Nirmal Chettri and Sanju Pradhan, both now fully established players in East Bengal visited Paljor Stadium at Gangtok a few days back during their short vacation. Robin Gurung and Bikash Jairu who are playing for ONCG, also accompanied them. The Stadium also happens to be the home of Sikkim Sports Academy where all these boys spent their Academy days after they passed out from Namchi Sports Hostel.
Nirmal and Sanju echoed each other and said that playing for East Bengal is like a fairytale for them and the club has been treating them well and has always supported them and on their part they have left no stones unturned and have tried to give their best performance in every match. They have been disciplined and follow their routine with honesty and strive to improve with every match has been their goal. By far this year has been the best among the three years they were in the club as they managed to win the Federation Cup, Mohammedan Sporting Platinum Jubilee Cup and the Calcutta league.
They further expressed their happiness over the artificial turfs that had been recently laid at Paljor Stadium. They said that the stadium has certainly undergone immense changes and these added infrastructures shall definitely attract many youngsters within the state towards the game and will also open ways for other top division clubs from the country to come and play in the state.
The state has innumerable talent that has been unutilized thus far, which if properly groomed will definitely have a huge impact on the national scene and may be even further. In order to achieve this feat, the state government and the Sikkim Football Association should work together to organize more grass root level camps at a regular basis, bring back the days when Inter school football tournaments and District level tournaments used to be organized regularly. Also they further added that keeping in mind the kind of infrastructure we have in the state presently Super league tournaments, invitational matches involving well known clubs and other such tournaments should be regularly organized to recognize more local talents whilst giving them valuable exposure and a much needed platform for their talents.
While on the other hand Robin Gurung from O.N.G.C. Club who was also the man of the tournament at the recently held Governor’s Gold club in Sikkim, said that playing in front of the home crowd certainly gave him a rejuvenated sense of enthusiasm which helped him earn his man of the tournament laurel. He said frequent tournaments would certainly pave the way for budding talents of the state. Bikash Jairu said that United Sikkim F.C. certainly looks promising and has shown great performance in its early stages and its entry into the I league will be a great milestone for Sikkimese football and will further add more numbers to the already growing Sikkim football fans.
Information and Photograph Courtesy- Naresh Chettri
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