Players joined the club on a trial basis and soon it came to be recognised as a full-fledged institution the nursery for footballers in the city. Today, 32 years later, it is one of the top five clubs in Delhi along with other Old Delhi clubs like City, National and Youngmen.

Shastri Club began to make their presence felt in the 70s but they were regarded as `successful' only in the '80s. Their biggest moment came in 1988 when they became joint winners with Moonlight in the Delhi Soccer Association League.

But the most memorable victory, feels club secretary M.M. Sultan, was in 1992 when they became DSA champions beating star-studded SAG Red in the tie-breaker in final.

``SAG Red was an all-star team with players like Kiron Khongsai, Emanuel, Jowel Bay, Gunabir Singh, Ajay Swain and Akumna playing for them while we had only few like Bhupinder Rawat in our ranks,'' recalls Sultan with pride.

``At that time beating SAG was almost impossible and that made them complacent. But SAG could not take the humiliation of a defeat by a low-profile club like us and the club was dismantled after the tournament.''With more titles coming their way, Shastri had their share of supremacy. Top players started trooping in and the club found a stable footing.

But despite being a crowd favourite, the club has found cash hard to come by especially after the death of founder Harkrishan Shastri. ``The club has always been under financial crunch but the situation was not as bad as it is today,'' says Sultan. ``Initially, some money and a lot of moral support used to come from him, but after his death, the club was almost on the verge of closing down. In those days there was not much money involved in the game and players used to take football as a committment and not as a professional,'' says Sultan, who took charge of the club in 1994

.With the revival of City Club who won the league last year, Shastri Club were back in the news. Players left in search of more money and Shastri had to struggle to retain them. ``With more money coming in, the players began asking for more.''

So far the club has been surviving on donations from rich football lovers. But now, the priority of donors has changed. While clubs like Hindustan and City have started generating funds on their own, Shastri had to fall back on donations. But they have now realised the need for a constant source of income and have approached sponsors. This year Shastri took players on loan in the hope that they could repay when they get sponsors.

Fortunately, it is the old-faithfuls who are keeping the show going. Old war horses Mohammad Aslam (both senior and junior), Abdul Salim, Mohammad Atiq, Gautam Hazra (goalkeeper) are still in the ranks. Among the young blood are the few India under-21 players like Gyan Ranjan Mehra and Bhupinder Thakur.``Money is the only thing these days that can stop players from deserting you. We do not want to use muscle power, nor do we have big money to retain them,'' says Sultan, who hopes to get a sponsor who can keep the ball rolling for Shastri.