Santosh Trophy Football :: Merry Go Around The Mulberry Bush - So Early In The Morning

Santosh Trophy Football :: Some HEART RENDERING &  MEMORABLE incidents & tales-:

 This Tourney was the MOST popular, prestigious and it involved the PRIDE beside the PRESTIGE of the players playing in it for their respective home state.

Some were adopted sons of the state and some went back to their state to give it back to them by playing in this tourney. Such was the importance of playing in this football championship and that was the the prestige involved.

In the 20th century, the Santosh Trophy was the most prestigious trophy in Indian football. International selection was based on performances in these senior national championships. Rookie forwards Tulsidas Balaram and Zulfiqar were selected for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics based on their outstanding performances in the 1956 senior national championships in Trivandrum, which Hyderabad won for the first time beating Bombay 4-1 in the final.

In contrast, the 66th Santosh trophy final which was held at Cuttack on May 29, 2012 between Services (champions in 1960) and Tamil Nadu (runners up in 1972) lacks glamour and status. At present, the Santosh Trophy is just a stepping stone for entry into an I-League club, nothing else.

Glimpses of the “ HISTORY ”

However, below are glimpses of the Santosh’s Trophy’s glorious history. The useless kind of a mind setting and the jugulars' of making hay while the sun shines through the so called Indian Super League had made this a SHIT of any tournament which again is the DEATH-HACK of Indian football.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

In the fifth annual general body meeting of the AIFF, at the Cricket Club of Bombay on 27 January 1941, a decision was made through which we saw the birth of the inter-state championships in the same year, but on a zonal basis, to cut down on expenditure. The winners of each zone would play in the final rounds. The winning team would get the Santosh trophy, valued in those days for the princely sum of  “ Rs. 2,000 ” .

In the inaugural year, 13 teams participated and were divided according to geographical zones, as follows:Zone A: North West Frontier Province (NWFP, now in Pakistan), North West Indian Football Association (NWIFA-a region also now in Pakistan) and Army Sports Control Board (ASCB).

Zone B: Delhi, Rajputana and Sind

Zone C: Bengal (IFA), Dacca (now part of Bangladesh), Bihar and U.P.

Zone D: Madras, Mysore and Western India Football Association (WIFA-the controlling body of the game in Bombay).

The zone winners qualified for the final, held in Calcutta. Bengal won the inaugural tournament beating Delhi 5-1. The best match was between Bengal and Bombay (WIFA) in the semi finals. Bombay fielded two English professionals, Hill and Langton, both of whom had played for Blackburn Rovers. Bengal won by a solitary goal, scored by left winger Pat D’Mellow direct from a corner kick.

GREAT GOALS - :

All of India’s illustrious forwards from Mewa Lal to Baichung Bhutia have played in the senior national football championships for the Santosh Trophy and scored memorable goals. Yet one of the best goals ever scored is not by the skillful Chuni Goswami, T. Balaram or Inder Singh or sharp-shooters like P.K. Banerjee, Zulfiqar, Moin or Sukalayan Ghosh Dastidar, but surprisingly by an international defender  “ Arun Ghosh ”.

 

OH!! What a “ GOAL” it was -:

Pic-: Aroon Ghosh

 In the 1960 Calicut Nationals, the mighty Bengal was struggling against the tenacious Assam in the quarter-finals. The match-winner was like a bolt from the blue. The Assam defence partially cleared a Bengal attack and as the high ball was landing,  toward Arun Ghosh,  who facing his own goal, executed an acrobatic scissors volley that brooked no denial. He never scored such a breathtaking goal again.

Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar : Forgotten name, but was a “ SUPER-POWER ”

Pics-: Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar  in dark jersey

For sheer power, few could match Bengal’s striker of the early seventies, and his name was Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar. Goa staged the national championships for the first time in 1972. With international goalkeeper Sudhir in top form, a sturdy defence, George Ambrose, Chathunni and Nicholas Pereira, skipper and midfielder George Rosemond and strikers Williams and Bernard sharp in attack, the hosts clashed with Bengal in the semi finals. This match finished as an exciting 2-2 draw. Goa led 2-1, minutes before the final whistle. However, Bengal equalised with a booming 40-yard pile driver by Sukalayan Ghosh, which zoomed into the net. The vociferous Goa supporters were silenced and Bengal won the penalty shoot-out and annexed the Santosh Trophy that year, beating Tamil Nadu 4-1 in the final.
If the memory is so weak Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar was the member of that Indian team for the Bangkok Asian games which had won the Bronze medal defeating the Olympic Bronze medallist of the 1968 Olympics, Japan by 2-1 but he did not play in the entire tournament then as he was never fielded by the Indian coach Mr G.M.Basha and the Assistant Coach then ,  Mr Pradeep Banerjee.

Pic-: The Indian Team which won the Bronze Medal in 1970 Asian games

HISTORIC GOALS - :

Hyderabad, coached by the legendary late S.A. Rahim, were on the verge of a hat-trick of Santosh Trophy titles in the Madras Nationals of 1958-59. However, in the quarter- final league phase, Services sharp-shooter Capt. Moloy Lahiri foiled the dream. He scored a memorable hat-trick, which enabled Services to upset Hyderabad 5-2 and eliminate the 1956 and 1957 title winners from the championships.

 Punjab uproot and overturns the “ Apple-Cart ”

Pics - : Inder Singh

Punjab staged the National football championships for the first time in Jullundur, 1970 because they had the confidence that they could win the title. However, in the semi final, they were up against the mighty Bengal and were trailing 0-1 till a few minutes before the final whistle and looked down and out. In a sudden change of events, the burly striker Manjit Singh latched onto a throw from the left and bulldozed past two of India’s finest defenders Sudhir Karmakar and Syed Nayeemuddin to score from close range. Bengal got demoralised and lost the penalty shoot-out. It was the first time that Punjab had beaten Bengal. Manjit’s goal gave them the tonic of self-belief and from 1970 till 1995, Punjab won the Santosh trophy six times and were runners-up thrice.
Carlton Chapman : The “FIRST” ever GOLDEN BOY of Santosh Trophy

Pics-: Carlton Trophy

Carlton Chapman scored the first ever golden goal in the Santosh trophy final in 1995 at Chennai, enabling Bengal to pip Maharashtra by 2-1. Before the match, Bengal’s coach Syed Nayeemuddin gambled and dropped international midfielder Gunabir Singh and included Baichung as a striker. Till then Baichung had played mostly as a midfielder or withdrawn striker. Nayeem, noted for his astute game reading felt that Baichung had the razor-sharp reflexes to be a top class striker. The young Baichung justified his coach’s faith and scored a memorable goal. The rest as they say is history. Baichung became the first Indian to play 100 international matches. He retired after scoring 43 goals in 107 international matches.

PROLIFIC SCORERS- :

In the 1945 Nationals, Bengal outclassed Rajputana 7-0. Fred Pugsley, scored all the seven goals. This is a record tally by an individual in a single match in the Santosh Trophy and it is still unbroken.

Incidentally, Pugsley was a Burmese, having a British origin , who was playing for East Bengal. In pre-independence India, eligibility rules were lax and foreigners could play in the National championships. Pugsley had walked all the way from Rangoon to Calcutta in 1943 to escape the Japanese annexation and went straight to East Bengal seeking for help. The club officials nurtured him back to full health and in return he became one of the first foreigners to have excelled for the club .

Miracle Created : Punjab Hooked Bengal For a “ SIX ” :Inder sets a RECORD

Pic-: Inder Singh

In the 1974 Jullundur (that was how it was spelt in those days) Nationals, Punjab won the Santosh Trophy for the second time. In the final, they routed Bengal 6-0. The Punjab team had been training for over a month and had a slick forward line consisting of Inder Singh, the late Manjit Singh and the brilliant ball player Harjinder Singh. Inder, who had by then twice led India in the Merdeka tournament, stole the limelight. He scored 23 goals, the best ever individual scoring tally in the Santosh Trophy till date.

In the 1960s, Bengal won the Santosh Trophy, the most prestigious trophy in Indian football, only twice in 1963 and 1969. However in 1969, Bengal led by left back Santo Mitra, produced a memorable display, outclassing all opposition to win the Santosh Trophy in style. Bengal routed Goa 4-0, Tamil Nadu 8-0, Andhra Pradesh 4-0 and 6-1 in the double-legged semi-finals and Services 6-1 in the final.

Mohammed Habib : Two “ HATTRICK ” in a single edition, record still unbroken

Pics- : Mohammed Habib

Bengal recorded a phenomenal 28 goals and conceded just two. The wily inside-forward Mohammed Habib finished as top-scorer with 11 goals, including two hat-tricks against Madras and one a double hattrick in the finals against Services in the final. It was the first hat-trick in a Santosh trophy final and the ONLY double HATTRICK in the Santosh Trophy finals.. Other major goal-scorers for Bengal in this championship were left winger Pronob Ganguly 6 goals, and inside-forwards Biman Lahiri (5 goals) and Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar (4 goals).
MEMORABLE DEBUTS - :
One of India’s most agile goalkeepers C. Mustafa impressed for his home state Kerala, in his first nationals in Calicut, 1960. He was immediately snapped up by Mohammedan Sporting and helped them win the DCM tournament in 1964.
Chuni Goswami Tulsidas Balram and Pradeep Banerjee : The start of the “ TRINITY ”

Pics-: Tulsidas Balram
Indian football’s glamour boy Chuni Goswami captivated Kerala’s fans in his inaugural Santosh Trophy in Ernakulam in 1955, with his mesmerising dribbling skills.P.K. Banerjee first played in the Santosh Trophy at Calcutta in 1953 as a precocious 17year-old right-winger for Bihar. They beat Madras 1-0 and afterwards held Bengal, to successive draws (0-0 and 1-1) before losing 0-1 to a goal scored by 1952 Olympic captain defender Salien Manna. P.K. got a paltry sum of Rs. 6 (six rupees only) as pocket expenses during these national championships. P.K. impressed in this tournament and moved to Calcutta the next season.
SOME LANDMARKS- :
The league-cum-knock out format was introduced in the 15th National championships held in Madras in 1958. Bengal emerged champions beating Services 1-0 in the final. Inside-left Tulsidas Balaram scored a brilliant goal after dribbling past a couple of defenders in the penalty area.
Goa : Start of a new era in Santosh Trophy
On March 6, 1983, Goa captured the Santosh Trophy for the first time, finishing as joint champions with Bengal. This is the only time where the Santosh Trophy has been shared between two opponents. Also, this is the only occasion in which Bengal has hosted the Santosh trophy and not won it outright. Goa’s skipper Brahmanand Shankhwalkar gave a sterling display as goalkeeper and both the final and replay ended in goalless draws. It was a proud moment for him as he went to receive the trophy on his 28th birthday. In a sporting gesture, the Bengal skipper Compton Dutta allowed Goa to keep the trophy for the first six months.
Merry Go Around The Mulberry Bush , So Early In The Morning ::
In 1990, the AIFF experimented with the Nationals and made it an Under-23 year’s tournament. States participated in a qualifying round on a zonal basis and top eight played in the quarter-final league at the Nehru stadium Margao. Goa defeated Kerala 2-0 in the final on May 27, 1990. International midfielder Mario Soares was Goa’s skipper. The members of the Goa team each got Rs. 30,000 for this landmark win.The U-23 nationals lasted for only three years. In the 1993-94 Santosh Trophy at Cuttack, the old format of all states playing at the same venue and no age-restrictions was reverted to.
This is all about the Trophy which was the BACKBONE of Indian FOOTBALL then
It is said that to PURSUE your DREAM you need three things- I illustrate them as under->
1). A " WISH " BONE ( The Indian Government )
2). A " BACK-BONE " ( The Players representing the team)
3). & A " FUNNY-BONE " -- >> like the one's we have in AIFF, Mr Praful Patel and them who are the one's who are responsible for running the Sports in the country , as same as the HUSBAND that is the HEAD of the family with NO BRAINS at all , at times. Imagine what would be the condition of the house then.
DITTO- the same with AIFF and Indian Football now

Rgds

Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Mr. Shyamal Bhattacharjje, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in marketing