Indian skipper Baichung Bhutia suggests Indiatake part in more international tournaments to improve its FIFA ranking and urgedpromising youngsters to venture abroad to fine tune their skills tointernational standards.
"Whenever Indian youngsters get good offers fromabroad, they should lap it up. Only then can they learn modern soccer techniquesand taste competition at the highest level," Bhutia, who spent three yearswith English professional side Bury FC, said in Kolkata.
The Indian national side, he said, would also benefitfrom the rich experience of these boys taking up foreign assignments.
Expressing concern at India's consistent failure toimprove its FIFA ranking substantially, Bhutia said the AIFF should ensure that theteam takes part in more international competitions.
Advertisement
"It is important to play more internationaltournaments to improve our ranking. Once we move up, we will get more invitations toparticipate in international meets, which will in turn help in further liftingour standards," he said.
The Sikkimese striker, however, expressed confidenceabout India climbing up the FIFA charts under the stewardship of chief nationalcoach Stephen Constantine.
Lavishly praising the Anglo-Cypriot coach, who tookover the reins a little over a year back, Bhutia said "Stephen has done agreat job. Under him, the players have improved a lot. The longer he stays, thebetter it is for India".
The star striker said Constantine had some good plans for the Indian team, andwith support from the AIFF, he would be able to put them in place in the nearfuture.
Advertisement
Describing 2002 as a "good year" for Indiansoccer, when the Busan Asiad-bound side won the LG Cup under his captaincy,Bhutia blamed a spate of injuries for the dip in the performance this year.
"A number of key players were injured since latelast year. I also could not assist the side after the Asiad due to injury. Butthe guys generally played well," Bhutia said.
"They were unlucky to draw some matches which theyshould have won. Again, they lost some games which they ideally should havedrawn," he said.
Despite expressing happiness with the pre-seasontraining in his club East Bengal under the South African physical trainer KevinJackson, Bhutia indicated that he was not in favour of recruiting a high-profiletrainer for the national team.
"A trainer can produce results only over aprolonged period. But national camps are held for shorter durations. Also it isdifficult to arrange for pre-season training at the national level," hesaid.
"I think it is the clubs which should have qualitytrainers to feed supremely fit players to the Indian team," Bhutia said.
PTI
