Indian football in mess: Baichung Bhutia

In a cricket crazy nation like India, footballers may not be cult figures. But captain of the national football team Baichung Bhutia has created a niche for himself in India’s sporting arena through his sheer class. The ‘Sikkim Sniper’, as he is popularly known, took the Indian football circuit by storm with his goal scoring skills, both in national and international fields. He is the only Indian player to have played in the second division of English Premier League (EPL) which is an achievement in itself considering the mess Indian football is in. It’s not just for his goal scoring capabilities, but for the true statesman-like stance he showed when he stood for the Tibetan cause and decided not to take part in Olympic torch relay in Delhi.

In an exclusive interview with Zeenews.com’s Biswajit Jha, Baichung Bhutia touched upon several topics, which are dogging Indian football and the controversy surrounding the Olympic torch relay. Excerpts: How is India’s preparation for the upcoming AFC Challenge Cup? What are our chances in the tournament? We have a pretty balanced squad for the AFC Challenge Cup. Presently, we have some injury problems in the team, but hopefully, everything will be fine when the tournament kicks off at the end of July. You have been invited to play in the charity match organized by Goal4Africa where you will be rubbing shoulders with Gerrard, Buffon, Nistelrooy. How do you feel? It is a great honour and privilege to be invited to play alongside these great international stars. But it’s more important for me because the match will be organized for a good cause. What’s the reason behind the recent SAAF debacle? It was disappointing to lose the final against Maldives. But barring the final, we played pretty well, winning five consecutive games there. In the final, we had a bad day on the field which I would personally like to forget. Now, I am looking forward to the AFC Challenge Cup which is being hosted by India. You couldn’t take part in the farewell match of great German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn in Kolkata recently as you were busy with the national duty. Do you have any regret of missing that match? No, I have no regret. I had no option because we were busy with playing SAAF tournament for India. So, will you always put country over club if any such situations crop up in future? Yeah, definitely. I have always put country first in the past and I will put country over club in the future, too.Do you regret not taking part in high-profile Olympic torch relay which is an honour in itself? No, I haven’t any regrets. It was a well-thought out decision. I had already clarified my position on this issue and I won’t like to discuss much about it. After retirement, what is your plan? May be in coaching….really I don’t know presently. Personally, I have no retirement plans as of now! I would like to play as long as possible for my country and then I will decide about my future. What’s the reason behind Indian football’s present predicament? Overall, everything is in bad shape. The whole structure is in a mess. We need to encourage the youth from the grassroots level. Basically we have to re-structure our whole system. We have a lot of technical flaws in the whole system. But I don’t want to brood over these things…my main job is to score goals for the country and I am concentrating on that only. What’s the reason that we don’t have another Baichung Bhutia coming up in Indian football? That I don’t know. You better ask this question to our administrators. What’s the future of Indian football? Is there any silver lining? There is lot of room for improvement. There is lot of interest regarding football in India…there is craze…some good performance by our national team can turn the table in the near future.