Unfair to place the burden of Indian football on these young shoulders

For a few weeks Indias under17 football squad under Amarjit Singh Khiyams leadership will hold our attention succeeding in wooing some fans away from the Messis and the Ronaldos who are plying their trade in the European leagues But this team the first Indian outfit to figure in a FIFA World Cup at any level could well be feeling as if it is a shipload of explorersThe Indian team in New Delhi yesterday PicPTIIt is unfair to place the burden of getting India to leapfrog as a football nation on these young shoulders It would be ideal if they are just allowed to go out and express themselves on the pitch in the three league games that they will play This squad will only be a reflection of how an elite bunch can progress as individuals and as a team with the right impetusIts really wonderful to see the kind of exposure that the current under17 players have got in the runup to the World Cup Four continents 14 countries Surely the 20 lads ndash and some others who were in the reckoning mdash will have benefited immensely from the training and competitive exposure That will make them prizecatches for league teamsThe backdrop of expectations that this team will inspire India to become a football nation yet again can be overwhelming One swallow never made a summer did it Without a firm roadmap even the Indian womens cricket team has been unable to build on the perceptions that it created by entering the final of the ICC Womens Cricket World Cup at Lords earlier this year The Board of Control for India is still only considering a Future Tours Programme for the womens teamThe key for football evolution in the country lies in providing such exposure to teams of the future too If that does not happen this investment would be less than useful from a larger perspective in the longterm This bunch will then have to carry the torch well past agegroup football If the assembly line isnt ready there will be no reinforcements of similar if not better qualityAs an eternal optimist I do not want to be a naysayer However the ground realities and our general approach to sport makes me smile when I read or hear that the FIFA U17 World Cup football will spark a revolution in the country And there is a historical reason for such doubts to surface againWe have always come up short when it comes to legacy planning As a nation we are known to live in the moment but not make the most of the legacy created by such events We allowed the Asian Games in 1982 and the Commonwealth Games in 2010 become just memories by not building on the sporting and infrastructural gainsIf building infrastructure alone were enough for the country to progress as a sporting nation each of the National Games venues will have thrown up scores of elite athletes across various disciplines We lack a sporting ethos that encourages the young across the country to take to competitive sport and one in which own athletes are the central focus of our attentionSadly even those who are wellversed with such failures have chosen to market the staging of the FIFA U17 World Cup football as a watershed moment in Indian sport The FIH Hockey World Cup in 2010 did precious little to infuse enthusiasm beyond the transient in the country which places great emphasis on national teams doing wellTo be fair the All India Football Federation has made some ambitions plans to keep this bunch together is concerned But they need to be executed well for India to begin the journey of regaining lost ground as a team that counted at least in Asian football sooner than later But the odds on a nation of fans slipping away towards the Messis and the Ronaldos will be very high