★★ P.K.Banerjee : Five Decades of a Football celebrity ★★ In the 1970s, there was a popular saying in Indian football, ‘Where P.K. goes, the trophies go’. Such was the success rate of this charismatic coach, renowned for his oratory skills and astute reading of the game that any club he coached excelled. Pradeep Kumar Banerjee, popularly known as ‘P.K.’ became India’s first coach to have a glamorous media image. It was he who first made clubs realise that the role of the coach is indispensable and gave coaches a certain status. Prior to P.K., great coaches like Rahim and Amal Dutta were revered but were neither larger than life personalities nor the darlings of the media. Their brilliance was only recognised in football circles. Rahim, who grew up in British India, tended to be reserved, quiet, full of intense concentration, and was not inclined to show his feelings in public. In contrast, P.K. had the personality to give football coaching both glamour and respectability. He belonged to a new generation, not afraid to show his emotions on the field, the gesticulations and incessant instructions revealed his intense involvement with coaching, and he quickly became a favourite of the admiring crowds (despite switching between rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan). Born in Jamshedpur in 1936, P.K. was a precocious prodigy. He played as a right winger for Bihar, in the Santosh Trophy at the tender age of fifteen. In 1954 he migrated to Calcutta to develop his football career and started withAryans F.C. The following year he took a job with Eastern Railway and stayed with them throughout his career, resisting moves to either East Bengal or Mohun Bagan. A dashing but tricky right winger with a blistering shot, he first played for India, as a nineteen year old, in the 1955 Quadrangular tournament in Dhaka. He became an Olympian in 1956 at the age of twenty and later captained India in the 1960 Rome Olympics. When India won the gold medal in the 1962 Asian Games, he scored in the final against South Korea and was chosen as Asia’s best winger. Recurring injury problems caused him to retire from international football in 1967 and gradually his playing career ceased. After his playing career ended, he opted to become a coach and undertook several courses at home and abroad.P.K. had a natural instinct for coaching and since the late 1960s he has been involved in training a range of teams. Over three decades later he is still passionate about the game: even in 2002, at the age of 66, he was TechnicalDirector of the Indian U-16 team, previously in July 2000 he was Technical Director of the Indian national team for the inaugural tour to England. He has been associated with the Indian team at every age-group level, sub-juniors, juniors, Olympic under-23 in the 1999 pre-Olympics and the senior national team. His involvement with coaching the national team started in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games, when he shared the responsibilities with the late G.M.H. Basha. Their team won the bronze and this was to become the last medal won by an Indian team in a major international competition. P.K. has coached India in four Asian Games: in Bangkok (1970), Tehran (1974), Delhi (1982) and Seoul (1986). The Indian team also performed creditably at the 1982 Asian Games under his guidance, losing by a ninetieth minute freak freekick goal to Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals. In the 1986 Merdeka international tournament, at Kuala Lumpur he took India to the semi-finals, including a memorable 4-3 win over South Korea.His club-coaching career started with the Calcutta first division sides Bata Sports and Eastern Railway. His involvement, excellent game reading and motivation soon became apparent and East Bengal acquired his services for the 1972 season. His well organised, highly motivated squad were sensational in their first season, and became the first and only team in the post-Independence era to win the Calcutta league without conceding a goal: certainly a memorable debut season for the new coach. Besides the Calcutta league, East Bengal won the Durand tournament and IFA Shield and were joint champions with Mohun Bagan in the Rovers Cup. East Bengal, like all teams later coached by P.K., had an organised defence, relied on quick counter-attacks and displayed great tactical awareness. Except for brief periods when he was either involved with the National team or for three years (1993-96) when he became the Technical Director of the Tata Football Academy, he remained active as a club coach.From 1972 until his last spell with Mohun Bagan in 1999, P.K. has coached either East Bengal or Bagan, a remarkable feat of consistency. In club football, P.K. has won every major tournament in India. In the 1977 season he guided Mohun Bagan to a historic feat, winning the IFA Shield, Rovers Cup and Durand Cup respectively to achieve their first-ever triple-crown triumph in one season. Yet, his greatest hour came as East Bengal coach against two North Korean club sides, firstly in the 1973 IFA Shield final in Calcutta, and secondly in the DCM finals at Delhi in the same year. Astute substitutions, clever change of tactics and variation in approach of play made P.K. Banerjee’s teams attractive to watch. His teams could play either defensive or attacking football depending on the situation. Throughout his career he was a pragmatic but charismatic and successful coach. His ability to handle star players was outstanding, combining tact with discipline. P.K’s management style was modern as he realised the role of star players and encouraged individual brilliance. But perhaps his most significant achievement was to make the clubs and the media take the role of the coach more seriously. AUTHOR : NOVY KAPADIA.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 06:40:18 +0000