The Indian football team arrived in Kolkata amid much fanfare on Wednesday afternoon. The team will play one of its most important games on June 6 against Kuwait, as part of the second round of Asia’s FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. A win will almost guarantee India a place in the third round, while a loss will mean Indian football is pushed back by a good few years.
A loss would also mean Igor Stimac, the head coach, will have to make way and, all of a sudden, the sport would have lost all gains made in the past five years. Add to it that it is Sunil Chhetri’s last match, and India could soon face a leadership crisis as well. A win, however, and it could be the greatest night for Indian football in a long time. The team would be guaranteed 10 games against top Asian teams in the next year and a half, and there would be no better exposure for the players. India have never made it as far as the third round of the qualifiers, and in that sense, it would be a huge achievement for each person involved.
A game as important deserves in-depth coverage and build-up. And that’s what we at RevSportz aim to do. Starting today, we will air exclusive interviews with the very best of Indian football, starting with the talismanic Chhetri. In a fascinating conversation with me, Chhetri has answered everything from the timing of his retirement to who after him. He delved deep into his journey, and answered if he would trade the career he had for a successful stint in Europe. Most importantly, he speaks at length about the Kuwait game, and has set it up beautifully for us.
We will also air an in-depth interview with Stimac, where he is asked all the hard questions. How confident is he, and what does the future hold for him if India doesn’t do well? How does he see Chhetri’s retirement, and is there a succession plan? Is the team ready after the long camp in Bhubaneshwar? And, may I say, the coach answered them all.
We also have interviews with two of India’s stalwarts. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu will be playing with Chhetri one last time in India colours, and he recounts his stories with his captain. Sandesh Jhingan, his compatriot who is currently out injured, was equally emotional and said, “I am still trying to persuade Sunil Bhai to reconsider his decision.”
Finally, on June 3, we are organising a special event titled “Farewell, Sunil” at the Calcutta Sports Journalist Club, where colleagues from the media and stalwarts like Bhaskar Ganguly, Mehtab Hussain, Rahim Nabi and Dipendu Biswas will recount their best stories about Chhetri. Anirban Datta, secretary of the Indian Football Association, will also be present to outline plans for the retirement game.
In sum, for the next one week, we will focus on Indian football as much as we did on the IPL.
That doesn’t mean we give cricket a miss. Our team leaves for New York and the T20 World Cup on June 1, and they will start providing exclusive on-ground reports from June 2 onwards. So, it will be a packed calendar of sports and exclusive stories on RevSportz, starting today with the BIG Chhetri interview at 12 noon.
With coverage in English, Hindi and Bangla, RevSportz is now your go-to platform for all sports, and is perhaps the only holistic multi-sports platform in the country which provides on-ground news coverage of events from across the world.
Here’s to more quality work on Indian sports in the days and weeks ahead.
Also Read: A glimpse into the build-up ahead of Chhetri’s farewell match