Hats off to Habib and his boys

WELL-DONE BOYS!

            Hats off to Habib’s boys for their superlative performance in the just concluded DCM football tournament at Delhi. They are a bunch of energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated youngsters. TFA boys become the darling of the crowd overnight with their scintillating display and stole the heart of many die-hard football fans. The beauty and artistry of TFA boy’s play even overshadowed the magic of IM Vijayan, the most successful footballers of this decade.

            These teen-agers from Tata football Academy once again dispelled the doubt that there is dearth of sports talent in the country. This is amply demonstrated by many of them playing first time in a major national tournament became giant killers without any big name in their ranks. This is also a testimony of the coaching prowess of Habib.

            Habib a veteran footballer of the yesteryears and now a successful coach of TFA deserve all praise for moulding a crack combination. Habib’s brilliance can be assessed from the fact that after the match between Bengal XI and Cosmos New York few year ago, a person no less than legendary footballers Pele patted Habib for his stellar role in the drawn match. What our jumbo-sized sports organistions could not do for years-unearth and nurture talent-TFA’s coach Habib could do in two years.

            In spite of having good coaches in the country, we are inducting foreign coaches who were unsuccessful in their own countries by paying exorbitant fees. Instead of inducting foreign coaches, we should provide international training and exposure to our own coaches to learn the latest techniques and finer aspects of the game. Indian football reached its nadir during the stewardship of Rustom Akramov, a foreign coach. He committed the biggest blunder by asking Joe Paul Ancheri to play in the Defence. Ancheri is lethal striker and no wonder even now he has the temptation to overlap and assume the role of a forward. However, for us Indians, foreigner’s words are like priest’s sermons and we meekly accepted the blunder.

            The exploits of Tata Football Academy should be an eye-opener to our sports administrators. There is abundance of sports talent in the country and if everybody associated with sports make dedicated efforts, the standard of sports in the country will improve dramatically in the near future.