When Baichung did a Martin Crowe during the 87 World Cup!

The unbelievable catch Martin Crowe took to dismiss Dave Houghton and deny Zimbabwe a famous victory over New Zealand in the 1987 World Cup did not impress a young Baichung Bhutia who challenged at his teacher that he could easily do this and took two stunning catches.
India's football star was then 11 years old and attending Sikkim's best-known public school TNA in Gangtok after winning a football scholarship from Sports Authority of India (SAI).
Bhutia's biology teacher Leonard, popularly called Lenny sir, recalls, "It was October 10, 1987 and we were in the audio-visual room watching New Zealand play minnows Zimbabwe."

Chasing New Zealand's 242, Houghton waged a lone battle for Zimbabwe, to take his team close to a win. Six runs were needed off the last over, but Houghton's terrific innings ended with the great catch by Crowe and Zimbabwe fell short by just four runs.
After Crowe took the catch, Lenny yelled out with excitement, "Great catch! Great catch!" But a young voice said, "Sir, what's so great about the catch?"
Despite his teacher explaining the difficulty of taking a catch when running backwards, looking over one's shoulders, Baichung insisted that it was not that difficult and even boasted that he could do it.

So the next day, Baichung, his friends and Lenny assembled in the school's cricket field.

"I asked him to stand about 15 yards from where I was standing and face me as I would hit the ball in the air about 35 to 40 yards over his head. I told him he had to run back to chase and catch it. I hit the ball up in the air and he chased it. He didn't take his eyes off the ball for even a second and caught is clean," Lenny reminisces.
When told that it was a fluke, Baichung came back with the ball and a big grin on his face. Lenny challenged him to do it again and this time he hit the ball even further and Baichung flung himself full-length at the end to take the catch.

This incident along with numerous other anecdotes finds mention in a new book "Beyond the Goal: The Official Biography of Baichung Bhutia" by sports writer Mohammad Amin-Ul Islam.
Published by Random House India, the book has a foreword by Sachin Tendulkar and introductions by Olympic medallist boxer Mary Kom and footballer Sunil Chhetri.
The book also says that Baichung's real name is Ugen Sangey and had once appeared in a cameo, playing himself in the Bengali film "Kuasa" (fog), about a decade ago along with former East Bengal coach Subhash Bhowmick.
"Earlier, I was offered guest appearances in movies but didn't consider them as I could not have taken any time out from the game. But now, I would do this only for the sake of an appearance," says the star, who earned 107 international caps and scored 42 goals.