July 26 2003: East Bengal’s historic ASEAN Cup triumph

The pre-tournament preparation that Sandip was referring to was the first of its kind in Indian football. Once East Bengal’s participation in the tournament was confirmed, the whole squad had a camp which comprised a stay in one of the newly-opened luxury hotels of Kolkata. South African physical trainer Kevin Jackson was also brought to get the players in the best physical shape possible. Such professionalism in the build up for a tournament was unheard of in Indian football.

Sandip Nandy was the best goalkeeper of the tournament

Fair to say, a lot of money was invested and some sections of the local language media blasted Bhowmick for the same. Some of those critics were silenced after a thrashing of arch-rivals Mohun Bagan in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) in the lead up to the tournament and the rest were made to eat their words following the exploits in Indonesia.

“We were lucky to get a chance of playing in that tournament as India was not a member of ASEAN. Therefore the whole pride and prestige of Indian football was on our shoulders and thus the coach recognised that the preparation had to be immaculate. I think we showed the way to the rest of India as to how a team should prepare for a tournament. Nowadays pre-season camps are common but back then it wasn’t. So following our success many other teams starting taking our example,” Alvito D’Cunha, who became a household name after that tournament, told Sportskeeda.

Ten years on, Alvito is still with East Bengal and has gone on to become a club legend. Looking back, Alvito recalled that although he and his teammates made history, the road to success wasn’t smooth.

“It was a memorable tournament and the success would go down as the best achievement of our careers. But we had to fight against the odds throughout the tournament as no one really gave us a chance of winning even one game. Then there was the injury to Debjit (Ghosh), but thank God Douglas (Da Silva) and our doctor Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta did the needful at the right time and saved his life,” Alvito stated.

Brazilian Douglas Da Silva’s prompt action saved Debjit Ghosh’s life

He was referring to the head injury that Debjit had suffered in the quarter-final against Persita Tangerang. The versatile player was left unconscious but just when everybody around started to panic, Brazilian medio Douglas tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Debjit and Dr Dasgupta provided the necessary medication.

Debjit’s life was saved but he was ruled out for the rest of the tournament and East Bengal suffered a further blow in the semi-final against Petrokima Putra when defender Mahesh Gawli was sent off with the score locked 1-1. Once again though East Bengal’s fighting spirit came alive in the most difficult circumstances as they took the game to penalties. And then kept their nerve to win the shootout 7-6 and set up a final showdown with BEC Tero.

“I was so scared when Debjit was down on the ground senseless. But thankfully Douglas and Santi Da saved his life. Despite winning the quarter-final, instead of celebrating after the game we rushed to the hospital to see him. We used his injury as a further motivation so even when we were down to ten in the semi, we never lost hope and eventually made it through to the final,” said Sandip, undoubtedly the hero of the shootout in the semi-final.