Debashish Roy

Former international footballer from Karimganj, Debashish Roy, who is currently coaching the Navajyoti Club team in Guwahati, was a mainstay in Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting during the late ’70s and early ’80s. He called for a planned approach by the Assam Football Association to produce quality footballers while talking to Imtiaz Ahmed of The Telegraph.

Excerpts from the interview

The Telegraph: Looking at the Assam football scenario in the last couple of years, what do you think is wrong with the sport in the state?

Debashish Roy: It is basically lack of a planned approach on the part of the Assam Football Association. The AFA is undoubtedly trying its bit to improve the standard of football but its efforts are directionless. Merely spotting talent and putting them under a qualified coach for brief conditioning camps before naming a state squad for a national tournament cannot help produce quality players. There should be a scientific approach. Competent coaches should groom talented players before trying them in the selection trials for the state squads. This method is not practised almost throughout our state.

TT: Why do you think Assam’s senior team’s has been repeated failing to qualify for the Santosh Trophy final round during the last few years?

DR: This is again because of lack of planning. The team constitutes players who are drawn from different clubs just a few days before Santosh Trophy. They don’t even get the time to gel as a team. If the AFA could arrange some matches for the team on an exposure tour prior to the senior nationals, the players would get the opportunity to understand one another and gel as a team.

TT: What do you think about talent potential in the state?

DR: The state is brimming with talent. If we have real talent in any sport, it is football. Examples are Holicharan Narzary and Allen Deuri, apart from a host of players playing for different leading clubs of the country.

TT: Do you think the state sports department is working in the right direction to capitalise on the talent potential?

DR: Not at all. I would say it is one of the directionless departments in the state. At times, it does not know what it is doing. For instance, the directorate of sports had recently organised a two-week summer coaching programme for talented sportspersons from across the state. The effort should have been to engage at least a few accomplished sportspersons who could have motivated the youngsters to adopt a professional attitude towards sports. This was never considered.

Moreover, no arrangement was made to ensure follow-up of the drills prescribed in the camp once the children went back home in far-flung districts. An orientation programme for coaches should have been organised in the respective districts to continue the follow-up drills.

TT: What is your take on the professionalism vis-à-vis footballers in Assam?

DR: To be frank, our players are yet to be professional in the truest sense. Something is lacking in the AFA management itself; the lack of coordination among the top brass.

There are players who are enviably talented but are wasting it by not venturing out. They are happy in their respective hometowns. It is time they changed their attitude.

TT: Finally, your take on the coaches in Assam?

DR: Like the players, our coaches are also quite capable but are complacent. There is hardly anyone trying to be an AFC level-A coach in the present circumstances when the AIFF has made it mandatory for every I-League club to engage level-A coaches.

There should be aspiration and motivation, especially among the younger lot, to do something bigger.