Golden Jubilee of Indian football's greatest hour

1962 Asian Games Gold winners

Tuesday 4 September is a historic anniversary for Indian football, which is sadly remembered by very few. It is the 50th anniversary of India’s greatest victory in international football, wining the gold medal in the 4th Asian Games in Jakarta by beating mighty South Korea 2-1 in front of a hostile crowd. With that memorable win, India established itself as the best in Asia and there was an attendance boom in local tournaments in the country. When people of my generation witnessed the 1963 Durand final between Mohun Bagan and Andhra Police, we watched some of the best players in Asia and tickets were sold out one day in advance. Conversations at dinner tables, coffee houses and local buses were on whether Bagan’s Jarnail Singh and T.A. Rehman would be able to stop the rampaging Zulfiqar and Yusuf Khan or whether Chuni Goswami and Arumainaygam would be able to penetrate the rugged Andhra Police defence. Indian football was the rage and the star players were like demi-gods.

India’s remarkable trio

Sadly, there is no footage to record the skillful display by India in the 1962 Asian Games, especially the brilliant trio of P.K. Banerjee, skipper Chuni Goswami and T. Balaram. Several stalwarts of that great team, goalkeeper Peter Thanagraj, defenders Tarlok Singh and Jarnail Singh, midfielders Ram Bahadur and Yusuf Khan are no more with us. Creditably the All India Football Federation (AIFF) honoured the remaining members of the 1962 Asiad team, during their 75th anniversary celebrations. Many experts consider the 1962 Asian Games gold medal winning team as the greatest ever Indian football side. Noted coach and ex-international Subash Bhowmick even says that with proper physical conditioning, India’s victorious 1962 Asiad squad could have played in the World Cup at Chile held that same year.

The 1962 Asiad Gold Medal remains the greatest achievement of Indian football because of the difficult circumstances in which it was achieved. Due to paucity of foreign exchange, the team was not cleared till the last minute as the Indian Olympic association (IOA) thought they had no chance of winning a medal. So training camps were limited. At Jakarta, G.D. Sondhi, India’s representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had criticised hosts Indonesia for excluding both Israel and Taiwan from the 1962 Asian Games for political reasons. Thus right from the beginning, the crowds were hostile to India and there were even violent demonstrations against Indian participants.

The late Jarnail Singh, India’s ace defender, who also captained the Asian All Stars XI in 1966 and 1967, in conversation often recalled the atmosphere of hostility in Jakarta. As a devout Sikh, Jarnail always wore a turban, which made him very conspicuous. To avoid the hostility of the passionate crowds, Jarnail had said that he had to travel sitting on the floor in the team bus. Recalling the final against South Korea, one of India’s greatest forwards. T. Balaram said, “The capacity crowd of over 100,000 booed us and did not even pay respect to our national anthem. When the ball came in our half, such was the din that the referee’s whistle was not audible. When we attacked there was pin drop silence.” As most of the Indian contingent had returned home, a day before the football team had limited support. Midfielder F.A. Franco, noted for his exemplary work rate and courage remembered that the Pakistan hockey team (they had beaten India 2-0 in the final on the day before), were at the ground and cheered for India throughout the match.

India’s most successful coach S.A. Rahim, instructed his players to play with courage and commitment and try and shut out the crowd noise. They were also told to avoid the off-side trap; as it would be difficult to hear the referee’s whistle. The Indian team showed remarkable dedication and adaptability to win the final 2-1 against the favourites South Korea.

Incidentally in a preliminary league match the Koreans had beaten India 2-0. The road to the final was not easy. India qualified as the second team in the group by beating Thailand 4-1 and Japan 2-0. In the match against Thailand, stopper back Jarnail Singh considered the best defender in Asia in the sixties, sustained a head injury after colliding with an opponent and received six stitches on his forehead. India played with ten men as the substitution rule was not yet applicable. Rahim’s made some shrewd changes in the team. Arun Ghosh played as a stopper back and Balaram shifted to midfield. Arun Ghosh clicked as a stopper back for the rest of the tournament.

Braveheart Jarnail Singh

In the semi finals against South Vietnam, coach Rahim gambled by playing Jarnail as a centre forward. He could not be played in defence because of his bandaged forehead which would have prevented him from heading the ball. Rahim knew that playing Jarnail was a psychological advantage as many Asian players feared him for his hard tackling and intimidating physical approach. Also, Jarnail had started his career as a centre forward and liked to move forward and take shots at goal. The move clicked as Jarnail scored India’s second goal after receiving a through pass from skipper Goswami. In those days South Vietnam had some players who had played in France and were a formidable opponent and leveled the scores 2-2 in the 58th minute. However, Chuni Goswami scored the match winner after a solo dash and clever dribbling in the 73rd minute.

Due to injuries, coach Rahim improvised with the playing eleven even in the final against South Korea. Jarnail was used as a bustling centre forward to harass the Korean defence into errors. Peter Thangaraj replaced Prodyut Burman, who had played all the matches till then as goalkeeper. The players were so motivated that some of them overcame sickness and injuries to pay in the final. Thangaraj had recovered from a bout of flu, but played in the final because coach Rahim felt that his height gave India a psychological advantage.

Trilok Singh, the right back was in agonising pain because of a cut toe-nail but played with grit and courage. Towards the end of the final match, Jarnail was again bleeding at the forehead but refused to come off. Rahim used Yusuf Khan as a withdrawn forward and India played in the 3-3–4 system which bemused our opponents who lined up in the traditional 3-2-5 system of play Right winger P.K. Banerjee (17th minute) and Jarnail (20th minute) scored a goal each in the first half and India emerged 2-1 winners to win the Asian Games football gold medal for the second time.

The power of Jana Gana Mana

Subtle ploys by India’s most successful coach S.A. Rahim helped to motivate the Indian players on the day of the final. In the dressing room, prior to the final he made the entire squad hold hands and sing the national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana”. This ploy he repeated at half-time also. Coach Rahim had imbibed great team-spirit in the squad, which had left Calcutta for Jakarta on Independence Day, August 15th, 1962. Many of the players considered this as a good omen and at Rahim’s insistence they felt like freedom fighters. The fitness levels of the team was also exemplary and probably the best by an Indian team. Rahim also put a lot of emphasis on power training, fitness, cohesiveness, and confidence. His great ability was to create a club like atmosphere in the national team. His practise sessions were always intense but interesting with a lot of variations. He made the players get used to different positions and he put a lot of emphasis on individual training with the ball. Being a teacher in his earlier years he invented a lot of pithy slogans to motivate his players. Some of them were “Soccer is a passing game and a game of open spaces,” “soccer depends upon 2L+2H(legs, lungs, heart and head)” and “follow the opponent as soon as you lose the ball.”

These are extracts from a booklet of notes prepared by the late Syed Abdul Rahim in 1961 and reproduced by his son, Syed Shahid Hakeem, an Olympian of 1960 vintage, as a booklet, A Guide to The Young Footballer (2001).