1996 india is taking on japan at the asia cup un der20 championship at suwon south korea its a drizzly evening and the mercury has dipped to two degrees the jerseys of the indian youngsters are wet and they are shivering in the cold theres no spare set of jerseys which they can slip into at the break yet the score is even at halftime 11 their opponents change their wet shirts and shift gear eventually managing to eke out a narrow 21 win the indian boys go down after a valiant fight but a number of players from the team have the talent to make a mark at the international level rule experts2002 we watch in awe as two members of the japanese u20 team kawaguchi and nakata lead their national side to the prequarterfinal stage of the world cup they prove to be almost as good as their formidable rivals from germany brazil and argentina a keenly contested match with turkey end their dream world cup campaign but the japan team is hailed as the fastest rising force in world soccer kawaguchi and nakata turn international stars overnight and join european clubs several members of that indian junior team make it to the national team but thats the farthest they reach india continues to falter and fumble in football losing even to lowerranked sidesthe 1996 dream lies shatteredthe under17 world cup brings back a flood of memories for former players like me who have been part of the junior and senior national sides this is a grand op portunity for the rising soccer stars of india to display their skills and try and measure up to the best around the world in their own backyardit also raises the concern that these youngsters could lose their way after a promising start like so many junior squad members have in the past while the juniortosenior transition happens so smoothly and successfully in europe or south america indian juniors rarely manage to live up to their early promise if we take this world cup as a starting point and draw up a systematic development programme for the team we can make amendssince india is hosting the event a huge interest has been generated among local players and fansthere has already been massive infrastructure development with a vastly improved tv broadcast a treat awaits football fans around the country this event could well turn out to be the turning point for football in india just as the 1987 reliance world cup had been for cricket almost overnight it turned cricket into a national sport even in states like bengal where football used to be the most popular game cricket started ruling the roost if the indian team puts up a decent show and manages to maintain a fair degree of consistency over the next three years we should have a strong national team it will definitely revive interest in football and the game could win back some of its lost supportfor that