The title, Anil Dey, doesn’t ring a bell lately. A gifted midfielder, Dey was the darling of the Mohun Bagan crowd within the Forties and early Fifties often called a lot for his good-looking appears as his soccer. He was such a classy and glamorous footballer {that a} main girl of the Bengali movie trade was a daily on the Mohun Bagan floor in these days, solely to cheer Dey in motion.
That the duo married and break up after a number of years is one other story. However Dey can be remembered for an altogether completely different purpose.
On the peak of the Stop India motion in 1942, sporting actions got here to a halt on the Calcutta (now Kolkata) Maidan. A bunch of Englishmen, which included star batsman Denis Compton, determined to go forward with a neighborhood outing on the Eden Gardens nonetheless.
The match, nonetheless, couldn’t be accomplished. A gaggle of volunteers, led by Anil Dey, carrying the Congress flag, marched onto the pitch and compelled the match to be stopped instantly. In his autobiography, Compton made a bitter point out of this incident and adopted it up with some vastly uncomplimentary remarks on India’s “disruptive” nationalistic politics.
Additionally Learn | Will Scheduling Woes Pour Water over Stimac’s Plans for India?
Nobody cared to recollect Dey. Not even those that enthusiastically cheered for the USA winger Megan Rapinoe’s scathing criticism of former US president Donald Trump on social points over the previous few years. This isn’t a shock. Likes of Anil Deys will not be inspired within the Indian sporting world anymore, particularly lately, when “reduce and paste” Twitter posts are thought of the straightforward highway to immediate stardom.
To have an opinion is rarely a problem. It’s a welcome signal as an alternative. Albert Camus famously stated, “Our world doesn’t want tepid souls. It wants burning hearts, males who know the right place of moderation.”
He would have been delighted to see how strongly India’s celebrated high sportspersons react to each nationwide subject lately. Maybe by no means earlier than have women and men within the Indian sporting world been so politically conscious and given such well timed reactions each time they felt the nation wanted their “companies”.
Each gifted athlete has their very own particular method of unleashing aptitude on the pitch. However there’s a notable unity in variety now. Off the pitch too they follow this, in the best way they tweet; their language strikingly related each time they select to “rise to the event”.
The current incident round farmers’ protests however, the examples are too many up to now few years. In October 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharat Laxmi initiative throughout Diwali, eight high feminine sportspersons got here calling to congratulate him. All of them, together with shuttler PV Sindhu, world champion boxer MC Mary Kom, and London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal tweeted equivalent messages thanking the PM.
Additionally Learn | Tokyo Olympics Head Yoshiro Mori In Eye Of A Storm After Sexist Remark
“I thank @narendramodi for his initiative to honour and empower girls this Diwali. Acknowledgement motivates us to work more durable and make India proud. #bharatkilaxmi,” all eight of them tweeted.
Curiously, one of many first to thank PM Modi, wrestler Pooja Dhanda, had the phrase, “Textual content:” earlier than her congratulatory message, a transparent indication that she had obtained a ready textual content from somebody to tweet as an alternative of sharing her personal views on the marketing campaign. Because it went viral, the wrestler needed to (or was advised to) delete it.
However then, what’s the purpose in blaming sportspersons? A couple of days in the past, a girl journalist tweeted how she was almost molested by protesting farmers. Demanding arrest of culprits, she wrote (in Hindi): “I’m not solely a journalist, a girl, too.” An identical publish appeared by means of the Twitter handles of many different lady journalists. A male journalist, too, tweeted the identical!
Coming again to sports activities, high current and former cricketers of the nation couldn’t be blamed for any such fake pas after singer Rihanna took to Twitter to request the world to pay attention to the farmers’ protests. Like true troopers of a workforce sport, the cream of the cricket fraternity requested the nation to remain united and to not permit exterior forces to intrude within the nation’s inner issues.
Critics could say plenty of issues, like how the cricket board is now akin to an workplace of a specific political get together and each previous and current cricketer, who was on the identical web page on the difficulty has one thing to achieve from the present arrange. However right here, each one among them, like accountable residents of an amazing democratic nation, spoke in their very own language.
Sachin Tendulkar stated, “India’s sovereignty can’t be compromised. Exterior forces might be spectators, not members.” Kohli known as upon folks to “keep united on this hour of disagreement.” Stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane displayed his Down Beneath kind by saying, “Let’s stay united.” Coach Ravi Shastri stated it was an “inner matter” and his predecessor Anil Kumble felt “India are greater than able to taking her inner points to amicable options.”
From the cricketing perspective, Rihanna‘s tweet has raised new hopes amongst Indian followers. That Kohli and Kumble can nonetheless stand collectively on one subject not less than, is actually the most important takeaway on this disaster.
Additionally Learn | Ministry Gives National Federations Time to Comply With the Sports Code
This is a matter that raised a storm in the previous few days. However there’s one other facet of the story too, that hardly ever obtained a point out. There are nonetheless some folks within the Indian sporting world who really feel the heavens is not going to fall if a Barbadian singer talks about farmers’ protests in India. They don’t seem to be nationwide idols with have thousands and thousands in banks. However they’ve minds of their very own and like to assume independently.
Take into account Chennaiyin goalkeeper Karanjit Singh. His greatest days with the nationwide workforce have been over a decade in the past however now, in his mid-thirties, he’s nonetheless a daily in Indian Tremendous League (ISL). The shot stopper sprang a shock by slamming star cricketer Shikhar Dhawan for his posts on the farmers protests.
Within the soccer fraternity, Karanjit will not be alone. Massively promising kids like Germanpreet Singh, Anirudh Thapa and Deepak Tangri have sung a unique music up to now. Twenty-two-year-old Tangri, who represented India on the junior stage, stated in his tweet, “Whether or not the world is watching or not, these are actual points confronted by actual folks, those on whose backbones are nice nation is constructed (sic).”
Arguments and counter-arguments are a part of life, everyone seems to be entitled to have his personal opinion. However this is also inflicting an unwelcome divide within the sporting world, particularly in cricket. There’s positively a powerful feeling (nonetheless misplaced it could be) amongst a bit of cricketers, not less than it seems so, that those that purchase the federal government’s views, may acquire extra within the discount.
Additionally Learn | Contrasting Fortunes On Tennis Tour Highlighted By Quarantine Conditions
A couple of tweets from cricketers opposing Kohli and firm’s views are laced with sarcasm – the difficulty of farmers’ protests has taken a backseat there. This can be a harmful pattern, however such issues are inevitable when directors present little restraint in dragging sportspersons to realize their political targets. Sadly, the pattern is rampant now within the nation’s primary sport and has unfold its wings in different disciplines additionally. Within the current elections of the boxing federation, an energetic pugilist popping out in favour of a specific candidate was in full dangerous style, however no purple flags got here out.
What Anil Dey did 79 years in the past was of his free will; he by no means cared about his place as a footballer in Mohun Bagan or in British-dominated IFA. However he had a bonus, too. Those that ran sports activities in India these days, didn’t ask athletes to tow their line. Off the bottom, Dey was free to guide his life the best way he wished to. He died an unsung hero, didn’t make a fortune from the sport he performed. However, maybe, he was luckier than many within the current era.
(The writer is a senior journalist based mostly in New Delhi. The opinions expressed are private)
