The growth of sports in developing countries has been synonymous with the rise of its leagues.
In India, the new emerging leagues — structured in a way to help young talents learn a trick or two from their foreign teammates — have also delivered economic values for the stakeholders.
The Indian Super League (ISL), which was launched in October 2014, has attracted plenty of admirers, and even caught more eyeballs than Serie ‘A’! It has been a similar story in hockey, with the Indian performances showing an upward curve after the launch of the Hockey India League in 2013.
The second edition of the ISL, which kicks off on Saturday, will be highly competitive as the participating teams have made quality additions to their rosters.
The sides also had full-fledged preparatory camps overseas (only Kerala Blasters trained in India), where they devised new strategies and tried out different formations.
Helder Postiga (Atletico de Kolkata), Adil Nabi (Delhi Dynamos), Leo Moura (FC Goa), Raphael Augusto (Chennaiyin FC), Sunil Chetri (Mumbai City), Didier Zokora (FC Pune City) and Simao Sabrosa (NorthEast United) are some of the big names who will enthral and entertain the spectators during the course of the league.
The opening day’s fixture at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here between last-season’s table-topper Chennaiyin FC and eventual champion Atletico de Kolkata has all the ingredients of a classic heavyweight slugfest. The teams had shared the honours both times they met in fiercely-contested games.
Chennaiyin FC Italian coach Marco Materazzi saw something special in his group last season, and felt no great urge to mess with it too much.
The team has quality and competition for places in most departments.
“This year we had programmed our training sessions well in advance and spent more time together. We are ready to show our performances on the pitch, do everything possible to avoid injuries and win the title,” said the Italian.
Favoured formation
The team is expected to line up in the coach’s favoured 4-3-1-2 formation with Augusto pulling the strings from midfield. The Brazilian is a brilliantly inventive box-to-box player, capable of spreading neat passes out to the flanks apart from some precise penetrative passes.
On the other hand, Atletico coach Antonio Habas replaced Fikru with proven goal-scorer Postiga, who will lead the line in his 4-2-3-1 system.
The other big signing has been Canadian forward Iain Hume, who never stops running or creating chances.
Former Real Madrid player Borja Fernandez, who made the most number of tackles (63) last season, will once again shield the defence and break up Chennaiyin FC’s attacks.
When Habas was asked about how it feels to start a tournament as a defending champion, he said: “We are not even thinking that we are the defending champion. We have a new group and I am worried only about the three points.”
The vociferous crowd and the professional conduct of the ISL can spur the growth of football in the country.
