SANTOSH TROPHY RETURNED TO CITY OF JOY

Vijay Anand

Santosh Trophy is a Pre Independence football tournament of India. It was patronage by Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh (Now in Bangladesh). The tournament enjoyed heydays from the beginning. All the teams forced their best arsenal for the showdown in search of coveted glory. Filled stadiums and black marketing of tickets were common scenes.

Bengal and Santosh Trophy are synonyms to each other. Without an iota of doubt, Bengal is the big ‘Dada’. They have played 44 finals (out of 71) and won 32 of these. Punjab, their nearest rival for the record, has won only 8 cups. Before this success, their last success arrived in 2011 when Shabbir Ali guided the lads over Manipur in Assam. Since then, even final appearance was eluding the giants.

Whenever we talk about players then name of Inder Singh rises above others. Prolific fearsome Punjab forward holds all the individual records. He netted record 45 goals, 23 of which in a single edition of 1973-74. It is also a record. 

This year, the tournament returned to traditional home of Indian Soccer, Goa, after 95-96. Back then, Bhaichung Bhutia scored the winner for Bengal against Goa. This year, 12-26 March were the dates of the cup. Interestingly, it was concomitant to two Goan festivals, Shigmo and traditional Carnival. Former is celebrated by Hindus in celebration of those warriors who return from Ram’s army after demolishing Lanka in Ramayana. Latter is a Portuguese imbibe in Indian culture.

10 strong teams battle it out in 2 tough pools. Services were looking for hat trick of titles this year but they displayed a very unpleasant show. Services finished at the bottom of Pool A. Favorites and eventual finalist, West Bengal and Goa progressed rather easily for the Semis.  

In Pool B, matches were played with tougher intensity. 4 teams were in the fray for the semis on last day. Eventually, after shedding a lot sweat, Kerala and Mizoram marched ahead. Equally talented Maharashtra and Punjab were condemned to bite the bullet.

First semi final was the longest match of this edition. West Bengal and Mizoram fought for 2 hours without scoring. It went to longest possible distance, sudden death of shootout. Goalkeeper Shankar Roy hold his nerves and saved Lalbiakhlua’s  14th penalty and finished the script. In the other Semi final of the day, Liston Colaco scored two first half goals for the hosts. Kerala reduced the margin in second half but lost it out, 2-1.

 In the final, both teams could not hit the target. When 2 hours limit of regular play was 1 minute away, Manvir Singh broke vociferous home fan’s hearts. In the 119^th minute, this boy rose to the occasion and scored the goal when there was no time to return.  It is quite interesting that upon the guidance of coach Mridul Banerjee, he shifted his base from Minerva football academy to Mohammaden Sporting. It could be his career changing goal and soon he will cross the fence for greener pastures. 

Bengal gave thumping performance. In the whole tournament, they conceded no goal. Even in qualifiers, only one goal was scored against them. Chattisgarh was that lucky team. In the end, Bruno Coalco (Goa) was adjudged the best Goalkeeper, Provat Lakra (WB) the best defender, Cajetan Fernandes (Goa) the best midfielder and Basanta Singh (WB) the best forward.  

There were some rough patches of the tournament. Referrers were not properly trained. Ground conditions were not fine. Water and mud patches gave odd bounces and nasty injuries to players. 

The trophy returned to ‘City of Joy’. Now, Coach Mridul Banerjee has silenced his critics. Now, he will get the recognition which he rightfully deserves. Mamata Banerjee personally congratulated the team. Even Ultras of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal put their rivalry aside and congratulated each other on various social platforms.

The situations improved this year. AIFF pumped in money. Good channel coverage on TV could have given richer dividends. Most interesting part was that Santosh trophy was covered by most of the newspaper right from the first match to the final. Soccer is growing and India’s renewed interest is a welcome sign.