Indias greatest ever - from Mahilpur .(Born in Panam) Legendary soccer star and Indias only football ever to earn the reputation of a silent tornado, Jarnail Singh was to a football ground what King Midas was to gold: anything he touched turned to magic. One of the greatest reasons why I consider myself fortunate to have been born when and where I was is Jarnail whom I had the great fortune to see playing on the play fields of both the school and the college where I studied - Mahilpur. What I recall of him is a picture of calm, unassuming grace and elegance, on and off the soccer field. No greater exponent of position play and uncanny anticipation was ever born than Jarnail Singh who, in a team better than Indias was at that time, must have earned everlasting glory which belonged to him but which is identified more now with the likes of Maradona, Zico, Ronaldo etc. Never was Jarnail seen to strain a muscle on a football ground, so incredibly perfect was his anticipation, the ability to make the game, the almost supernatural gift of always being at the right place well before the ball would arrive. As a result, he was a picture of deep but serene and transparent waters flowing noiselessly, effortlessly but irrepressibly along to their marked destination. Jarnail SIngh flowed like water , but he flowed like a streak of distinctly separate colour in a vast ocean. Even though he never seemed to play hard or exert himself, he was, like the legendary magic bird, everywhere on the football ground. His measured, seemingly soft but sharp and scientifically accurate , defence-splitting passes always saw the opposition in complete disarray. The only Indian ever to have received the honour of captaining the Asian All Star Team in 1966. A product of the ragged, rural grounds of Panam and Mahilpur, Jarnail SIngh remained with Mohan Bagan for ten years, helping the team win unprecedented glory during his tenure. His role during the Jakarta Asian Games, when he defied a serious head injury and came back to help India win the championship through a masterstroke of a soccer move will forever remain etched deep in the memory of Indias soccer legends and mythology.Having received a massive and deep cut on his forehead, which required six wide stitches, Jarnail had to walk off the field and remain away from the match when his team needed him the most. But displaying the typical courage of his tribe, Jarnail decided to throw one last dice on the table in Indias desperate cause. Realising that heading the ball would be a near impossibility because of the deep cut, Jarnail decided to move up into the forward line, and in a winner take all gambit, struck one of the most memorable goals to help India defeat Korea and win the Asian title. His heroics remain the stuff of which dreams of sports stars and sports lovers are made. Back home, Jarnail made a late return to soccer in the autumn his most illustrious career to help his home state make brave bid at national championship, an ambition which made soccer experts laugh at that time. But Jarnail had other ideas and the results were nothing short of miracle. These were the days when soccer and Bengal were synonyms. When Punjab fought their their way to the final of the Santosh Trophy in 1966 and had to face the formidable West Bengal for the title clash, no one gave Punjab even a shadow of a ghost of chance to survive the full regulation time . But for months, in the backyards of his mind and of Punjabs often dustry soccer fields, Jarnail had been busy choreographing for Punjab a dream waltz which would mesmerize the whole world, leave their opponents spell bound and incredulous, and a massive national audience rubbing their eyes in shock, awe and disbelief. The reason for this disbelief was not just the fact that Punjab had upset all soccer calculations and predictions by defeating the to natural heirs of national soccer crown, the West Bengal; that by itself would have ensured Jarnail a place among the immortals of the game for his state. But the shock and awe, and utter disbelief flowed from what the Bengal tigers, theirs fans in millions and soccer lovers all over the country were made to witness on that glorious, historic but surreal and supernatural Saturday. Thanks to the strategy charted by Jarnail was given a flying start by diminutive but mercurial and unstoppable Inder Singh, and the rock of Gibraltar Gurdev Singh Gill ( my class mate from SGGS Khalsa College, Mahilpur - the same college for which Jarnail SIngh also played. In a masterly game-plan, Gurdev virtually throttled the Bengal raiders, hardly allowing them even a clean look at the ball. What impregnable Gurdev ensured was to release the blinding soccer skills, dazzling footwork and magical skills of Inder Singh in the forward-line. Jarnail had ensured that he would merely have to oversee the game plan being unfolded and implemented: and thats precisely what the world saw that afternoon. The Bengal citadel and its defenses wilted under a remorseless pressure brought on by Punjab, with Inder Singh playing like a man possessed to hold Bengal players completely in thrall. The scoreline read more like a tennis game : 6-0, and Bengal had been completely decimated in a jaw dropping spectacle. Inder Singh struck a brilliant hat-trick. This is the highest margin of victory in a national soccer championship final till this date. Inder ended the championship with an individual record of 23 goals, the highest ever by any player To get an idea of what magic Punjab spun that afternoon, here are the daunting and forbidding details of Bengals eminence. Bengal have won the national crown on 31 occasions, including six times in a row once. The next best performance by any time till then was just five wins by Kerala. Punjab had never won it even once till that afternoon.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 21:37:46 +0000
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