Be it the 1948 Olympics, when the Indian team impressed in London, or the Asian Games 14 years later, when India won the gold medal, there are indeed some glorious chapters written in the history of Indian football.
The book ‘Box to box: 75 years of the Indian football team’, a compilation of writings from journalists and football writers, provides an elaborate account of those forgotten days, covering every sphere of the game and its development in the country. It starts with India’s first match after independence – the 1948 Olympic Games – when two penalty misses – by Sailen Manna and Mahabir Prasad – saw France eke out a 2-1 despite India playing the better game.
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The language is lucid except for a few parts. All in all, it makes for a delightful read on the tumultuous journey of Indian football over 75 years. Appropriate segregation of the chapters – the book is divided into six sections – makes it easier to swim through them.
The first three parts of the book elaborate on the eras of national teams and their glory, while the next two discuss the club-v-country debate and the ecosystem of football in India’s football hotspots.
The last part – compiled by Gautam Roy – lays down statistics, from squads to international caps.
‘ Tohfa’
Fans of modern Indian football have cherished the era of Stephen Constantine and Bob Houghton, but the book does justice by dedicating nearly two chapters to perhaps the greatest Indian football coach without an official degree – Syed Abdul Rahim.
“ Kal mujhey aap logon se ek tofa chahiye, (I want a gift tomorrow) … Kal aap log sona jit lo (Win the gold tomorrow),” Rahim had told the Indian team on the eve of the 1962 Asian Games final. In front of 100,000 hostile Indonesian fans, the team delivered what was Rahim’s last trophy before his death the next year.
For fans and writers of the game, the book is invaluable also because it provides archival evidence about the game as it developed over decades – something that has been missing in Indian football for a long time.
Sunil Chhetri and Bhaichung Bhutia find special mentions here as the book does a good job in describing the 21st century era.
It also quashes a number of rumours about the game in this part of the world. “A “report” on social media claimed that … Indian footballers were compelled to play barefoot (at the 1948 games) because the government did not provide financial support. It is completely misleading information since all the Indian footballers had boots in their travel bags,” writes journalist Kashinath Bhattacharjee.
However, there are certain parts in the book which read a bit hasty, while the occasional grammatical errors also pique the eye at times.
Nonetheless, veteran sports journalist and editor Jaydeep Basu has done a phenomenal job in creating this museum for Indian football in the form of ‘Box to Box: 75 Years of The Indian Football Team’, with other fellow writers and followers of the game.
BOX to BOX: 75 Years of The Indian Football Team, IMH, ₹649
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