Surjit Tigga, a handicapped tribal boy from Orissa, shows no sign of succumbing to the pressure and demand of the sport, as he demonstrated his prowess while playing for South-Eastern Railway (SER) in the All-India Railways tournament in Mumbai recently.

Tigga's brilliant ball control caught the eye and a place in the Railways squad for the Santosh Trophy at Guwahati came as just reward.

Irenio Vaz, coach of eventual champions Central Railway, commended the tirelessly-running youngster. He said: "It's a significant achievement, especially from a debutante."

Tigga, who prefers to play in the mid-field always found himself in the first eleven in the SER team. He often responded with a goal when his team needed one.

Handicapped players excelling in soccer does have a precedent,however. In one at the highest level, Hector Crasto, the Uruguayan who came on as substitute and scored the winner against Argentina in the first World Cup final had just one arm. It did not deter him from helping his team to the first-ever World Cup title.

Tigga does have both upper limbs but his left forearm is stunted.

Unperturbed, Tigga scored the winning goal in the last league match against Chitranjan Locomotive Works that took his side to the next round. In the final against Central Railway which SER lost by a golden goal, Tigga was a marked man. Later, CR coach Vaz disclosed, "He was supplying all the balls to strikers and doing a lot of distribution work in the centre. We planned to curb his movements by marking him closely. But on some occasions, he did made inroads into our defence."

Born in a small village called Angula in Talcher district of Orissa, Tigga was one of a football loving family. His elder brother Ranjit had represented his State in the Nationals. His father, a coal miner,always egged Tigga on to compete with other players around. Tigga said, "My family never made me feel that I have a handicap. They have always encouraged me."

In fact, he started playing football to prove his abilities to his neighbours who always looked down upon him. After impressing his school teachers, Tigga went ahead to play the school nationals in 1986 held in Kashmir.

He was summoned by South Eastern Railway coaches Anil Dey and Biplab Majumdar for the Railway team trials in 1996. Tigga joined the camp but homesickness compelled him to return home for a couple of months. As a result, Tigga lost the chance to compete in the first Inter-Railway tourney.

Tigga recalls an incident in which his defective arm caused injury to an opponent in a a district match. "My small arm hit an opponent so badly that he lost his two front teeth. I apologised, of course, in front of other players."

Like most promising players in the country, Tigga nurtures an ambition of playing aside super stars Bhaichung Bhutiaand IM Vijayan. To him, Argentine Deigo Maradona is the greatest among modern players.