Hockey, football lose their footing Premium

The two sports have been reduced to pale shadows of their glorious past in Visakhapatnam

Around five to six decades ago, when cricket was yet to become the irreplaceable mass culture phenomenon it is now, football and hockey used to rule the roost in the City of Destiny.

Back then, the city had produced many footballers who not only played at the State and national level but had also made their mark in the famed football clubs of Kolkata.

Today, football and hockey have become pale shadows of their glorious past, as players struggle for years in hopes of bagging that elusive spot in the national side before eventually hanging up their boots.

Disenchantment is writ large on the face of P. Kondala Rao, a former international footballer from the city, when he is asked for his take on the current state of football.

“The last time that Andhra Pradesh made it to even the quarter-finals of the Santosh Trophy was back in 1987. It has been 35 years since we have made a mark in the topmost national football tournament. How can our local footballers aspire for a national career when this is the state of affairs?” he asks.

The city can boast of a respectable football legacy as it had produced several footballers who specialised in the Ginga style of football that was popular in Brazil. K. Appalaraju and S. Varahalu were two such footballers who were renowned for their gameplay. “Their names would echo across grounds in West Bengal whenever they would breach the opposition’s defence with their speed and dribbling skills,” recalls Mr. Kondala Rao.

Dr. S.V. Adinarayana, a Padma Shri awardee, who apart from being a noted orthopaedic surgeon is also a football enthusiast and philanthropist who had done yeoman service to the game, once told The Hindu that football first moved into the port city of Vizagapatam (as Visakhapatnam was then called) in the latter part of the 1890s, when a few Parsi settlers in Old Town saw some personnel of the East Coast Battalion of the British Army playing the game.