 Sukhwinder SinghIm not holding a brief for Sukhvinder Singh. The national football coach has said he will report on the tours of Pakistan and the Fiji Islands, if the All-India Football Federation asks him to.
Our team had one win, one draw and one loss in Pakistan in June; lost to a club side and twice to the Fiji national team in August.
Sukhvinders declaration raises issues. I have been and am under the impression that the manager and the coach are accountable, that they have to submit their reports on the performances of the team as a whole and the players as individuals.
This to provide the basis for future selection.
Sukhvinders offer leads to the assumption that the AIFF does not make reports mandatory, that it lays little store by the reports, which, perhaps, has led to an infection of casualness, even disregard, by team officials towards one of their primary responsibilities.
Worse, the issue of appointment of a national coach with next years Asian Games in view has exposed the AIFFs lackadaisical approach.
With the Pakistan and Fiji tours as the background to Sukhvinders future and talk of engaging East Bengals Subhas Bhowmick, AIFF vice-president CR Visswanathan reportedly rubbished as media speculation all talk of axing Sukhvinder.
He added by way of emphasis that Sukhvinder will continue as the national coach.
Now the same AIFF vice-president from Tamil Nadu is a part of the four-member panel to interview aspirants to the post and shortlist them to two for appointment by the AIFF. He must be made of very stern stuff to reconcile to his stated view and be on the panel.
The other panelists will have no such inhibitions. Messrs PK Banerjee, a Padma Shri and Arjuna awardee, Chuni Goswami, also an Arjuna awardee, and Dereyk DSouza, a Chhatrapati Shivaji awardee, all have had illustrious careers as players. But as India coaches?
Banerjee and the late GMH Basha were in charge of the last Indian team to win a medal at an Asian Games, the bronze in 1970. But Banerjee, the longest-serving and most resilient of Indian coaches, may not dwell long on the 1974, 1982, 1986 Asian Games.
Nor may DSouza on the year or two he coached the national team. Goswami never was the national coach.
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