| Guwahati club changes name and base | ||
| IMTIAZ AHMED | ||
Guwahati, March 9: The Assam Police football team, has adopted a new avatar by not only shifting its base from Guwahati to Dergaon, but also by dropping the word Blues from its name. Confirming the development, club general secretary P.C. Phukan told The Telegraph that the team would continue to be registered with the Guwahati Sports Association (GSA) here and participate in the Guwahati Super League and other tournaments as a Guwahati side. The football team which will now be based in Dergaon in Golaghat district, shed the word Blues to adopt its original name Assam Police Sports Club. “We have decided to change the name following requests by our former players to retain the original name of the club. We have, accordingly, adopted a resolution and moved the GSA and the Assam Football Association,” Phukan said. Assam Police Blues was raised in 2001 involving the best footballers in Assam Police with the base in the capital city and registered with the GSA in order to give exposure to highest level of competitive football in the state. The word Blues was added to the name of the club because the original Dergaon-based club — Assam Police XI — continued to be an active team in different tournaments in the state. The Dergaon side, which happened to be the football powerhouse of the state for over four decades, eventually ceased to exist since 2003. The men in yellow and black are at present the GSA Super League runners-up as well as the runners-up in the Assam State Premier League, the apex tournament of the Assam Football Association. About shifting of base to Dergaon, Phukan said: “We had to shift base to Dergaon following a dearth of suitable ground for practice in Guwahati. The team, which was based in the 4th Assam Police Battalion headquarters at Kahilipara, had to travel all the way to the Gauhati University ground in Jalukbari, which was often a tiresome exercise. It took a lot of time and was a sheer waste of money and energy.” “We now have our own ground in Dergaon and the team’s barracks are adjacent to it, thanks to the authorities at the Police Training College there. The players have the ground all to themselves,” Phukan, who is also the commandant of the 4th APBn, added. The move has nearly yielded the desired result with the team managing to hold their strong opponents in Assam Rifles, Tezpur to a draw in 120 minutes of play in the Premier League final here recently before going down in the tiebreakers. The team has also engaged former international player Toshen Bora as the coach along with Molong Ao and Jewel Bey in the team management and a talent search operation involving the new recruits in the police forces has already been kicked off. |
