Navy boys facing the blues

Laxmi Negi Posted: Oct 03, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Mumbai, October 2 Indian Navy football team is experiencing a slump in their performances this time around. And this comes after last season’s promising start which included their striker S Shaji’s sizzling act of netting six goals in a match that captured everyone’s attention.

Soon it was talk that the rains and Navy football go hand in hand, but sadly this season no matches were played during the rains and Indian Navy has not looked even half the team that the spectators saw last year.

The sailor’s coach GC Saha says, “Most of the players are new and inexperienced in this side and hence will take time to get their bearings.”

Saha also revealed that two of his last season’s stars - Jerry and Shaji - were injured and hence could just come to even cheer their teammates.

Apart from the above two, five other Navy players have been selected to represent the country in the World Military Games. They are as follows: CT Sajith, Abhilash, Vivek Venugopal, Mukesh Kumar.

But once the Military Games are over, the coach expects the side to produce better results and says, “Gradually the team will try to live up to its original name.”