Quest for Quality

Quest for Quality

The just concluded Durand Cup Football Tournament held in the Capital will long be remembered for one thing the dazzling display of IM Vijayan. Such was his spectacular display that he was the saviour of the team on several occasions and single-handedly took the team to the pinnacles of glory.      His scintillating display over shadowed the great performance of many other players of different teams including the foreign players inducted by many top teams. The greatness of Vijayan’s feat can be gauged from the fact that not one of the several footballers of Nigerian origin who are playing for various Indian clubs could match the brilliance of Vijayan.  (Nigeria is the current Olympic Champions).

            Vijayan was born in a poor family and comes from a remote village of the Country. He spent his childhood in abject poverty. Vijayan’s success story should be an eye-opener to our sports administrators who always nurse a grouse for lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the Country. It is not the lack of funds or facilities which stand in the way of our progress but lack of dedication, sincerity, team spirit and killer instinct.

            Vijayan is undoubtedly the finest Indian footballer of this decade. He is having an enviable record of being a member of six Federation Cup winning teams. Twice he helped Kerala Police, Mohun Bagan and JCT to win the Federation Cup- the supremacy of Indian Soccer. Football fans have even coined a slogan “Vijayan hai jahan Federation Cup hai wahan.” In spite of all his incredible achievements, he has not been conferred with the Arjuna Award, whereas, many others with unimpressive achievements are Arjuna awardees. Indian Football’s low ranking on World or Asian level cannot be taken as a reason for not conferring Arjuna Award to this talented black pearl.

                We Indians are reluctant to recognise talent in various fields. No wonder talented people leave the country in search of greener pastures. Many of them who left the country in sheer disgust due to lack of recognition and not due to lack of patriotism or greed for money or material comforts.  India is having abundance of talent in various fields. But our administrators, it appears, are unable or unwilling to unearth talent especially from remote areas of the Country. Let our sports selectors and administrators come out of their air-conditioned rooms and search for talent hidden in carious parts of the Country.

            If our sports administrators earnestly start their work right now with devotion, dedication and determination, there is not an iota of doubt that the world’s most populous country (by that time India may overtake China in the field of population) will figure in the medal list in the first Olympics of the 21 century – 3 years from now.