Is Indian Super League only Indian in name?

With six foreign players allowed in the starting eleven, most managers in the ISL prefer employing non-Indians in key positions

At the DY Patil Stadium in the Indian Super League last week, hosts Mumbai City FC were locked in an intriguing battle with visitors Chennaiyin FC. For nearly an hour, the Nicolas Anelka-managed Mumbai had succeeding in keeping the likes of Stiven Mendoza and Elano relatively quiet. Only five days ago, the South American duo had combined to utterly destroy high-flying FC Goa 4-0.

But then came the gift. Indian midfielder Pratesh Shirodkar, who sits in a holding role in front of the defence and had started all games for Mumbai this season, chose to play a square pass without assessing the threat around him. Elano saw the opportunity, intercepted the pass and with only the goalkeeper to beat, he squared the ball for Mendoza to tap into an empty net.

Shirodkar’s moment of madness was casual by any account, perhaps borne out of tiredness, but fatally casual for Mumbai because at that moment he had found himself in the last line of defence dissecting the two centre-backs. Searching for their first win, Mumbai went a goal behind. And when you go behind in the ISL, it is incredibly hard to stage a comeback – only twice in 15 matches thus far has a team come from behind to take anything from the match.

Such basic errors explain why managers across all eight ISL clubs do not prefer to play Indian players in key positions. However much the commentators or the public relations personnel in the ISL blurt out statistics about Indian goal-scorers and award winners, sadly the driving force behind each club is a group of foreigners.

'Indian' Super League?

The influence of the Indian quotient in the “Indian” Super League is minimal. That perhaps stems from the rules itself which are geared towards preference to foreigners. Six foreign players (more than half the team) are allowed in the starting eleven and only a football person of international repute is allowed as manager – and naturally, a foreign manager prefers foreign players to translate his philosophy on the field.

Mistakes, though, can happen at any level of football anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be an Indian or a foreign player to commit one. But foreign players, owing to an exposure to greater levels of football, are generally better than their Indian counterparts and less likely to make such basic errors. It is not just about skill; it is also about temperament and that comes with experience.

The spine of any football team is right down the centre of the field. The centre-back positions are the key ones in defence – any mistake here and you have only the goalkeeper to save your blushes.

Only Kerala Blasters with Sandesh Jhingan, Atletico de Kolkata with Arnab Mondal, FC Pune City with Gouramangi Singh and Delhi Dynamos with Anas Edathodika play an Indian centre-back as a first-choice option. Both Jhingan and Mondal are the Indian national team’s first-choice centre-backs and Gouramangi Singh is one of India’s most experienced defenders, so anything less would be a matter of grave concern.

A handful of other Indian defenders too have occasionally featured in centre-back slots in season two either as part of the manager’s rotation policy or owing to injuries to preferred players: Gurwinder Singh and Ramandeep Singh for Kerala (a side that plays three central defenders), Zohmingliana Ralte (who scored a decisive own goal in Pune) for NorthEast United FC and Dharmaraj Ravanan for FC Pune City.

Further up the field, central midfield is considered the engine room of the team. It is the most vital and also the toughest position on a football field, where a player must have 360-degree spatial awareness. Central attacking midfielders, on the other hand, form the creative nerve centres – without them, the forward players are starved of goal-scoring opportunities.

Where are the Indian playmakers?

In these positions too, the influence of Indians is kept to a bare minimum. Only at FC Pune City is there a proper reliance on Indian players in central midfield. Pune City manager David Platt is happy to play both Lenny Rodrigues and Eugeneson Lyngdoh (who is currently the best player in the country) as part of a central midfield trio.

Other midfielders holding regular central midfield roles at ISL clubs are: Denson Devadas (FC Goa), Harmanjot Khabra (Chennaiyin), Mehtab Hossain (Kerala), Shirodkar (Mumbai City) and Siam Hanghal (NorthEast United). Besides Mehtab though, none of them are deployed in a playmaking capacity. They are largely present to interrupt opposition attacks. This simply reflects India’s reality: a paucity of ball-playing midfielders that translates into dull, ball-chasing national team performances.

The numbers unfortunately have not grown from the inaugural season of the ISL. In fact, they have only dropped, with players such as Mehrajuddin Wadoo and Souvik Chakraborty who played centrally last season now shifted into makeshift roles on the flanks.

You can only hope this will change over the course of the next few years though right now it is hard to see how. A full generation of Indian players needs to come through to change things, and even then, they will only be competing with foreign players of their own generation.

By Peter Cunha