A meet with former India and Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly

Bhaskar Ganguly – A legend in every sense of the word

Bhaskar Ganguly reminds me of a safe pair of hands. In my last trip to India, I wanted to meet him. I must thank my friend Debjani Das for introducing me to India’s one of the greatest goalkeepers. I grew up watching and hearing only one name as goalkeeper. And that was him.

He was easily accessible at the Ultadanga branch of State Bank of India in east Kolkata, where the guard at the main entrance informed that Bhaskarda is on the third floor.

We went up and found him speaking to one of his colleagues.

I first saw him live in action at the Mohun Bagan ground in 1981, when he guarded the Mohammedan Sporting citadel. I still remember, he alighted from the team bus at the gate as me and my elder brother, who was a journalist, huddled to get in from the main entrance.

32-years later, I was sitting across a potbellied middle-aged man, who is away from all the limelight in a public sector bank. Bhaskar was dressed in a casual T-shirt and trouser. Others may opine that he may not have a dressing sense but I felt there was no show-off business in him as he wanted to keep things very simple and to the point. Also, he hasn’t lost his positive arrogance and bundle of confidence which made him so famous when he donned the Indian team and Calcutta clubs as the number one keeper.

So, it’s a bit surprising to find nothing more than few lines about him on the internet. Try google his name, you won’t get much information about the former India captain. The wikipedia just has some few lines about him. Even not much is written about him. Maybe, he isn’t that flashy or media savvy.

Bhaskar was not as tall as his contemporary Brahmanand. But he overcame the ‘height’ factor to become one of India’s top goalkeepers and has served all the big three clubs in Kolkata after his debut with Mohun Bagan in 1975. So much so that during most part of early 80s, the Goan keeper had to play second fiddle in the national team because Bhaskar remained unchallenged. In fact, Ganguly made the 18-yard an impregnable territory. He was simply the best.

Though he has lost interest in the game, which he termed ‘uninteresting’ and, added that Indian and Kolkata football doesn’t excite him anymore.

“When I started off, I had a dream to play in Calcutta. Now see, they’ve taken Calcutta League to the districts. What are they doing with local football, I don’t have any clue. It’s pointless even to discuss about it,” he explained.

Besides, he made a mock of the various awards given to the coaches.

“How can you honour any coach with a Dronacharya award when he hasn’t worked with the youngsters,” he asked.

“Do we care to respect coaches like Amal Dutta, Achyut Banerjee and others who had worked and raised junior players from the scratch?,” he queried.

Bhaskar too is a living legend but there’s no recognition for him as he acknowledged that he never fitted into the scheme of things of the officials in the past and neither will chase them now for any awards.

After Sailen Manna, he is the only Bengal player to have captained the national team in the Asian Games in 1982 in New Delhi.

“Why should I? I think I’ve better things to do than run after officials who’re ignorant about the game,” said Ganguly, who began his playing career with Bagan, who were drubbed 5-0 by East Bengal in the IFA Shield final in 1975.

So why did East Bengal pick him in the following season?

“Paltuda and others knew something about players. They saw the talent in me and despite conceding five goals against East Bengal they recruited me in 1976,” said Ganguly, who played for East Bengal from 1976-1989 and again from 1991-1992.

So did he ever think of playing abroad?

“Me and Surajit (Sengupta) had offers from Kuwaiti clubs. But we didn’t go since we felt that the Gulf was too distant for us to survive,” he smiled.

While he sipped chai after quickly finishing off a plate of chowmein along with another former player Shankar Lal Chakraborty, a visitor walked in, bowed and shook hands with him.

I’m sure, Bhaskarda made his day.