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There is a sense of pride and pain as the former Indian football captain Victor Amalraj speaks of Secunderabad. Pride, for the place produced an array of Olympian footballers and pain as the maidans that gave international footballers is today a pale shadow of its former self. There was a time when as many as five players in the junior state team were from Bolarum and surrounding areas. “I still r
There is a sense of pride and pain as the former Indian football captain Victor Amalraj speaks of Secunderabad. Pride, for the place produced an array of Olympian footballers and pain as the maidans that gave international footballers is today a pale shadow of its former self. There was a time when as many as five players in the junior state team were from Bolarum and surrounding areas. “I still remember, it was in 1976, we beat West Bengal in the final.”
Secunderabad had a football culture and a sizable number of the nine members from the city that was a part of the national side in Melbourne Olympics was from Secunderabad, he added. How come Secunderabad produced so many footballers? “Let’s give it to the British soldiers,” said Amalraj.
There was a vast vacant land behind Military Hospital and close to the Vehicle sub-depot the soldiers would play. My uncle Francis and Olympian Balaram were invited and seeing them many got inspired. It was a British who sowed the seeds of football in the Cantonment, said Amalraj. There is something about the Cantonment that makes kids take up football. Even to this day, children in Ammuguda, Alwal, Bolarum and Trimulgherry are seen playing football and this culture to a great extent is still alive due to the footballers who played in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, avered Amalraj.
There was a time when clubs were dime a dozen and theywere competing with the other. Sadly, several clubs, such as Kennedy Club, RK Puram Club, Gandhi Nagar Club, Venkatapuram Club, Central battery Club to name a few, have been reduced to pages in history. Amalraj said that Secunderabad can still become a hot spot for football only if clubs are revived and sponsorship came in.
Explaining with an analogy from cricket, Amalraj said, when Sunil Gavaskar retired there were other icons who came along in quick succession in Mumbai but nothing of that sort happened in Secunderabad. The playgrounds in Secunderabad that produced star footballers like Balaram, Peter Thangaraj and D Kannan in the past is no longer coming up with players and in the meantime several schools too did not have football teams.
However, Amalraj is hopeful that there would be a turnaround after the FIFA tournament under -17 World Cup in India. “There is no dearth of talent but what is needed is sponsorship, qualified coaches, professional clubs and government support. I am hopeful that once again football grounds in the cantonment will sparkle with footballers who rise to international level. Something like what happened to Kabbadi is needed,” said Amalraj.
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