Interview with Novy Kapadia: "My generation witnessed India when they were the best football team in Asia"

Mr. Novy Kapadia resides in Delhi and has retired from teaching in Delhi University. However, he still can take out some time to talk about football and its insane yet unknown legacy in India.

Last year, his book named Barefoot to Boots garnered a lot of critical acclaim as Kapadia had written in depth about the overall evolution of Indian football. He has covered the game extensively since the 1980s and is a renowned figure currently in the whole football circuit.

He has been the editor of the Durand Annual Journal since 1983 and is quite easily the person who introduced the concept of football journalism in India.

In this exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, he imprints his immense knowledge regarding India's football history and also talks about the recently concluded FIFA World Cup.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Where did this idea to write a book on India’s history with football originate?

The idea came from Penguin in December 2015, when they first contacted me. They were very keen to have a book ready entirely based on Indian football before the 2017 U-17 World Cup.

We had two-three meetings and the idea was to have a very comprehensive work. I wanted it to be set apart from just contemporary football so that we can write on the legacy that most people don’t know of.

However, the writing really took off after the sad demise of my elder sister in London in February 2016. Her departure interlinked with my younger days when I first started following football.

I had a whole lot of time to spend in London after that and with her memory coinciding with my childhood days and football; I could devote this book the required attention.

Firstly, we (him and the publishing team) chalked out the various states who have contributed to football. I do feel bad that Mumbai’s part wasn’t included in the book, but the choice was between either Mumbai or Delhi.

As I hail from Delhi, I know how passionately it was followed in the state earlier during the Durand Cup. However, I regret missing out on writing on Mumbai and particularly women’s football in my book.

Collecting photographs was the most difficult part, though. Earlier, there were very few pictures taken and now it became even more difficult to find them from newspaper archives and the Durand Committee.

Despite having finished the writing in March and the editing by May 2017, collecting these photographs took almost three months!

There was a section of the book where you spoke about how you followed the Durand Cup since its nascent stages. Can you provide us with some insight on those days?

See, the Durand Cup was like the grand finale of the Indian football season. After the IFA Shield before the Durga Puja, Durand was keenly awaited by everyone during December and January.

Now, because of it being the oldest tournament, the President of India always attended the Durand final. So, naturally, there was a lot of pomp associated with the tournament. The captains had tea with the President during halftime and for that, they had to undergo rehearsals before the day of the match too!

Also, the likes of Rajendra Prasad, S Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain were really popular Presidents amongst the people and hence the people were very interested in this particular event. Seeing the captains talk and chat with the President of the Nation gave the people a sense of pride regarding the teams whom they supported.

Also, Mohun Bagan always played the Durand and they were by far the best team in the country during the 1960s. With no exposure to European or South American football, we were really keen to witness our great players like Chunni Goswami and Ashok Chatterjee.

What I always say is that we saw India being the best Asian football team during the 1962 Asian Games era. Hence, the final was actually being played between the best footballers in Asia. I remember the 1963 finals between Mohun Bagan and Andhra Police. The players like Goswami, Napardyut Barman, Jarnail Singh, Yusuf Khan were a treat to watch those days.

So, we had seven or eight players who were the best in Asia. Questions like ‘Will Bagan stop Yusuf Khan?’, ‘Can Goswami stop Balaram?’ were discussed in every nook and cranny of the city. It had become the main topic of discussion amongst the people.

What, in your opinion, has been the reason behind the reducing prominence of the Durand Cup?

The main reason is till 1989/90 we had people in charge who were passionate about football and the Durand tradition like Wing Commander Ganguly. However, as he gave up due to health issues, they put up Army officers for two-three years who had no interest in upgrading the tournament.

For them, it became like a rolling position and they go through the motions. It was not even held the last two years. They just let it slip and it’s entirely their fault. I understand that the ISL and I-League are garnering the most attention but let’s take this month of September for instance.

It was free from a football perspective and hence many teams would have liked to play to test their bench strength. There is a lack of planning and direction, which is really sad for us who witnessed it during its pomp and glory.

The fact is there is no shortage of money either. Army Green, who won the Durand Cup in 2016, were awarded 60 lakhs from what I’ve heard, which is too much.

The sponsorship is huge but they just don’t know where to use it. They still have good teams, but there’s no advertisement either to promote the tournament. I heard that they are planning to start in Kolkata in 2019 and they are planning to take it around the country, which I think is a very silly idea.

The base has been set in Delhi, and this state has been starved of good football since so long. Right now we are just ignoring all other small competitions and putting all our eggs in the same basket with the ISL and the I-League. There’s no vision in organizing tournaments right now.

You dedicated some pages to India’s run in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in the book. Would you like to elaborate on that campaign?

1956 Melbourne Olympics was the first time India got over their stupid romanticism of playing barefoot, which we had due to our colonial hangover. We lost the first match of 1948 Olympics to France but we had a good chance of winning it had we worn boots.

Sailendra Manna had slipped while taking a penalty and Mahabir Prasad blasted it over the net. What happened then was King George VI had invited the Indian team and praised Manna for being able to kick so hard without boots. We got carried away with this praise from the English monarch and needlessly discontinued boots for more number of years.

It hurt us in 1952 too when it was freezing cold and Yugoslavia defeated us 10-1. Syed Abdul Rahim, who was our coach, then decided that no footballer without boots would be allowed to play for India. In 1956 we had a new look team and that got the people excited too.

Rahim had filled the team with youngsters with only Noor Mohammed and Aziz being the older guys. Rahim even realized that though the older players were artistic to watch, they were very slow and hence they needed to be drafted out.

He also realised that we had to play a quick passing game as we couldn’t match the physical attributes of the European players. Rahim was influenced a lot by the great Hungarian coach Gusztav Sebes who used to play with a withdrawn centre-forward. He adopted that technique and in a way we played 4-2-4 even before Brazil.

That squad was extremely revolutionary and had set a direction for Indian footballers. Youngsters like Zulfiqar and Tulsidas Balaram were the new heroes and that had again put India in a new map. Even then FIFA President Mr Stanley Rous was very impressed with how we had recovered back from that shambolic rout against Yugoslavia.

We earned a lot of recognition as Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. Really that generation 1956 to 1964 was the ‘Golden Generation’. They were the ones who really excelled at that point of time.

Coming to the ISL now, what are the major positive impacts that the league has had in the last few years?

I guess being trained by the foreign coaches, rubbing shoulders with some of the most prolific names in the sport has really helped. Competing with the foreign players regularly will make the Indian players mentally tougher too.

Moreover, the biggest positive is the payment. I’ll be honest and say that the players are being paid very well due to the ISL. They get good facilities, stay at good hotels and we have developed the overall infrastructure with the grounds and stadiums being refurbished.

However, there are two drawbacks too according to me.

Firstly, there is no relegation. What happens, in the end, is the teams say that they are playing for pride but once qualification to playoffs isn’t possible, they have no fear of facing the drop either.

The quality of the competition reduces in this respect. Relegation will teach the teams how to fight, how to manage a draw, how to sneak out a win. They need to learn these fringe skills.

Secondly, the ISL is consigned to only eight-ten states and hence the small states are ignored in this way. There is a duplication of teams too. In my opinion, if Kolkata has Mohun Bagan and East Bengal then what is the need of ATK?

Anyways, the other two teams will join soon so why didn’t they make an effort to make them join the ISL in 2014 itself? Even Goa with the likes of Dempo and Salgaocar did not exactly need FC Goa.

I consider ISL to be very successful as it has woken up football in Chennai with Chennaiyin FC and even in Kerala. These states need clubs as they are really passionate about the game. However, the other relatively smaller states need recognition too, which hasn’t been the case so far.

What are your views on the ISL & I-League merger? Does it have more pros than cons?

It’s a typical Indian situation where we are letting it drift. They are just letting the I-League clubs die slowly. We have millions wanting to play football. More clubs have closed than opened in recent years. There are so many clubs who know how to choose and train players.

They lacked marketing and Reliance with their business acumen could have given them that. Instead of setting up new teams and creating confusion, we could have enhanced the already existing clubs with good marketing.

Basically, we need better management at the club level. Many players are selected on agent recommendation and hence there should be a better transparency regarding the deals too.

Cristiano Ronaldo is probably the fittest footballer alive but even he had to undergo a medical examination at Juventus. This is where we need more professionalism. There is no proper structure in Indian football and that is the difficulty eventually.

See, you closed down the older tournaments, didn’t provide alternative competitions and that has caused issues as there are many more teams that would like to play. There needs to be a proper platform to expand the base of talent.

Mr.

Kapadia spoke about Chunni Goswami too

If you had to pick three of the best Indian footballers ever since you started following the game, whom would you choose and why?

Without a doubt, the three best are P.K Banerjee, Chunni Goswami and Tulsidas Balaram. Their combination was telepathic. Each was different too. P.K was very powerful, took good shots and was a threat from set-pieces. Chunni had a Brazilian flair to his game. He dribbled well, had stepovers, body dodges and used to finish really well.

Balaram was like Thierry Henry. He could run up and down and was very quick. For his time, he was far ahead of his peers. He could play outside left, inside left, inside right so he was superb. In fact, he is the only one amongst them who is fit at 83 years of age.

These three were by far the best. But position-wise if you see the best goalkeeper was Peter Thangaraj. Tall and broad in stature, he played for Asian All Stars too. He used to throw well and kicked on the half volley.

Actually, he used to look at PK and Banerjee started to run. Eventually, the ball landed accurately at his foot or head. They had a great understanding. Jarnail Singh was one of the toughest central defenders too. Sudhir Karmakar as a wingback was excellent too.

However, Banerjee, Chunni and Balaram were the finest of the lot. They played for different clubs too. Balaram played all his life for East Bengal. Chunni was a hardcore Mohun Bagan man. Banerjee, as he wanted a job, was in the Eastern Railways.

Wasn’t there any personal animosity between Chunni Goswami and Tulsidas Balaram considering the rivalry of the clubs that they represented?

Yeah, they had that. But, that generation always told me that they were very idealistic in relation to representing the nation. The pride of the flag had a big impact on them.

It all happened after the early years of independence and hence there was a nationalistic feeling amongst the players too. So, all the club rivalries were forgotten when they played for India.

How was your experience covering the 2018 FIFA World Cup? What would be your review of that tournament?

This time it was very fascinating working for the host broadcasters. I enjoyed it because we reached a newer audience. I used to guide the commentators and say that we are hosting an audience that is keen to learn about the game in Hindi.

The Hindi audience doesn’t understand terms like ‘defensive screening’, so we went to the basics and explained what a defensive midfielder had to do on the field. We tried to break down the material very fine for our viewers. Having an entire channel for us meant that we had a wider range of people to speak to.

The English commentators are really good and knowledgeable but I get a feeling that they speak to the Englishmen for whom football is in the blood. Urban India understands the terms like ‘nutmeg’, but that’s not the case in every portion of our country. So, we had to chalk out different, simpler ways of conveying our opinions.

Moreover, it was a very unpredictable World Cup too. To make Indian people understand that there is much more to the World Cup than only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo was interesting, as the duo did not feature post the Round of 16. France weren’t the most beautiful but they were the most effective and that in my opinion is the beauty of football.

To churn out a way to win by applying your strengths; they displayed it in this World Cup. Covering three matches a day was a strain, no doubt! Overall, having the World Cup commentary in different languages was very successful in my opinion. Personally, I feel Belgium should have been in the finals.

They did miss Thomas Meunier against France. Their match against Japan, the change of tactics was absolutely fantastic. That was something that even Yugoslavia did to us in 1956. Playing long balls and crossing in from the flanks, using ‘Plan B’ when the initial plan didn’t work.

Lastly, can we expect any more books that focus on the history and evolution of Indian football?

Let’s see! There’s a lot more to be written on the history of Indian football. Many aspects are yet to be uncovered. As I find the time, I’ll surely write two or three more!