© ICLIt’s a role that we’ll be more accustomed to seeing him in, in the future, as compared to the past when the Sikkimese Sniper’s twinkle-toed feet did all the talking. But here he was at the two-day Hero Indian Super League domestic player draft as expert analyst, commenting on the merits of the club picks, round by round, with a grand summary at the end.And at the end of it all, Baichung Bhutia concluded that no team among the six clubs taking part in the draft had any undue advantage over each other though Goa and NorthEast United with their pre-picked players enjoyed an edge because their teams have been together for years.“It’s very difficult to say at the moment but I feel that all teams have balanced squads,” Bhutia said after the draft process concluded. That apart, he thought that Mumbai had spent big money on star names, while Kerala Blasters made some sensible signings. Bhutia, however, felt the quality of the foreigners would make the difference.“Foreigners will be the key players in the league because when you have six foreigners playing in a team they will obviously be the ones who decide which way the game is going. I think that any team which has quality foreigners will be hard to beat because they will soon settle down and begin to produce results,” he explained. The former India skipper thought the first time experience of a player draft was a “good learning process” and hoped it would get better in the future. “The players pick was more like when we were kids and 20 players used to turn up and the two captains used to select the teams,” he quipped nostalgically.“If we can get our young players to go on the field and play with quality foreigners, it will help a lot.”Baichung BhutiaHad he been part of the draft process he would have preferred to play for NorthEast United – for obvious reasons!Spelling out the many benefits that the ISL could confer upon Indian football, Bhutia felt that the presence of marquee foreign coaches and international players would benefit our youngsters. “If we can get our young players to go on the field and play with quality foreigners, it will help a lot,” the one-time poster boy of Indian football said.Asked about our prospects at the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Bhutia said it will be tough and hoped that the Wim Koevermans-coached squad would put up a stiff fight. He felt that the Dutch manager has an unenviable task as he has to build the squad from scratch. “Bob Houghton had a set of players who had played for the Indian team for a long time, and that’s why we had the results, won a lot of finals and also qualified for the Asian Cup, the biggest tournament in Asia.“When he (Koevermans) came in, most of the senior players had left and he had to bring in new players to fill in their shoes, so it was a big challenge,” he added.
