With James, Ratan, Lorendra, Bijen Singhs and Soso Shaizas dominating India's premier club football, the name of Manipur, synonymous over the past two decades with chronic socio-political instability triggered by insurgency, is respectfully looked upon as the new nursery of football. The sturdy and fleet-footed Manipuri footballers have caught the imagination of soccer-buffs all over the country. But leaving aside any regional parallelism, one can safely look forward to the day when a similarly insurgency-ridden Tripura's young hill men will hit headlines in the national media with stellar performance. This has in fact already happened as Tripura's Karnendu Debbarma (19) and Biswabhanu Jamatya (19) have represented Indian school football team in Aasian championship in 1997 and played for calcutta's peerless club for three successive years.

Currently indispensable to state's leading football club 'Agiye Chalo Sangha', Karnendu and Biswabhanu come from different backgrounds. Son of an officer in the state's tribal welfare department Mr Jitendra Debbarma, Karnendu was born in khowai subdivisional town with a keen love for artistry in football. Unlike most other tribal youths of his age he did not join any insurgent group but kept on playing football along with his studies till he passed Madhyamik examination. 'Having passed the examination I decided to devote whole of my time to football, partly against the wishes of my parents', said Karnendu with the characteristic candour of a tribal youth. But Biswabhanu Jamatya , another established star in local football ,had to struggle his way up.The eldest son of poor tribal farmer Surjabihari Jamatya (44), Biswabhanu was born in remote Noabari village under troubletorn Killa police station of South Tripura , till recently a hotbed of militancy. 'We were fed up with the so-called militancy and I myself was looking for a way out . I was fortunate that i caught the eye of the state's football bosses' said Biswabhanu. His only ambition in life is to don Indian jersey at the senior level in international football tournaments. But apart from Karnendu and Biswabhanu who have already made considerable progress , the increasing number of hardy and skilful tribal footballers have already become a major crowd puller in the local 'A' and 'B' division football leagues.At a time when the entire education system in the interior areas has collapsed and development work has come to a total standstill because of relentless insurgency over the past two decades, football is providing a major outlet to the tribal teen-agers and youths, keen to prove themselves. According to Mr Sarju Chakraborty , Sports Editor of local daily 'Syandan Patrika', 'at the moment there are at least twenty tribal footballers, mostly Jamatyas , in the 'B' division football league which comprises eight teams and in the 'A' division also there are a large number of tribal footballers'. Citing an example Mr Chakraborty said the entire midfield of 'Blood Mouth', a premier club and contender for league is manned by four Jamatya tribal footballers Bijay (younger brother to Biswabhanu), Ishwar, Nilakishore and Jiten who play alongside two Nigerians in the team and 'all are aged between 16 and 18 and all belong to poor tribal peasant families in remote Noabari village under Killa police station area of South Tripura. Nilakishore Jamatya (16) , the youngest of the quartet, said 'at one stage we were in serious problem because of insurgency but now things have cooled down a bit'.

Significantly, the success of the Jamatya tribal youths in football and other sports is attributable to the role of the Jamatya 'Hoda' (supreme community council). 'Every year a football tournament called 'Hoda Cup Tournament' is held in Killa area and at least 12/15 teams take part in it ' said Mr Sarju chakraborty , adding that 'this tournament brings to the fore many talented tribal footballers'. The most interesting thing is that the Jamatya tribal youths receive basic training from their lone coach Mr Krishna Sadhan Jamatya 'who stays in Killa area and devotes his heart and soul to football, studiously avoiding exposure in the media', added Mr Chakraborty. He however points out that the problem of the tribal footballers is that becasue of the collapse of education system in interior areas they have made little progress in academic studies-most of them have not passed out of school. Along with the local football buffs including administrators Mr Chakraborty is sure that ' with proper harnessing of resources and inherent talents Tripura's tribal footballers will soon follow in the foot-steps of their counter-parts in Manipur to dominate the national soccer scene.