Indian Women’s League champions Chauhan, Chibber laud Indian Arrows project

The Indian Arrows team, which debuted in the Indian Women’s League (IWL) this term, got a ringing endorsement from Aditi Chauhan and Dalima Chibber, goalkeeper and right back of the Gokulam Kerala FC (GKFC) who made history by retaining the title, with an all-win record to boot. The Arrows team, a development project of the All India Football Federation, ended fifth in the 12-team round robin league with six wins and one draw.

Under head coach Suren Chettri—among whose trainees at the SAI centre in Sikkim’s Namchi was India under-17 World Cupper Komal Thatal—the Arrows players, some of whom were from the last national championship in Kerala, assembled in Jamshedpur last January. They trained with the India under-17 squad for the 2022 World Cup and are being prepared for the 2023 Asian under-20 qualifiers. Playmaker Naoram Priyangka Devi and striker Apurna Narzary, who is from Kokrajhar in Assam as is Hyderabad FC’s Halicharan Narzary, scored nine goals each to be joint-third in the race for the golden boot which was won by GKFC’s Ghanaian striker Elshaddai Acheampong with 20 goals. Arrows’ wide midfielder Sunit Munda too caught the eye.

“They put up quite a performance against lots of teams,” said Chibber in a virtual interaction on Wednesday. “With the right guidance, they will get better and it will help the senior national team.” Challenge the India senior and age-group players, said Chauhan, who made her India debut in 2011.

Against GKFC, which had India regulars and foreign players in Acheampong and Win Tun from Myanmar and on whose agenda was defending the title, Arrows were not overawed, said Chauhan. “They may have played against some of their idols but Priyangka scored a smart goal.” It was one of the four goals GKFC conceded in the competition. Trailing from the sixth minute, they won through Acheampong’s goals in the 36th and 47th minutes.

From six teams in 2016, IWL has grown and for the first time, teams played each other once. Till 2019-20, 12 teams were split into two groups with the top two from each making the semi-finals. “The longer format has given players a good exposure,” said Chibber, an international since 2016. Chauhan, 29, spoke of a 14-year-old girl playing in IWL and said, “at her age, I didn’t even know football existed.” But she said the league needs to be longer. She wasn’t the first India footballer to ask for ISL and more I-League clubs to start women’s teams. I-League team Aizawl FC has taken part in the past as has the now disbanded FC Pune City from ISL.

That makes GKFC, the first team to retain the I-League last month, an exception now. They give equal attention to the men’s and women’s teams, said Chibber, 24.

GKFC retained six players from the roster that won the 2019-20 IWL, said coach Anthony Andrews. The competition was not held in 2020-21 due to Covid-19 and Andrews said they recruited 16 new players, among them Chibber, including three from Kerala. GKFC were the first from India to play in the AFC Women’s Cup Championship last year where they ended third in the four-team tourney. Pre-season training began in October, said Andrews. After the cup competition, India players went on national duty and training for IWL began in February, he said.

“We have three-four India regulars and others usually starting on the bench. But they train together for the national team so that helped,” said Andrews. GKFC scored 66 goals, 24 more than Madurai’s Sethu FC who were second.

Chibber and Chauhan have experience of playing abroad as has Bala Devi. “The Asian Cup was a great opportunity for us to try and get to the World Cup but we couldn’t due to factors beyond our control,” said Chauhan, referring to India pulling out due to a spike in Covid-19 cases. “But now foreign scouts have eyes on Indian players.”