India's fond memories have faded

Back in 1984, George Orwell's Big Brother was watching us. He might have seen India's last appearance at an Asian Cup, in Singapore, an ill-fated expedition that saw them pick up one point from four matches.

Two decades earlier, when the Asian Cup finals were a four-team affair, India had finished runners-up to Israel, beating South Korea and Hong Kong.

But such was the speed of the subsequent decline that by the time the team got to Singapore, they were among the sides expected to make up the numbers.

The 1960s side had players like Jarnail Singh, the defensive rock, and Chuni Goswami, one of the trickiest forwards on the continent. There was also the powerful Inder Singh, who scored against both Korea and Hong Kong in that Asian Cup campaign.

A generation on, there were still players with skill, but the game had moved on, and India were found out both physically and tactically.

A 2-0 loss to Singapore, the hosts, set the tone. Against the UAE, they held firm until the final 10 minutes, when goals from Adnan Al Talyani and Fahad Khamees effectively ended their interest in the tournament.

The lone bright spot came against an Iranian team ravaged by the war with Iraq. They would go on to reach the semi-finals, but India parked the bus in front of goal and got away with a goalless draw.

Against China, who went on to lose to Saudi Arabia in the final, those tactics were futile.

Lin Lefeng's early goal forced India to play, and only Chinese profligacy in front of goal prevented a scoreline worse than 3-0.

Not really worthy of Big Brother's attention. What followed was even worse, two decades of utter mediocrity before the arrival of two Englishmen, Stephen Constantine and then Bob Houghton, lifted standards marginally.

A 9-1 loss to Kuwait last November offered a brutal wake-up call though, illustrating the paucity of talent in the ranks.

In a hard-hitting column, Jesse Fink, an Australian who is one of Asia's best football writers, said it best.

"India is a deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck with "SOCROO" number plates bearing down on it," he wrote

"It's going to be carnage - whoever Holger Osieck [the Australian coach] picks. And if Scott McDonald can't score against them, then [Mark] Rudan is right: God help Australian football."

Like many others, Fink questions India's very place at the top level of Asian football.

They have not come close to qualifying legitimately in years. If not for the victory in the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008, against the might of Tajikistan, there would have been no back-door entry to the big party.

"India is not the biggest loser from this monumental mismatch," wrote Fink.

"It is the credibility of the Asian Cup itself and especially Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed bin Hammam, who gave India a Golden Wonka ticket into the tournament by allowing it to bypass normal Asian qualifying and get in via winning the AFC Challenge Cup, Asia's second-tier national-team competition."

And it is not just Australia that India have to fear.

Their second game is against Bahrain, denied a World Cup place in South Africa last June only by New Zealand's Mighty Whites, who went on to have a sensational tournament.

They finish their campaign with a match against South Korea, Asia's most consistent side over the past three decades. Given what Park Ji-sung, the Korean talisman, has got the better of some of Europe's finest defences in Manchester United colours, it's not an appealing prospect.

Bin Hammam's intentions may have been good - it can only be beneficial for the game if the world's most populous region is represented at the Asian Cup - but it is not sops that Indian football needs. It is a root-and-branch transformation.

Watching school football in the 1980s was a pointer to the decline.

Players dribbled like Denilson into corners and blind alleys. There was no shape or structure, and hardly any thought of working as a team.

Few of the coaches are qualified enough to take charge of an Under 17 side in Europe, and the clubs in the I-League hardly invest in youth development, preferring to pay ridiculous salaries to hefty and limited players from Africa.

Bhaichung Bhutia, the one player nearly good enough for the Asian level to emerge in the last 15 years, has a hamstring injury, while Sunil Chhetri, whose much-hyped move to Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards has been a disaster, is just on the mend from an ankle problem.

Any way you look at it, India's Asian Cup is a car crash you can see from a mile off. I will consider it an achievement if they don't ship more than 10 goals in the three games.

sports@thenational.ae