Moa Jamir
Football - a game with unmatched global reach - is also ardently followed in Nagaland. Such is the passion for football that the people have fostered lifelong affinities with certain teams and players, while the state media devote considerable news space to the game. The coverage is mostly international or national with rare exceptions i.e. local sporting events taking centre stage.
The fall-winter is that period when local football tourneys overshadow the international with the NSF Martyrs’, MDFA, Loyem Memorial and many others jostling for space.
The positive outlook, however, stops here as various problems - both physical and psychological come to fore. On one hand, one is gravely aware how players are subjected to the miserable ground conditions – the players scrambling in clouds of dust on a sunny day while slugging it out on muddy fields on rainy days.
Years of administrative apathy and corrupt practices have robbed the players as well as the fans to play or witness sporting events in a decent arena. Several projects get announced only to remain incomplete, abandoned midway or substandard end result. The state government is annually indicted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reports with gross mismanagement and anomalies, but corrective measures are hardly followed. Beyond the infrastructural and administrative concerns, another malady is obstructing the progress of the game. It’s called pride.
‘Pride goes (or comes) before a fall’ goes a popular phrase attributed to the Bible. The passionate Nagas guard their pride with vicious intensity. Many a time, a sporting event is neither about participation nor sportsmanship, but about salvaging or glorifying the pride of community, village, clubs and so on. Consequently, skirmishes between players or fans are a regular feature in any sporting event.
This eventually works against the progress of the game in two ways. First, a big deal is made out of sparodic successes at lower level. This rather limits the ambition of the players to aspire beyond. Secondly, whenever pride is involved, nepotism tags along often affecting the selection process. It becomes more to do with representation, rather than merits.
While the Nagas are busy guarding their pride, however, their neighbours are making tremendous progress. At the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup, Manipur stands tall with as many as eight players in the squad, including the skipper followed by Mizoram and Sikkim with one each. The case in point being only the merits of the players, not any other factors doing the talk. For instance, Skipper Amarjit Singh Kiyam’s father is a small-time farmer and part-time carpenter and her mother augments the family income as a fish-seller. The family of Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, the first Indian ever to score a World Cup goal, was dependent on his mother’s income as a smalltime vegetable seller. The parents of Komal Thatal, the player from Sikkim, are tailors back home.
On October 11, three Mizoram players were part of a history when Indian football team - The Blue Tiger- beat Macau to register India’s first direct qualification to the AFC Asian Cup (2019) since 1984. Two players from Manipur were also part of the team. Meghalaya and Assam had one each.
In May 2017, Aizawl FC scripted history, becoming the first club from the north-east to win the I-League title. Even Iceland created history this month becoming the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals. With a population of 3.38 lakhs, Iceland’s population is 5-times lesser than Nagaland.
Football in particular is recognised by the United Nations as the key to creating true social change due to its vast reach and unparalleled popularity. When will collective effort trump over the collective failures in Nagaland?
For any comment, drop a line to moajamir@live.com
