Excerpts from the Football commentary of the
1973 Santosh Trophy Final
“Good evening to the listeners. This is E M
Adithyan reporting from Maharaja’s College grounds Kochi. The final match
between Kerala and railways in the 30th national soccer championship
will start within few minutes. The stadium is heavily overcrowded. A capacity crowd of approximately fifty thousand
is assembled here to witness the match. Even though I have seen all the Santosh
Trophy Football Tournaments and other major football tournaments in the country
from 1962 onwards, never in the history of football, except in Calcutta
football I have seen such a heavy crowd. Surprisingly there are a number of
girls, old women and ladies who are eagerly waiting to see the match. I think
they may be not only interested in seeing the match, but may be interested in
playing the match as well. Therefore, I request the All India Football
Federation to start a national soccer championship for women from next year
onwards. This is the first not only in India but in Asia the football is being
played under the floodlights. Thanks to the electricity department not a single
day there was an electricity failure, which otherwise would have been disrupted
the match. Climate is very nice, No Hot No Cold. Before starting the match, I
am introducing the players of both the teams.
Kerala
Goalkeeper Ravi
Full back Ratnakaran
Right back Usman
Koya
Left Back Satyan
……………………………………
…….”Even though trains are not running in the
country due to loco men strike and coal shortage, Railway boys are running fast
in the field like Rajdhani Express and Grand Trunk express”
“Now the ball is with Prasun Banerjee, the
younger brother of international PK Banerjee and a TTE of western Railway, with
his finest ball control and body control entered Kerala’s penalty area…….”
“The man who has successfully foiled the
attacks of international Inder Singh of Punjab and Subhash Bhowmic, Habib and
Akbar of Bengal, again came for Railway’s rescue.”
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