The Indian Dream: Down But Not Out

Head lowered. Shirt tucked out of the shorts. Sweat and blood mingling with each other running towards the drain. Face showing desperate frustration smeared with the redness of embarrassment.

Concerned parents presumably making overseas calls to console their son. Agent presumably putting his hand round the shoulders of his client, assuring him of more such trials in the future.

Dreams shattered, hope battered, flame extinguished, love lost, journey ends, adventure becomes midadventure.

One billion people waking up in the morning to get the heartbreaking news that their darling has been rejected. Rejected by a club that barely survived in the Championship last season. Rejected by a manager who once when 90 minutes late for a press conference on a certain Friday at Real Sociedad claimed his delay was because of a faulty washing machine only for reports to confirm that he was at a local nightclub the previous night.

When Goal.com ran a best wishes section for Sunil Chhetri, asking readers to send their comments to India’s darling, good luck messages from all corners of India poured in, demonstrating just how much Sunil's Coventry adventure meant to the football followers in the nation, who for once did feel that the banner of Indian football was going to be spread across Europe. Okay, that was an exaggeration! But the banner was certainly going to be spread across England.

They were preparing for Sunil to become only the third Indian player in history to play in a European league. Mohammed Salim had featured for Scottish giants Celtic way back in 1937, Bhaichung Bhutia had played for Bury at the turn of the century and the Delhi lad was set to follow in their footsteps.  

But while that 1937 feat is something that has slipped out of many Indians’ mind, Bury is a low ranked club in England. And so this time in case of Sunil, it was going to be something more concrete. After all, not so long ago Coventry were featuring in the Premier League, weren't they? And the fact that an Indian is playing in what is essentially the second tier of English football would surely denote progress for a nation that is currently ranked 142nd in the world. Joint with Niger.  

So there was an understandable sense of hope and optimism floating in the air.

But then again, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Romeo and Juliet didn't live happily ever after, Eve took a bite of the apple and Mary Magdalene was termed a prostitute.

And Sunil Chhetri got rejected.

And the great Indian dream got crushed.

To be honest, Sunil Chhetri's disappointment at the Coventry trials doesn't come too much of a surprise. True, he is possibly the best Indian striker to have emerged in the nation for quite a while and his performance at the AFC Challenge Cup’08 exhibited that he does know a thing or two about playing football but maybe, just maybe, he isn’t really that good.  

This is not to seek excuses for his failure to impress Chris Coleman and Coventry but perhaps his trials couldn't have come at a worse time. He has been out of form for East Bengal this season and has been unable to score goals regularly for the Kolkata giants. And against Chirag United in the I-League, the last match he played before flying to Coventry, he didn’t look particularly brilliant, although he did hit the crossbar.  

Moreover, as Goal.com's Championship expert Ricky Brooks explained, Coventry weren't really in need of a striker as they already have Clinton Morrison and Freddy Eastwood among others and maybe Sunil Chhetri’s trail was sort of a let-us-see-whether-he-has-anything-spectacularly-extra-to-offer-and-then-we-will-think-about-it scheme.  

In the aftermath of Sunil's rejection, there was this comment from someone who prefers to call himself 'futbaler (from India)': "I have a doubt in my mind. Do our footballers really have the potential? Sorry, I am sounding a bit pessimist but our football culture is flooded with only failures....."  

Maybe, there is a grain or two of truth in this. Are we Indians really that good to play in Europe's top leagues? After all, Sunil Chhetri is possibly one of the best Indian players with a chance to play in Europe and his failure might just be taken as a failure for the nation as a whole, just as his success would have symbolized India's triumph in Europe (okay, in England).

Yet, to suggest that Sunil Chhetri’s failure at Coventry is a smack in the face for Indian football would be naivete combined with pessimism. After all, the fact that an English Championship side thought Sunil was good enough for a trial speaks volume. After all, it is not everyday that an Indian footballer is called for a trial at a club that was not very long ago featuring in the Premier League.

This call-up does attest how much India has progressed in football. We are no longer that diminutive backbencher who sits quietly and watches the cool and smart kids rule the class, no longer the Joey (as in Friends) who smiles and laughs and makes comments about things he has no idea about just because he doesn’t want to look like a fool.

Sunil's trials at Coventry demonstrate how far Indian football has progressed and how far it still has to go. Now of course it is apparent that foreign clubs are taking interest in Indian football and this is only going to help the nation. His trials also prove that we have reached the door and the person on the opposite side has been forced to look through the peephole and see us. The next step is to convince that person to open the door and let us in so that we can show him fully what we have got to offer.

And we have a lot to offer.

Subhankar Mondal

PS: The comment from Futbaler, India used in the article had to be slightly moderated.

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