oming in. No less credit
to the founder members of the newly constituted Goa
Football Association, which was created after
disbanding the erstwhile Association that existed
before Liberation and 1961.

Of particular note was the staging of a football match,
featuring a team of women, during the Carnival season,
on March 4, 1973, at the Police ground in Panaji,
between Eves and Adams. This was organised by us
members of the Clube Vasco da Gama, and I will stick
out my neck to say that it was the first time a match
was played with a women's team. Unless, somebody can
prove to the contrary.

Athletics: This universally acclaimed discipline as the
'mother of all games and sports', did not progress as
desired. On August 1, 1969, Prabhakar Sinari, Francisco
Braganza, Rui Carvalho, Domnic Fernandes and myself,
got together and formed the Goa Amateur Athletic
Association, which functions till today, though with
mixed results.

We did win plenty of medals at the National level, but
nothing at the international level. Among the main
drawbacks were, and still are, finance, lack of
infrastructural facilities, including grounds and a
suitable running track and of course trained officials.
The situation today is much improved, with the
government providing coaching facilities and other
incentives, especially at the school and college level.

Yet, apart from football, athletics, swimming and
taekwondo, which have brought a lot of honours to the
state in the past few years, there is little to shout
about in the other disciplines. There are a lot of
pontification made by the governments, often with
political considerations, and these have not been good
for the progress of sporting activity in Goa.

As for me, my stint in Goa has been rewarding. Being
bestowed with the prestigious and highest state award,
the Jivbadada Kerkar Award for Best Organiser for the
year 1984-85. Reporting two Olympic Games, at Montreal
and Los Angeles, the World Cup hockey at Sydney, the
World Amateur Boxing Championships in Bombay, where I
also shared the mike for the English commentary, the
Asian Games, Permit meets and Nationals in the country,
in the capacity of an official, have all been a great
experience, besides allowing me the opportunity to
globe trot.

One also produced and edited Goa's first sports weekly
titled Goal, in 1976-77, and later in 1996, I edited
the bilingual fortnightly Konkan Mail, both having to
be discontinued due t