New role for Kerala Police’s ex-football star in Goa polls

PANAJI: Every time C V Pappachan lands in Goa, he cannot take his mind off football. The former captain of the Indian football team and Kerala Police star of the eighties and nineties has a bagful of memories from here. He has good friends too; Bruno Coutinho, for example, with whom he spent time last night, and then there is that move to Churchill Brothers SC in 1994 which didn’t materialise because the state government refused to release him. But for now, everything must wait.

He is just too busy with the elections in Goa. Pappachan and Goa elections would seem like a strange match, but the former striker is right in the heat of the Lok Sabha elections. As deputy commandant – on the rank of superintendent of police - with Kerala Police, he is supervising security arrangements as Goa votes to choose its two Lok Sabha representatives.

“I’ve been seeing elections across the country but must say it’s very peaceful here. There is not much buzz,” Pappachan told TOI on Tuesday.

As deputy commandant, Pappachan monitors a company of policemen from Kerala and his area of supervision includes Panaji, Porvorim and Mapusa. He’s done this for a while now, travelling from Tamil Nadu to Goa and then to Maharashtra and finally Punjab.

Pappachan, 53, joined as an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) with Kerala Police in 1982, but never wore the khaki till he quit football in 1998.

“All we had to do was play football. We played across the country, winning so many tournaments,” said Pappachan, who along with I M Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri, V P Sathyan and Kurikesh Mathew became household names among Indian sports fans as Kerala made seven consecutive appearances in the final of Santosh Trophy – the interstate football championship – between 1987 and 1993.

Once he quit the sport, he took his policing duties seriously, rising to the rank of SP.

“I see a world of difference in football here. Goa produced some greats like Brahmanand (Shankhwalkar), Bruno (Coutinho), Mauricio Afonso, Savio Medeira and Derrick Pereira but now the stream has dried up. It’s the same in Kerala. I think that’s largely because we do not have enough clubs and enough tournaments. What are the Dempos and Salgaocars doing now?” asked Pappachan, who tried his hand at coaching for a while but could never get his players to do what he did on the field.