Football crazy north-east

The north-east would be the only part of our country where cricket would be at number two as a sport, or probably even lower in the pecking order. Go through history books and you won't find a single player to have represented India from states like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur or Nagaland. In fact, Tripura is the only team from that region to be part of the domestic cricketing structure.

Delving into the reasons behind this is another story but the fact that the only place where cricket is not followed like mad, has provided other sports, especially football, the ideal platform to make inroads.

Although football has been quite popular in the north-east and it has been feeding a lot of players to the national team "" both senior and junior "" as well as the big domestic clubs, it is still not as big as compared to states like West Bengal or Kerala. And one of the main reasons has been the lack of a so-called big name club like Mohun Bagan or East Bengal.

But there have been very few clubs that have actually made a mark on the national scene. One of these is Lajong SS&CC from Meghalaya. It might be a case of "Lajong what?" for the majority of people, but take a look at the achievements of the club in the last three years. The club has come close to achieving promotion to the Division One of the NFL and has almost lapped up all the regional honours available.

Plus, it has been providing talent to clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. According to Larsing M, vice president, Lajong, "The idea is not only to develop Lajong but to generate more interest among fans as well as corporates towards football in the region."

For any club to succeed in football, there are three areas which need to be addressed: attracting fans, talent and money. Larsing feels that the club has a decent cover in all three aspects but is still not "big enough".

Lajong is one of the very few clubs to be professionally managed and get private funding from Shillong-based Centre Point Group. In it's short, 25-year-old journey, the club has taken huge strides and Larsing attributes this to the talent which the club churns out. The current national team has two players from Lajong plying its trade and several of its players play for the big boys of Indian football.

"It's been a tough road, yet we have managed to achieve our targets," says Larsing. The initial idea was to make the club big enough, first in the region and then take it to the national level. Lajong has done the initial part and is now on the cusp of the latter stage.

While the past might have been full of difficulties, coach Herring Shangpliang knows that this is the right time for the club to announce its arrival on the national stage in a big way. "Last season, we came close to clinching promotion to compete with the big boys of Indian football and the aim is to be there in the next two years."

Shangpliang, who is one of the few coaches in India to have the AFC pro coaching licence, is happy with the talent at his disposal and is keen to harness more youngsters in his scheme of things. "That old cliche, nothing succeeds like talent and hard work, is true in our case," he says.

It's true too that even without the backing of sponsors and the lack of star names, Lajong has been successful in its own right. He adds, "The base of the club is strong enough and if we continue going strong like this, there is no reason to believe that we can't compete with the best."

But Larsing knows that this is just the beginning. The biggest challenge, according to him, is to retain the talent at home as well as attract more talent in the region and he remains confident of doing so. "A lot of our players leave for the bigger clubs for financial reasons and that is something which we need to rectify."

So if Bhaichung Bhutia, the current poster boy and probably the most-known Indian footballer hailing from the north-east, don't be surprised to know that the next big thing could be from this region again. And Lajong would be hoping it's one of their own.