Wanted: Space

Kalyan Sangha used to participate mainly in the sub-junior and junior championships. Ghosh’s passion for soccer led him to scout for talents for his club. And Bengal and India reaped the benefit of his untiring talent hunt. Later some of the boys from Kalyan Sangha went on to represent Bengal and India in the next 15 years. Household names like goalkeepers Bhaskar Ganguly and Biswajit Das and Krishanu Dey are from a pool of Ghosh’s talent search.

But a modest Ghosh quickly skirts the issue saying,“I do not deserve much credit. They were in themselves so talented that they could emerge from anywhere in Bengal. I merely provided a platform for them.”

Amiya Ghosh was unable to continue with Kalyan Sangha for long owing to a financial crunch the club was facing. One fine day the club downed shutters. Ghosh,however,received the first major complement of his tireless work when he was invited by East Bengal club to be the coach of its youth team in 1983. Despite the club spending little on its under-16 and under-14 teams,Ghosh went on with his coaching assignment even at times contributing from his own pocket.

Under his stewardship the red-and-gold juniors won two popular international invitational championships —- the Gothia Cup in Sweden and the Dana Cup in Denmark. But after guiding the red-and-gold brigade for 12 long years,Ghosh quit the job one fine day.

As he harks back he says he was victimised.

“The club top brass might have been envious of my rising popularity. Otherwise,why all of a sudden did they have to restrict my functioning by appointing a technical director? I was not even consulted. One fine morning I found Gautam Sarkar on the ground training the boys. Why should I continue?” Ghosh mutters.

Having resigned from East Bengal junior coach’s assignment in 1995,Ghosh had to sit idle for about a year. He says he never spent time sitting idle.

Finally,in 1996 arch-rivals Mohun Bagan roped him in as the coach of the team’s Under-12 boys. Bagan Under-12 squad put up an impressive show in an international invitational soccer festival in France a few months ago. In between Ghosh coached the Bengal team for the junior national championship in early 90s.

The 64-year-old coach is still working with the Bagan Under-12 team. But here,too,he does not feel at home because he is not given a free hand. He is planning to start a coaching centre in his locality after legendary footballer Sailen Manna.

“I wish for a place where I can work freely. None of the big clubs can be the ideal place. Let us see if I can start this small coaching camp on the lines of Jaysree Kalyan Sangha,” he says.