that the injury came at a time when I was playing really well. But the good thing is that it is not serious in nature and I will be able to take the field by the end of January.

NEE: You are playing in English league for three years. When will your contract be over?

Baichung Bhutia: It will come to an end in July next.

NEE: What is your future plan?

Baichung Bhutia: I have not given it a thought yet. I will think about it only after July. Now my only aim is to play quality football for Bury in the remaining matches after my return to the field. Moreover, I have never planned my career. I took it as it came.

NEE: Have you received any offer from any club?

Baichung Bhutia: Many clubs have shown interests. But I am not thinking about these offers as I told you that I want to concentrate on the remaining matches.

NEE: Will you continue playing in England?

Baichung Bhutia: I have not decided. I may play in England or I may shift to any European country.

NEE: No plan to return to India?

Baichung Bhutia: As I told you that I am open to any good offer. I am not adverse to the idea of returning to India if the offer is good. But all these will be decided only after July.

NEE: It had been reported that a discomfiture had appeared in your relationship with the agent, who took you to England.

Baichung Bhutia: Yes, it’s true.

NEE: What went wrong? Only recently, he was projected as the ‘messiah’ of Indian football. He arranged two tours for the Indian football team to England to provide the footballers the much needed international exposure.

Baichung Bhutia: Arranging a trip for the Indian football team to England is an easy job rather than managing the career of a footballer. A trip can be arranged by anyone. But to manage the career of a footballer, the agent must have sound knowledge of the game. Unfortunately, in my case, my agent knows nothing about the game. That’s the problem. Professional agents in England know the game well. They can easily judge which player is suited for which team. In my case, I missed that expertise from my agent.

NEE: You have appealed to the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) of that country to get out of the contract with your agent. What is PFA’s verdict?

Baichung Bhutia: They have already informed me that the contract is not valid.

NEE: Were you not aware about the credentials of your agent before going to England?

Baichung Bhutia: Frankly speaking, at that time playing in the professional league in England was first my priority. I didn’t pay any attention to all such nitty-gritty. It was my inexperience. In future, I will not commit the such mistake.

NEE: You left for England when you already became a star in India? Any football team in the country would be happy to get you in their side at any price. Even then you ventured on an unknown path. Before you no Indian player went to play there. How the idea came to your mind?

Baichung Bhutia: Football is not all about becoming a star or about earning money. I play football because I enjoy the game. After playing couple of years in Kolkata, I realised that there was not much to achieve from playing club football in India. I have to prove myself as a footballer somewhere else. That is why when I got the opportunity to play in English professional league I grabbed the chance. Honestly, money or fans never attracted me much. I always wanted to excel on the field, as I knew if I could perform well, those things would follow automatically.

Now, coming to the second part of your question, I can’t say why my predecessors didn’t think of playing abroad. There was no dearth of good players in India. If any one of them accepted the challenge, the job would have been much more easier.  But when it came my way, I accepted it. I hope in future, many more footballers from India will play professional league in England and or in parts of the world.

NEE: Just now you said India had produced many good footballers that could play abroad. If it is so, why are we at the bottom of the FIFA ranking?

Baichung Bhutia: We Indians are as skillful as any other footballer in the world. We lack in other departments of the game like strength and stamina. If we could improve in those aspects of the game too, India will easily become a strong side.

NEE: If we are lacking in strength and stamina, how could you cope up with the gruelling schedule of English professional league?

Baichung Bhutia: As I told you initially it was very difficult. After some time with scientific methods of training, my strength and stamina also improved. Now I am at par with other international players in all departments of the game.

NEE: How did they improve your strength and stamina?

Baichung Bhutia: In England, we do lot of off-season training. That helped me enormously. They are professional. They engage specialists to increase the endurance of  their players.

NEE: Is that kind of training missing in India?

Baichung Bhutia: Definitely. In India, does anyone really care for football and footballers? If they ever did, things would have been different.

NEE: But there is a football federation. The Government is also trying to provide infrastructure to young players.

Baichung Bhutia: The results of their efforts are in front of you to judge. If you think that the federation and             the government are doing OK,        it’s fine. I have nothing more to say. The federation got good  sponsorship deals to promote football in the country when it started national league. But          what happened? Why the sponsorship was lost?

NEE: Don’t you think that Sports Authority of India (SAI) is doing a good job? You are a product of  the SAI.

Baichung Bhutia: Yes, I am a product of SAI. But there is much more for the SAI to do. Providing good coaches, good equipments to the budding sportspersons are   must. Simply by keeping someone in the camp one can’t create sportspersons of international standard.

NEE: You rose to fame at a very young age. Often we have seen      that after excelling in junior level,     a talent got lost, unable to handle   the early attention and admiration. Your case was different. How you learnt to handle ‘star status’ ?

Baichung Bhutia: I never mixed the two together. I was aware that all such things would follow if  I can perform well. While on the field, I never think that I am a star   or I have so many fans. On the field my only desire is to beat the opponent. That’s all. On the field you have so many people supporting you and your team and this has  always charged me up to perform well. I know what I am today is because of football only. So I always stick to my job of playing good quality football.

NEE: But don’t you enjoy attention and admiration?

Baichung Bhutia: Certainly, I do enjoy, but only after the match.

NEE: Do you think that given a chance the North-Eastern region can become the nerve centre of Indian sports?

Baichung Bhutia: Definitely. I am sure that given a chance the North-Easterners would excel in sports. There is no dearth of    talents in the region. But they do not get the opportunities. If the federations pay proper attention     to the region, the region will definitely make the country proud. I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever about this.

NEE: What is your advice to  the budding sportspersons of the North-East, for most of them you are the role model.

Baichung Bhutia: All I have to say to them is to work hard.  Without working hard, no one could achieve any success. And success will bring everything what you   need in life. So work harder as  there is no shortcut to success.  

NE footballers beckon AIFF

The NE boys’ performance in Subroto Cup has once again established the fact that the North-East is a repository of talents.

It is very encouraging that after the success of the North-Eastern schools in the recently concluded Subroto Cup football tournament, a demand has been raised from many quarters that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) should look towards the North-East footballers for restoring the glory of Indian football. This year both the junior and sub-junior titles went to the North-East.

After watching the performances of the North-Eastern boys, The Indian Express wrote, “The North-East schools put on display at the just-concluded Subroto Cup a couple of players who could strengthen Indian football. Danny Lalduhawma, Robert Lalthala are barely in their teens but the kind of onfield maturity and confidence they showed was indeed an eye-opener. One wonders why the AIFF does not tap the volcano of talent emanating from the North-East. After Meghalaya won the sub-junior title in Subroto Cup, Mizoram’s Government HS has further strengthened the belief with its title-winning effort that the North-East has already become a repository of talent which, if nurtured carefully, could give a real boost to the sagging morale of Indian football.” Not only the national daily, but others who watched these boys on field shared the same view.

Captain of Indian football team Baichung Bhutia was more forthright in his observations. After watching the Mizoram boys in the final, he opined that the standard of the Mizoram boys was as good as any Latin American or European sides of the same age group.

Baichung was not exaggerating. These North-Eastern teams showed that they were well ahead of other teams in terms of skill, stamina and strength. Their performance
was more praiseworthy as they
got very little or no help at all from the federations or the State governments.

After watching the Mizo boys, no one was ready to believe that they could not practise for a single day in a full size football ground before the tournament commenced. Many scribes were taken aback when told by Meghalaya coach S. M. Lyngdoh that he trained the boys just for 15 days.

According to the experts, the North-Eastern boys are most genetically gifted for sports, such as football, archery, boxing, judo, martial arts, weight-lifting and long-distance running. But, it’s a pity that till now no major effort has been made to tap the talents available in the North-East, despite the fact that the region given sportspersons like Baichung Bhutia, Kunjarani Devi and Dinko Singh.

Manipur incentive scheme for medal winners in National Games

At last there is some good news for the Manipuri sportspersons. The government has decided to award adequate incentives to the medal-winners in the recently concluded National Games in Punjab. A recent meeting of the Governor’s Council had constituted a committee under the command of State chief secretary Rakesh to finalise issue of awarding incentives to the State medallists.

Sources said that the matter has been assigned to the chief secretary-led committee to recommend the extent up to which the incentives could be awarded to the medal winners. The 362-strong contingent of Manipur bagged the third position in the recently concluded 31st National Games in Punjab. Manipur team, bagged 30 golds, 17 silvers and 18 bronzes in the event.  

Subroto Cup goes to NE

Mizo juniors outplay KarnatakThe game plan of  the Karnataka coach was to keep the Mizoram boys in check in the initial stages of the game, so that the team from Mizoram, which is used to play an aggressive brand of football finds the going tough. But by scoring a goal the within minutes of the kick-off, the Mizo boys upset the Karnataka coach’s strategy. Like the sub-junior final, the junior final was also a one-sided affair. The Mizo boys were on the top from the word go. Scoring a brace -- one each at the beginning of each half, the Mizo boys never allowed   the opponents to settle down.

For the Mizoram team, the hero for the day was Danny Lalduhawma, who scored both the goals.    Within minutes of the start of the match, Danny  dribbled past three defenders and put the ball into the net over the head of the onrushing goalkeeper. He repeated the feat after the lemon-break. Receiving a high pass from Lal Ramzauva, Danny sprang into action and put his team 2-0 ahead with a well-measured lob. It was no surprise that Danny displaying his excellent footwork and ball control inside the penalty box emerged the highest scorer of the tournament

The Karnataka boys tried their level best to match the Mizo boys. But apart from Manish, none of his teammates could really pose any problem to the Mizoram defence. But his efforts went fruitless as no other player could provide him necessary support. This was for the first time that a team from   Mizoram won the Subroto Cup. Though Mizo boys always displayed quality football, they failed to click in the crucial matches in the previous years.

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