The best of our Q&A with John Dykes

 

Senior sports broadcaster John Dykes, who is revered worldwide for his swashbuckling style, has been brilliant with his pre-match and post-match Hero Indian Super League shows on Star Sports. In a Q&A session a couple of days ago in Mumbai, Dykes fielded questions from fans on a variety of subjects. Here are the select few.

When asked who amongst the current crop of Indian players he liked the most, he said:

The Indian player who he thinks could make it to European leagues…

When quizzed on how the Hero ISL compares with the rest of the Asian leagues, his answer was insightful.

Dykes also recognised the progress made by the league since its inaugural edition.

Looking ahead to the future, Dykes stressed the importance of game management.

He also tipped an Indian to bag Golden boot award.

Dykes also identified FC Goa as the best club for nurturing Indian talent.

Dykes discussed India’s chances of making the World Cup 2022 as well.

He also recognized the importance of the 2017 Under-17 World Cup in the development of football in India.

Dykes believes that it’s a special time for football in India and youngsters should seize this opportunity.

When he took over the Hero ISL Facebook page for a while, John Dykes attracted the attention and curiosity of many football enthusiasts. Here are a few excerpts of the Facebook Q&A session:

Rahul RS: #AskDykes Is the quality of football in the league reaching that of an international league and could [the] addition of more teams to the league improve the quality of football??

The quality is improving all the time but no need to add teams yet as it would dilute the talent pool. Maybe bring in more young international talent like Jonatan Lucca of FC Goa.

Appu Augustine: #AskDykes What’s your comment on the terrific atmosphere at Kochi?

That has been one of the highlights for me as it shows that India has a genuine football culture.

Bikrant Sarma: #AskDykes Can NEUFC make it to semi-finals, seeing their performances till now?

Not if they play like the way they did on Sunday.

It was pleasing to know that John Dykes could see the promise in the format presented by Hero ISL. He left us on a charming note with a message for the fans.

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Football2015Sunil Chhetri