Jaydeep Basu
AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: Sukumar Samajpati, 82, hasn’t met Inder Singh, 77, for the last 30 years. Yet Samajpati, a crafty right winger in the 1960s with deadly dodges, vividly remembers the passes he played with inside-right Inder Singh to leave the rival defenders baffled in the 1964 Asian Cup final rounds played in Israel.

“Playing the Asian Cup in 1964 was sheer joy. It happened 60 years ago, but is still fresh in my memory,” remembered octogenarian Samajpati from his south Kolkata home. Yes, we could not win the title and finished runners-up, but India played rousing football throughout the tournament in all three matches. Inder was a young boy, but his display was marvellous,” said Samajpati.

Interestingly, the fans and followers of Indian football weren't truly surprised by the team’s second-place finish in the continental championship. After all, India were the 1962 Asian Games champions and one of the hot favourites to bag the Asian Cup, too. It didn’t go that way, as Chuni Goswami and his men stumbled at the last hurdle and ended up runners-up behind hosts Israel. But overall, India’s showings were eye-catching throughout the four-team round-robin league.

A year before this, Indian football suffered a jolt. Their long-time National Coach, SA Rahim, the man who was credited with taking Indian football to great heights, died of cancer at the age of 53. To say Indian football was orphaned won’t be an exaggeration. Under Rahim, India won two Asian Games gold medals and fourth place in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He meticulously built a team that was regarded as one of Asia’s best for nearly a decade, since the mid-1950s.

With Rahim no more, the All India Football Federation decided to hand over the baton to a foreign coach for the first time for the dual purpose of the Asian Cup and the pre-Olympics. Englishman Harry Wright, an FA coach employed by the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, for coaching and training the prospective coaches, was given the job of coaching the 19-member squad. Ten of these players had a gold medal each in their pockets from the 1962 Asian Games team.

The Indian team had a galaxy of stars in the true sense. Players like Peter Thangaraj, Jarnail Singh, Arun Ghosh, Ram Bahadur, Chuni Goswami, M. Yousuf Khan, FA Franco, Prasanta Sinha, etc. were household names for their exploits on the pitch. Joining them in the squad were Syed Nayeemuddin and Inder Singh, who went on to serve the National team for many years to come.

India didn’t have to play the qualifiers as all the other teams in the group withdrew from the competition. The team travelled to Israel to play the final rounds, but they could barely imagine the devastating news waiting for them on the morning of India’s opening tie against South Korea in Haifa on the slopes of Mount Carmel on May 27, 1964.  

As the Indian team woke up at the luxurious Grand Acadia Hotel, the tragic news came from India that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was no more. The team lost all motivation to play and requested the team manager, Wing Commander Kalyan Kumar Ganguly, to get the match postponed. But the organisers said a postponement wasn’t possible because of the tight schedule.

“Finally, we took the field (Kiryat Eliezer Stadium) wearing black armbands. We weren’t totally focused because of obvious reasons, but we still managed to beat South Korea 2-0,” recalls Samajpati. Two youngsters, Inder Singh and Appalaraju, found the net.

Two days later, Asian champions India met their Waterloo against hosts Israel at the Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv. The home side scored once in each half to win 2-0. On June 2, India returned to winning ways at the same venue, beating Hong Kong 3-1. Inder Singh, Samajpati, and skipper Chuni Goswami scored for India. The victory ensured India’s runners-up spot in the Asian Cup. Inder Singh was adjudged the best striker of the tournament.

It was an admirable finish by the Indians, but many felt the result would have been brighter had Coach Wright played his cards more judiciously. His selection of the playing eleven before every match was always in question and raised eyebrows within the team. Wright, it was alleged, had problems maintaining discipline in the squad.

“Sixty years have gone by; many of my teammates have bid adieu to the world. Only a few like me are still there to share those moments we had in the Asian Cup,” said Samajpati.

“Will the posterity remember us? Will they know that once a bunch of amazing players donned the national jersey and dominated Asian football?" asked the winger, whose back centres always reached the strikers at the right spots.“

Maybe yes. Maybe not. But we did our best to keep the Indian flag flying high on the banks of the Mediterranean,” Samajpati whispered under his breath. 

1964 AFC Asian Cup India Squad

Goalkeepers: Peter Thangaraj, SS Narayan
Defenders: Syed Nayeemuddin, O Chandrasekhar, Jarnail Singh, Mritunjoy Banerjee, Arun Ghosh
Midfielders: Fortunato Franco, Prasanta Sinha, Ram Bahadur, Ajay (Kajal) Mukherjee
Forwards: K Appalaraju, Inder Singh, Chuni Goswami (C), HH Hamid, Sukumar Samajpati, I Arumainayagam, M Yousuf Khan, B Narayan
Head Coach: Harry Wright (ENG)

1964 AFC Asian Cup India Results

May 27: South Korea 0-2 India (Appalaraju, Inder Singh)
May 29: Israel 2-0 India
June 2: India 3-1 Hong Kong (Inder Singh, Samajpati, Goswami)