The phrase ‘good things come in small packages’ held true for Polly Cherian, the lightly built 27-year-old Western Railway football skipper, who met with an untimely death in a train accident today. The Western Railway clerk was run over by a Virar fast between Bandra and Khar stations around 11 am, as he was on his way to work.Western Railway coach, Koushik Pal, cannot come to terms with Cherian’s death. The news was a major blow for his partner PV Vinoy. Cherian had led the railwaymen to the Independence Cup final at St Xavier’s ground, Parel, on Wednesday.“No one in the team can replace him,” said Pal. Vinoy added: “No one can take his place in my life.” The two were thick friends from their home town, Thrissur, where they played for a local club. The two then came to the city of dreams for the railway trials and also got their appointment letters on the same day—September 27, 2002.Vinoy said: “I have scored always from his passes, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.” Vinoy was inconsolable, as he said: “We shared the same room for five years at the Bandra Railway colony and now I’m alone here.”Cherian was so skilled in controlling the ball, that sometimes he was called the ball-master for the way he made the ball dance on his moves. Teammate Ruben D’Souza remembers him as a reserved person off the field, but added: “Polly was very vocal once he was on the field and kept on calling for the ball. That’s because he was so comfortable with the ball,” points out D’Souza.Cherian was an attacking mid-fielder and he got goals for his side at crucial junctures. When it came to the seven-a-side matches, he was again a master and could give any good footballer a run for his money.
