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In the 16 years that he turned out for the ‘blue tigers’, Baichung Bhutia kept the company of a few dozen Indian footballers of assorted abilities. Many have quietly faded into the sunset and some have metamorphosed into coaches, though a few from his early days still continue to play club football.
The longtime India captain will bow out of the international game in a blaze of glory with the Bayern Munich vs India exhibition tie on January 10 in New Delhi being billed as his high profile farewell match which will also raise funds for victims of the Sikkim earthquake. A few months earlier the All India Football Federation held a press conference to enable him to announce his intention to retire from national duty.
The Bhutia ‘farewell factor’ attached to what would have otherwise been just an exhibition game is a master stroke as it gives the fixture a huge emotional connect that will reverberate through the entire nation, just as Oliver Kahn’s farewell jamboree in Kolkata struck an emotional chord with all German and Bayern Munich fans earlier.Bhutia will however continue to represent Sikkim United in various domestic kickabouts across the countryside. So we have not heard the last about his playing abilities. And if he can lead his own fledgling club into the I-League his reputation will only be further enhanced.
As post-modern India’s footballing icon, the ‘Tinkitam Express’ almost singlehandedly carried India’s footballing identity and aspirations on his rugged shoulders for our ‘blue billion’.As a striker, Bhutia was top class, being able to propel the ball into the net in so many different ways with his opportunism, skill and determination and either by his own individualism or by being part of a collective move. His inspirational abilities, commitment and work rate besides had as much to commend as his spectacular finishes.Indeed, as Sunil Chhetri, who is eminently poised to inherit his mantle, recently said, Bhutia deserves every bit of his farewell and the accolades he has earned.
What of the others?The point is, the AIFF has set a grand precedent that it would do well to emulate in future. As the laidback S S Narayanan, India goalkeeper at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics remembered with no tinge of remorse, “In our time nothing like this happened. Great players retired unheralded and unsung.”
So many of India’s football greats – Mewalal, P K Bannerjee, Chuni Goswami, Neville D’Souza, Jarnail Singh, Peter Thangaraj, Inder Singh, Subhas Bhowmick, Shyam Thapa, Shabbir Ali, Manoranjan Bhattacharjee, Krishanu Dey, Gautam Sarkar etc. – have faded away quietly though the federation, government and other sporting bodies have since honoured many for their contributions.
Bhutia’s contemporaries in the national team over the years like Debjit Ghosh, Basudeb Mondal, Deepak Mondal, Carlton Champan, Tejinder Kumar, Aqueel Ansari, Mahesh Gawli etc., were stalwarts in their own right, though they may have arguably paled in comparison to the titans of yesteryears.
In the course of his career, Bhutia shared his striking duties for the ‘men in blue’ with the redoubtable I M Vijayan, Bruno Coutinho, roving playmaker Jo Paul Ancheri and Sunil Chhetri, apart from lesser lights like Mohammed Najeeb, Abhishek Yadav, Bijen Singh, Praveen Kumar, Dipendu Biswas, Raman Vijayan etc. Vijayan was given a send-off worthy of his legendary status at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad where he ended up as top-scorer with four goals. But the others are hardly remembered.
Think of the lesser lightsOnly a couple of weeks ago, the reticent Mahesh Gawli announced his retirement from international footaball after serving the country for 14 long years and earning 82 caps in the process. The Goan lad, who currently plies his trade with Dempo SC, was a stabilizing influence in the Indian defence, swift in his interceptions and clean in his tackles.
Gawli and his accomplished Tata Football Academy batchmate Deepak Mondal were the best pair of central defenders India has fielded in recent times. The Jharkhand player, who has earned 62 caps, is now on the sidelines and turning out for Prayag United as a wing-back. Gawli at least got a press release from the AIFF to bid his goodbye.
Bhutia has addressed this anomaly in a most recent interview and blamed both the players and the federation for this situation in the past. “Till recently, the kind of communication required for such a gesture seemed to be missing from both sides,” he averred.Current national captain Climax Lawrence, 32, who led India to victory in the recent SAFF championship, has recently announced his intention to retire soon. The central midfielder, renowned for his high intensity work rate, grew in stature over the years. He was once described by then national coach Stephen Constantine as the ‘Patrick Viera of India’ after Arsenal’s then midfield locomotive. Will the AIFF now ensure that he does not leave the big stage without the sound of trumpets? Such gestures will certainly boost the profile of football’s contribution to nationhood.
With a public relations department in place to communicate with both the media and hopefully the players too, the federation is now ideally placed to give their retiring icons their due in future.As a player Bhutia did a lot on the field for India. As a retired player Bhutia has hopefully set the play off the field to usher in a better deal for the great Indian footballers of the present and future.
