Former India football captain Chuni Goswami, 82, passed away in Kolkata on Thursday after a prolonged illness. The captain of the 1962 Asian Games gold-medal winning team, Goswami had also represented Bengal in first-class cricket tournaments.
For the last few months, Goswami was suffering from underlying ailments with sugar, prostate and nerve problems. His family confirmed that Goswami was admitted to a city hospital earlier in the day and breathed his last at 5pm after cardiac arrest.
Under his captaincy, the Indian football team won gold at the 1962 Asian Games, finished runner-up at the Asian Cup in 1964 and narrowly lost to Burma in Mardeka football six months later. In club football, Goswami always played for Mohun Bagan. In his college days, he captained Calcutta University in both football and cricket in the same year.
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Starting his international career in 1957, Goswami was the one of the biggest stars of the national team. However, he quit international football in 1964, at the age of 27.
Not just football, Goswami was successful in cricket as well. In 1966, he and Subroto Guha plotted the historic innings defeat of Gary Sobers’ West Indies by the combined Central and East Zone team under Hanumant Singh in Indore. Goswami took eight wickets in that fixture.
He was appointed the Bengal Ranji Trophy captain in 1971-72 season and under his captaincy, the team reached the final, before losing against Bombay at the Brabourne Stadium.
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