SPANISH TRIBUTE TO CHUNI GOSWAMI
KAJAL CHATTERJEE
It is indeed overwhelming to note that a club as traditional historic and reputed as Sevilla FC of far distant Spain has not only honored the football skills of Chuni Goswami (who had retired 56 years ago and left for another world 4 years earlier) with a tribute on it's Facebook page; but has also imagined the magic which could have occurred in the field had the Indian/Bengali legend and Diego Maradona(arguably the greatest footballer of the planet) played alongside each other!
Though there lies not an iota of doubt that in terms of skills and quality, Goswami had matched the international standard in the field of soccer; still Sevilla FC deserves heartiest thanks from the football fraternity of India and Bengal for acknowledging this hardly recognised truth.
Last but not the least. It is very easy to say that hardly any footballer from Bengal can be seen playing in the three major clubs of Bengal! Instead of stating the obvious, one must act brave and honest enough to put forward the reasons behind it!
In the 1982 Asian Games, as many as 10 Bengali footballer featured in the national squad of 18! Now even in many smaller clubs of the Kolkata Maidan, Bengali footballers are turning as extinct as Dodo! Has the Almighty robbed the football skills of Bengalis overnight or the Bengalis have suddenly lost all interest in the game!
Yes, the fact remains that the football talent and interest among Bengalis have not got reduced a bit ; rather the Who's Who of Bengal football scenario or Maidan are simply overlooking the indigenous folks and embracing the footballers from rest of India and the world with Himalayan pay packets surely to act as "nationalist" and of "international" mindset!
And this slavish mentality is getting witnessed in the arena of Bengal cricket also. Barring a stray Arun Lal or Ashok Malhotra here or there, Bengal Ranji Team comprised of home-grown cricketers only till the early 1990s. Again by which "magic" or "curse" Bengalis have "forgotten" their cricket so much that now barring a stray Anushtup Majumdar or Ishan Porel; almost all cricketers of Bengal are absolute migrants right from Bihar to Uttarakhand! Barring few teams of North-East India with hardly any cricketing infrastructure or mass base of budding talents ; all Ranji cricket teams of India right from Jammu & Kashmir to Kerala, Saurashtra to Assam consist of indigenous players only barring at the most 1 or 2 in the whole squad. All states work for the cause of local talent and nurture them in all possible field including sports unlike Bengal which has has kept it's door wide open for all in all possible sector which has enabled cricketers from all over India to simply walk in and enjoy a flourishing career!
And this very self-hating slavish mindset of the football/cricket mandarins of Bengal (in the guise of being "liberal" "nationalist" "international") is robbing the budding Bengali cricketers and footballers their rightful place in their own soil or state of origin.
Following the Spanish club's tribute to Chuni Goswami, the Bengal football administrators and Maidan fraternity should wake up from their suicidal slumber, learn to have a relook at their sporting legacy and take a vow to nurture invest recruit and promote Bengali footballers on priority basis.