Santosh Trophy

[PKBasu]

It used to be Punjab and Kerala who were the pesky troublesome teams. Maybe Punjab a tad better than Kerala Is Punjab all gone to cricket? And, for some time Services. Then, maybe Goa. So, the interesting team is Manipur. In line with the development of the sport in the northeast in the last 30 years or so.

Punjab used to have 2 teams doing well in the Durand and Rover Cups -- JCT Mills (Phagwara) and Punjab Police. Plus BSF. I was in Phagwara for a wedding, and it seems the legendary football team is gone, although the company still seems to exist. The team (which won the inaugural national football league) disbanded in 2011, so missed the possibilities of the ISL -- although the company may well have decided against that as well.

[jayakris]

^^^ Oh yeah. I remember JCT Mills coming to Kerala for the Sait Nagjee Tournament in Kozhikode in the late 70s. They won some of those. Unfortunately the tournament died in 1995. JCT Mills were big at one time.

[PKBasu]

By the way, I just realized that the place "Santosh," after whose Maharaja the trophy was named, is no longer in India!!! ... I thought it was somewhere in West Bengal, but it is apparently in Bangladesh.

If you search for Santosh on Wikipedia, the only thing that shows up is that it was the birthplace of Maulana Bhashani, a notoriously pro-China and anti-India politician, who advocated Islamic Socialism but was known to be in the pay of Maoist China from at least the early-1960s. He ignited the anti-India movement to protest the Farakka Barrage (near Malda) which some Bangladeshis claim has caused the Padma river to silt and dry up.

Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, the raja of Santosh who helped found East Bengal club and was one of the early presidents of the AIFF in its heyday, was famous for his philanthropy and his benign rule as zamindar. But all that is now long forgotten (although there is a Raja Santosh Roy road in Kolkata, and a Santosh palace in ruins on that road, apart from one wing occupied by a German couple who have refurbished it). He was also a descendant of King Pratapaditya Roy of Jessore, who defeated Akbar and Jehangir's armies a few times, but was eventually subdued by the Mughals. WB's long-serving CM, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy also claimed descent from Pratapaditya, a rare Bengali military hero of the mediaeval period.

[prasen9]

He ignited the anti-India movement to protest the Farakka Barrage (near Malda) which some Bangladeshis claim has caused the Padma river to silt and dry up.

I am surprised that all Bangladeshis do not claim that. It is common sense. Every dam, everywhere in the world has diverted water from downstream to "side-stream". The Colorado river does not even end up in the sea these days. All the water is gone by the time it reaches the lower part of Mexico. The stupid Americans have diverted water and dug up water from under the ground at a rate they know will finish the water in 25 years! And, some of it they have bottled up (I think Nestle) and sold. For an area that does not have water, this is crazy. Soon, we will have to pay the piper though. The west will have severe droughts.

I think it is time to damn the dams and take them down. They do more harm than good. In Michigan, one city took out a dam and created a riverside-park, etc. on the newly found land where the water was logged by the dam. Two cities did not. In one year of torrential rains, these dams broke and the two cities got drowned. The one that had taken the dam out was not affected.

I am not saying that we should take out the Farakka Dam right away but it should be done in an orderly manner in due course after we have figured out the water and energy equations. Because water was more available, the innovation to use less-water-hungry varieties of seeds, etc. was given up and water-sucking varieties were planted. Bad in the long-term.

<end-rant>

[PKBasu]

What is true of the arid regions of the US isn't necessarily true of Bengal -- a region soaking in water. The modest amount of water diverted by the Farakka Barrage isn't going to dry up Bangladesh, and has done nothing of the sort in the intervening years (despite Ritwik Ghatak's ridiculously tragic "Titash ekti nodir naam"). Bangladesh gets ample water from the many distributaries of the Ganga and Brahmaputra (as well as the Meghna) that drain into that nation's vast deltaic region. In the long run, Farakka may even save Bangladesh from being completely deluged when global warming happens.

[jayakris]

Well, the trophy named after a king whose place is now in Bangladesh will be given out in Saudi Arabia???

Santosh Trophy final rounds to be held in Saudi Arabia next year

This sounds shameful to me. What the hell??? Indian inter-state tournament final to be taken to some place abroad? Does it make any sense? What the heck is the new AIFF leadership up to? Even the MOU with Saudi Arabia sounds kinda useless to me. What do you all think?

[Dinakaran]

I see this as means to please football crazy malayee in gulf region and generate more money

[prasen9]

In the long run, Farakka may even save Bangladesh from being completely deluged when global warming happens.

In the long run, no dam has saved anybody. Dams are like coal. Old technology that actually harms the enviroment and creates environmental disaster. The Colorado has been dammed out and does not even reach the ocean. Stupid water use will result in havoc. Only after devastating losses will we learn that creating things like dams for relatively short-term gains actually harms everyone in the long run. When real dams come, they devastate dams and floods things worse.

[jayakris]

I almost did not even notice that the Santosh Trophy competition has been going on in Hyderabad.

West Bengal beat Services 4-2 and Kerala beat Manipur 5-2 today in the semifinals. 21 yr old Muhammad Roshal had a hat-trick for Kerala.

Nice to see that the traditional powers were in the semis. Here are all the details in the Santosh Trophy 2024 wiki page.

Okay, now GO KERALA! BEAT THE HELL OUT OF WEST BENGAL and make them remember that they are not in the west and that the sun will set on them before it does on Kerala!

(I wonder what happened to that whole crap about Santosh Trophy being taken to Saudi Arabia and all that from AIFF earlier)

[jayakris]

Santosh Trophy Final:

Kerala vs West Bengal, 0-0 at half time.

Kerala looking for their 8th trophy. WB looking for their 330033nd or something

[jayakris]

0-0 in the 65th minute. Pretty scrappy game with a lot of mistakes from both sides. Not too many chances being created by either team.

0-0 in the 85th minute. WB putting some serious pressure on the Kerala defense, but couldn't score on two corner kicks. Kerala hanging on.

A couple of counter punches by Kerala but unable to score after some good moves into the WB goal.

Damn, 93rd minute injury time goal by West Bengal. A header into the box and a dagger goal by Robi Hansda

WB goalie Samanta made a huge mistake of delaying and Kerala got a final chance with an indirect free kick inside the box at the 98th minute but a hard kick went left by a foot and WB held on.

West Bengal d. Kerala, 1-0, for their 33rd title. First since 2017 (I think) when they beat Goa in Goa.

[jayakris]

WB is just great in Santosh Trophy finals. 33 titles out of 47 finals or something. Kerala is 7 in 16 finals.

[PKBasu]

I was surprised that Bengal won the Santosh Trophy again this year. There are so few Bengal players in the national side - and relatively few playing in the ISL either. Bengal football is on the wane, but somehow survives in the Santosh Trophy, a nearly-forgotten relic in the ISL era.