this is our problem. We keep on blaming others. You blame AIFF, AIFF will blame you. Happy staying stuck 500 years backwards! I dont understand why MB and EB fans also speak and behave like their bloody useless officials!!!
1. Inability to build a ‘squad’: Mohun Bagan officials failed to bolster all areas equally. They spent a fortune on buying strikers but didn’t buy enough players for central midfield or defence.
2. Injuries: Not having a proper pre-season and not utilizing Salt Lake stadium’s artificial turf for practice proved to be detrimental for Mohun Bagan. A number of players got injured after playing on YBK’s turf.
3. Poor choice of foreigners: Muritala Ali was bought for an unnecessarily large amount. Despite a bright start to the season, Muritala was never really a big match player, as he missed easy goals in many I-League matches. Buying the eternally unfit Diamond Star meant Bagan effectively used two foreign players, as Barreto too was frequently injured.
4. Unsuitable Coach: Stanley Rosario was a poor choice to begin with. His last stint with a big club in Kolkata ended unceremoniously; he struggled to deal with the immense pressure of managing a big club and made numerous mistakes. In fact, Roasrio was tactically out-thought in many games. Subhash Bhowmick got a demotivated and injury ravaged squad. However, he should have done better against some of the smaller teams.
Much has been written of the historic significance of the match of July 29, 1911, of the occasion itself, of the bare-footed Bengalis (ten of them wore no boots) outwitting the sturdy Army guys. But it is still interesting to go back to that time, and look at a few more details, around and about.
And it gave Mohun Bagan, now declared the national club of India, an occasion to celebrate every year. The feat then inspired Achintya Kumar Sengupta to write in ‘Kallol Jug’: “Mohun Bagan is not a football team. It is a tortured country, rolling in the dust, which has just started to raise its head.”
Sport wise, it was just at that time an “All-India” cricket team, organised by the youthful Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, was touring England. Indians had already started playing at Wimbledo. Football came with British rule and therefore arrived in Calcutta earlier than it did in other parts of India. Yet, it came after cricket since the oldest cricket club of the city, the Calcutta Cricket Club, dates to 1792 and The National Football club of India, the oldest Club in Asia, was established on August 15, 1889, 97 years later. The IFA Shield, the fourth oldest competition in the world was initiated in 1893. It was dominated by British Army teams in India, until the Mohan Bagan Club of Kolkata broke the jinx with a 2-1 win over East Yorkshire Regiment in 1911.
On that day tickets priced at ` 2.00 were sold at ` 15.00 marking the beginning of ‘black’ tickets in India. The purchasing power of the rupee was then thousand times that of 2011 (with gold at fourteen rupees a sovereign of eight grams or 1.75 rupees per gram). That means the black market tickets for the 1911 football match would be worth 15000 rupees today, which compares well with the World Cricket Club final match AC lounge ticket in 2011, which fetched in the black market 25000 rupees! The score cards in those days were kites being flown in the sky in team colours. If East York Regiment scored a goal, one would see lots of kites in black bearing the score figure in the sky. If Mohan Bagan was the scorer, maroon-and-black kites would be flown in the sky, with the score written on them.
And the crowd was varied. An actor who plays female roles in jatra (Bengali drama) performances cancelled all his engagements on that day, takes off his wig to reveal a bald pate and becomes the self-appointed commentator, hurling choicest Bengali abuses at the British players who cannot understand the language. The British onlookers are equally abusive during the game. The referee, however, is impartial, refusing to bend under the orders of his superiors, who try to force him to see Mohun Bagan defeated.
Estimating a huge turnout, the East Indian Railway arranged for special trains from Burdwan to Ranaghat from the outskirts of Kolkata. Special steamers were arranged to bring people from Rayganj and Baranagar one hundred kilometres away. Coolies were charging about 50 paise to ` 2 to run errands. (This was huge money in those days). The “Pioneer” reported that “A boiled potato cost 1 (ten rupees worth in 2011) and paan was 1 anna (70 rupees today).” About 80 thousand to 100,000 people were there in the maidan to watch the game. One side was filled up with the Kolkota babus and the other side by the British Army.
During the 1911 Shield, Shibdas Bhaduri’s team had routed top sides of the day, including St Xavier’s (3-0), Rangers (2-1), Rifle Brigade (1-0), Middlesex Regiment (1-1, 3-0) and now they had to face East Yorkshire Regiment. One newspaper recorded that, before the IFA tournament, the betting (which was legal in those days) at 3-1 for East Yorks and Mohun Bagan had been quoted at 15-1.
On the morning of the match day, the Mohun Bagan players went to Kalighat temple to seek blessings of ‘Kali’- the Goddess of Power.
With red tilaks on their foreheads the players stepped in the pitch one by one. They were: Hiralal Mukherjee, Bhuti Sukul, Sudhir Chatterjee, Manmohan Mukherjee, Rajen Sengupta, Nilmadhav Bhattacharya, Kanu Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Bhaduri, Shibdas Bhaduri (captain).
Initially, the East York Regiment scored and to quote a local newspaper “The British spectators were overwhelmed with this goal. They started to celebrate this goal by igniting the effigy of Mohun Bagan! Then Bhaduri, the skipper, scored the equaliser 20 minutes into the second half, before sending a perfect pass to Abhilash Ghosh to fashion a memorable win against East Yorkshire Regiment with just three minutes to go for full time.
The scenes that followed the final whistle were beyond description. It was as if the whole population had gone mad and to compare it with anything would be to minimise the effect!”
British newspapers were unqualified in their praise. “For the first time in the history of Indian Football, a core Bengali team, Mohun Bagan, won the IFA Shield by defeating a competent white team. Though about 80,000 spectators were present on the ground, but most of them could not see the match. By noticing the flying of kites, they were following the actions of the match. And when they came to know about the win of their team, they started tearing off their shirts, waving them, tearing their hairs”, as reported by Reuter, London.
The local newspaper ‘The Bengali’ published a poem on July 30, in honour of Mohun Bagan It said, “Thanks my friends of football renown, For bringing the British teams down, A victory grand to behold, Serene and noble-bright and bold - The Mohun Bagans”.
It is said that when the team was returning to the club with the Shield, a Brahmin pointed to the Union Jack atop the Fort William and asked - “When will that come down?” Somebody replied that “It will come down when Mohun Bagan will win the shield again.” It may be a coincidence, but Mohun Bagan won their next shield in 1947 - the year of Indian Independence!
Mohun Bagan Club and India still remember the grand victory. In 2010, the Government of India issued a special postal cover commemorating the grand success and in January 2011, the Bengali film ‘Egaro’ (meaning The Eleven in Bengali) was released on the 1911 football event. The music of ‘Egaro’, “Amader Surjo Maroon” has become very popular and can be heard as a caller tune. The executive committee of Mohun Bagan has unanimously decided to confer the title of Mohun Bagan Ratna posthumously to the 10 players of the historic 1911 IFA Shield winning squad. Late Shibdas Bhaduri has already been conferred the honour. An “Immortal XI” sculpture, a fibre glass tribute to the famous players was installed in 2009 at the intersection of Kirti Mitra Lane and Mohun Bagan Lane near Phariapukur in north Calcutta. This is where Maharaja Kirti Mitra’s Mohun Villa, the birthplace of India’s national club, once stood. It is also believed that the team played its first match here in 1891, against Eden Hindu Hostel.
Mohun Bagan Club has continued with its success. According to FIFA rankings, in Asia, Mohun Bagan is the 16th biggest team to have an average home crowd of 19,888. According to World standards, Mohun Bagan has been ranked of 127 much ahead of other big clubs like Udinese (Italy), Benfica (Portugal) and Fulham (England) to mention a few.
(Maharaja Features)
Under these circumstances, it’s important that Mohun Bagan officials let the coach do his job independently. Kolkata football officials are infamous for their interference with coaching duties and a high profile coach such as Darby will never tolerate these things. Steve Darby is a proven coach and he would need some time to get acclimatized to Indian football. The countries where he has coached till now usually had better facilities than those he will get at Mohun Bagan. The officials as well as Mohun Bagan’s huge fan base need to be patient with Darby in the first few months. He is sure to bring results once he gets adequate time.
Under these circumstances, it’s important that Mohun Bagan officials let the coach do his job independently. Kolkata football officials are infamous for their interference with coaching duties and a high profile coach such as Darby will never tolerate these things. Steve Darby is a proven coach and he would need some time to get acclimatized to Indian football. The countries where he has coached till now usually had better facilities than those he will get at Mohun Bagan. The officials as well as Mohun Bagan’s huge fan base need to be patient with Darby in the first few months. He is sure to bring results once he gets adequate time.
What is an Australian coach; Anjan Mitra and his insane lot know better. We in MB believe in result only. And we are in a hurry, we cannot go on without trophies for long, we will give just 3 months to this man – if he is such a big shot, he should show results within this time. And don’t cry hoarse on facilities, we are a century-old club, even in last century we didn’t care about such nonsense yet won CFL numerous times. And remember, we don’t believe in youth development as well. We think that is utter wastage of money and effort (we bagged Odafa, didn’t we? So why bother). We prefer to spend that money by celebrating MB Day. Man, what fireworks!!
Under these circumstances, it’s important that Mohun Bagan officials let the coach do his job independently. Kolkata football officials are infamous for their interference with coaching duties and a high profile coach such as Darby will never tolerate these things. Steve Darby is a proven coach and he would need some time to get acclimatized to Indian football. The countries where he has coached till now usually had better facilities than those he will get at Mohun Bagan. The officials as well as Mohun Bagan’s huge fan base need to be patient with Darby in the first few months. He is sure to bring results once he gets adequate time.
What is an Australian coach; Anjan Mitra and his insane lot know better. We in MB believe in result only. And we are in a hurry, we cannot go on without trophies for long, we will give just 3 months to this man – if he is such a big shot, he should show results within this time. And don’t cry hoarse on facilities, we are a century-old club, even in last century we didn’t care about such nonsense yet won CFL numerous times. And remember, we don’t believe in youth development as well. We think that is utter wastage of money and effort (we bagged Odafa, didn’t we? So why bother). We prefer to spend that money by celebrating MB Day. Man, what fireworks!!
A relief to see at least some Mohun Bagani is aware of the mess that is MB and Kolkata football in general. May others be enlightened too...
Comments
Dear Barreto,
U SHOULD KNOW WHEN TO 'LEAVE'
WITH 'PRESTIGE"
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thehardtackle.com/index.php/2010-2011-season-review-mohun-bagan/">http://www.thehardtackle.com/index.php/ ... hun-bagan/</a><!-- m -->
Reasons Behind Mohun Bagan’s failure this season
1. Inability to build a ‘squad’: Mohun Bagan officials failed to bolster all areas equally. They spent a fortune on buying strikers but didn’t buy enough players for central midfield or defence.
2. Injuries: Not having a proper pre-season and not utilizing Salt Lake stadium’s artificial turf for practice proved to be detrimental for Mohun Bagan. A number of players got injured after playing on YBK’s turf.
3. Poor choice of foreigners: Muritala Ali was bought for an unnecessarily large amount. Despite a bright start to the season, Muritala was never really a big match player, as he missed easy goals in many I-League matches. Buying the eternally unfit Diamond Star meant Bagan effectively used two foreign players, as Barreto too was frequently injured.
4. Unsuitable Coach: Stanley Rosario was a poor choice to begin with. His last stint with a big club in Kolkata ended unceremoniously; he struggled to deal with the immense pressure of managing a big club and made numerous mistakes. In fact, Roasrio was tactically out-thought in many games. Subhash Bhowmick got a demotivated and injury ravaged squad. However, he should have done better against some of the smaller teams.
Much has been written of the historic significance of the match of July 29, 1911, of the occasion itself, of the bare-footed Bengalis (ten of them wore no boots) outwitting the sturdy Army guys. But it is still interesting to go back to that time, and look at a few more details, around and about.
And it gave Mohun Bagan, now declared the national club of India, an occasion to celebrate every year. The feat then inspired Achintya Kumar Sengupta to write in ‘Kallol Jug’: “Mohun Bagan is not a football team. It is a tortured country, rolling in the dust, which has just started to raise its head.”
Sport wise, it was just at that time an “All-India” cricket team, organised by the youthful Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, was touring England. Indians had already started playing at Wimbledo. Football came with British rule and therefore arrived in Calcutta earlier than it did in other parts of India. Yet, it came after cricket since the oldest cricket club of the city, the Calcutta Cricket Club, dates to 1792 and The National Football club of India, the oldest Club in Asia, was established on August 15, 1889, 97 years later. The IFA Shield, the fourth oldest competition in the world was initiated in 1893. It was dominated by British Army teams in India, until the Mohan Bagan Club of Kolkata broke the jinx with a 2-1 win over East Yorkshire Regiment in 1911.
On that day tickets priced at ` 2.00 were sold at ` 15.00 marking the beginning of ‘black’ tickets in India. The purchasing power of the rupee was then thousand times that of 2011 (with gold at fourteen rupees a sovereign of eight grams or 1.75 rupees per gram). That means the black market tickets for the 1911 football match would be worth 15000 rupees today, which compares well with the World Cricket Club final match AC lounge ticket in 2011, which fetched in the black market 25000 rupees! The score cards in those days were kites being flown in the sky in team colours. If East York Regiment scored a goal, one would see lots of kites in black bearing the score figure in the sky. If Mohan Bagan was the scorer, maroon-and-black kites would be flown in the sky, with the score written on them.
And the crowd was varied. An actor who plays female roles in jatra (Bengali drama) performances cancelled all his engagements on that day, takes off his wig to reveal a bald pate and becomes the self-appointed commentator, hurling choicest Bengali abuses at the British players who cannot understand the language. The British onlookers are equally abusive during the game. The referee, however, is impartial, refusing to bend under the orders of his superiors, who try to force him to see Mohun Bagan defeated.
Estimating a huge turnout, the East Indian Railway arranged for special trains from Burdwan to Ranaghat from the outskirts of Kolkata. Special steamers were arranged to bring people from Rayganj and Baranagar one hundred kilometres away. Coolies were charging about 50 paise to ` 2 to run errands. (This was huge money in those days). The “Pioneer” reported that “A boiled potato cost 1 (ten rupees worth in 2011) and paan was 1 anna (70 rupees today).” About 80 thousand to 100,000 people were there in the maidan to watch the game. One side was filled up with the Kolkota babus and the other side by the British Army.
During the 1911 Shield, Shibdas Bhaduri’s team had routed top sides of the day, including St Xavier’s (3-0), Rangers (2-1), Rifle Brigade (1-0), Middlesex Regiment (1-1, 3-0) and now they had to face East Yorkshire Regiment. One newspaper recorded that, before the IFA tournament, the betting (which was legal in those days) at 3-1 for East Yorks and Mohun Bagan had been quoted at 15-1.
On the morning of the match day, the Mohun Bagan players went to Kalighat temple to seek blessings of ‘Kali’- the Goddess of Power.
With red tilaks on their foreheads the players stepped in the pitch one by one. They were: Hiralal Mukherjee, Bhuti Sukul, Sudhir Chatterjee, Manmohan Mukherjee, Rajen Sengupta, Nilmadhav Bhattacharya, Kanu Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Bhaduri, Shibdas Bhaduri (captain).
Initially, the East York Regiment scored and to quote a local newspaper “The British spectators were overwhelmed with this goal. They started to celebrate this goal by igniting the effigy of Mohun Bagan! Then Bhaduri, the skipper, scored the equaliser 20 minutes into the second half, before sending a perfect pass to Abhilash Ghosh to fashion a memorable win against East Yorkshire Regiment with just three minutes to go for full time.
The scenes that followed the final whistle were beyond description. It was as if the whole population had gone mad and to compare it with anything would be to minimise the effect!”
British newspapers were unqualified in their praise. “For the first time in the history of Indian Football, a core Bengali team, Mohun Bagan, won the IFA Shield by defeating a competent white team. Though about 80,000 spectators were present on the ground, but most of them could not see the match. By noticing the flying of kites, they were following the actions of the match. And when they came to know about the win of their team, they started tearing off their shirts, waving them, tearing their hairs”, as reported by Reuter, London.
The local newspaper ‘The Bengali’ published a poem on July 30, in honour of Mohun Bagan It said, “Thanks my friends of football renown, For bringing the British teams down, A victory grand to behold, Serene and noble-bright and bold - The Mohun Bagans”.
It is said that when the team was returning to the club with the Shield, a Brahmin pointed to the Union Jack atop the Fort William and asked - “When will that come down?” Somebody replied that “It will come down when Mohun Bagan will win the shield again.” It may be a coincidence, but Mohun Bagan won their next shield in 1947 - the year of Indian Independence!
Mohun Bagan Club and India still remember the grand victory. In 2010, the Government of India issued a special postal cover commemorating the grand success and in January 2011, the Bengali film ‘Egaro’ (meaning The Eleven in Bengali) was released on the 1911 football event. The music of ‘Egaro’, “Amader Surjo Maroon” has become very popular and can be heard as a caller tune. The executive committee of Mohun Bagan has unanimously decided to confer the title of Mohun Bagan Ratna posthumously to the 10 players of the historic 1911 IFA Shield winning squad. Late Shibdas Bhaduri has already been conferred the honour. An “Immortal XI” sculpture, a fibre glass tribute to the famous players was installed in 2009 at the intersection of Kirti Mitra Lane and Mohun Bagan Lane near Phariapukur in north Calcutta. This is where Maharaja Kirti Mitra’s Mohun Villa, the birthplace of India’s national club, once stood. It is also believed that the team played its first match here in 1891, against Eden Hindu Hostel.
Mohun Bagan Club has continued with its success. According to FIFA rankings, in Asia, Mohun Bagan is the 16th biggest team to have an average home crowd of 19,888. According to World standards, Mohun Bagan has been ranked of 127 much ahead of other big clubs like Udinese (Italy), Benfica (Portugal) and Fulham (England) to mention a few.
(Maharaja Features)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.navhindtimes.in/panorama/red-letter-day-indian-sports">http://www.navhindtimes.in/panorama/red ... ian-sports</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thehardtackle.com/2011/steve-darby-the-new-coach-of-mohun-bagan/">http://www.thehardtackle.com/2011/steve ... hun-bagan/</a><!-- m -->
Under these circumstances, it’s important that Mohun Bagan officials let the coach do his job independently. Kolkata football officials are infamous for their interference with coaching duties and a high profile coach such as Darby will never tolerate these things. Steve Darby is a proven coach and he would need some time to get acclimatized to Indian football. The countries where he has coached till now usually had better facilities than those he will get at Mohun Bagan. The officials as well as Mohun Bagan’s huge fan base need to be patient with Darby in the first few months. He is sure to bring results once he gets adequate time.
A relief to see at least some Mohun Bagani is aware of the mess that is MB and Kolkata football in general. May others be enlightened too...