Welcome, Climax Lawrence

Climax Lawrence did not play in the 0-1 defeat to Pakistan, the first time India’s men lost to them in a SAFF event, but stood out for the rest of the competition once he was drafted into the 11 against Afghanistan. He was 23 then and till 2012 when he retired, Lawrence made the heart of the midfield his own. Strong in the air, with solid interceptions and an impressive passing range, his best in Dhaka came in the 1-2 defeat to Bangladesh in the c.

Beginning with a 0-1 defeat to Pakistan, India roused themselves against Afghanistan and found in Asim Biswas a striker with nimble feet, a good header and loads of instinct. Then with Tollygunge Agragami, not an India coach’s go-to club, it was in Bangladesh that Biswas’s career took off. It was scythed in its prime by a series of knee surgeries. We didn’t know what injury rehabilitation was, Biswas had told me last year.

Full back Abhay Kumar and wide left Subhas Chakrabarty had also done enough getting coach Stephen Constantine to say that a third-place finish in the SAFF Cup was not all doom and gloom. As he rebuilds, will it be the same for Khalid Jamil?

Sanan, a bright spark

Mohammed Sanan and Brison Fernandes’s cameos are worth building on. Both are comfortable on the ball and capable of taking on players, qualities that are rare among Indians. Edmund Lalrindika has realised life in ISL is more difficult than I-League and that international goals are even harder to come by. Like with Suhail Bhat, he will find little game time at clubs and that will impede his development but it is one of the realities Indian strikers have to live with. Unless they are Sunil Chhetri or Bhaichung Bhutia.

After the defeat to Singapore in Goa knocked India out, a visibly disappointed Jamil had told us this should not have happened. He had gone against the grain to focus on attack, he said. It hadn’t worked but, equally, India could have scored three by half-time. In Dhaka, Jamil opted for three defensive midfielders which blunted India so severely that Mahesh Naorem had to be introduced at half-time. Here’s hoping India reposes faith in one of the few creative players they have.

India do not play till March and with football being argued in the courts, there’s no saying when the club season will begin. In 2003, India players returned to the National Football League, then in its seventh season. Peter Velappan, Asian Football Confederation’s long-serving general secretary, said it hadn’t really taken football to greater heights. “You wouldn’t have been going home otherwise,” he told me after India lost in the semi-final.

Neither has ISL but at least it ensured football, something India should never again take for granted. India were Asia’s tragedy, Velappan said and seven years after his death, the comment has aged well.

Disjointed then, disjointed now

Like now, because Jamil ignored players from Mohun Bagan Super Giant, India had missed a slew of regulars. Bhaichung Bhutia, Mahesh Gawli, RC Prakash, Sandip Nandy, Deepak Mondal and Tomba Singh, who had run Bangladesh ragged in the 2002 Asian Games, were out injured. Like now, India were disjointed and with goal-shy forwards. Head of the technical committee, IM Vijayan will know all about it given that he was struggling for goals through the campaign.

Over 23,000 packed the stadium on Tuesday creating the kind of atmosphere home teams got all over the world; what with World Cup slots up for grabs. (A Singapore minister called fans in Hong Kong idiots; he has since apologised). A full house backing Pakistan greeted India in their opener. When India met Bangladesh in the semi-final, the stadium could have been sold out many times over.

It was the opposite of what Goa provided last month and that alone tells you how serious India are about football.

My most abiding recall though was not the football, nor the away team atmosphere which gets amplified when India they travel to Bangladesh (it started with the national anthem not being played against Pakistan on the public address system). It was Vijayan taking the lead and Biswas following him in matching moves with two Pakistan players as Baby Nazneen went through the opening verse of “Dama dum Mast Qalandar.”

Play of the week