Kolkata: East Bengal finds another hat-trick hero as Surabuddin Mullick made an inspirational performance to help Kingfisher East Bengal to seal an apparently emphatic victory at the East Bengal ground today. At the half time mark it seemed to be a hard fought game as Fuja Tope’s Peerless had put up a decent fight. An inspired change by East Bengal coach Khalid Jamil in the second half brought in Surabuddin and he simply destroyed the opposition with a memorable performance.
Surabuddin has always been a highly rated attacker but hardly got the exposure he needed by the top teams from Kolkata. Surabuddin was telling, “I have always performed in the big stage. I scored against teams like Mohun Bagan and Dempo as well for ONGC in the I-League. Unfortunately nobody gave me the value I deserved.” He added, “In the last season Alvito told me that I should play outside Kolkata and he promised that if I could perform, he would give me a chance at East Bengal, which I did at Churchill Brothers.” Surabuddin dedicated the performance to his family members.
On the other hand, Khalid Jamil revealed the mystery behind the substitution of Surabuddin, as he honestly said, “It was Nitu da (Debabrata Sarkar) who requested me to bring him in. He was also in my plan but Nitu da’s advice was crucial.”
Over the years, many top coaches too got their results from the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan officials, but they had hardly confessed. Khalid’s honesty thus made a different statement about his gratitude. Later Debabrata Sarkar told www.xtratime.in , “No, the credit goes to Khalid for the change. But we are associated with the game for a long time. So, we can guess the quality of a player. That’s why I suggested him to bring in Surabuddin.”
Meanwhile, East Bengal has unofficially been told that they would play their next game on the 23rd August. But The East Bengal officials are reportedly trying to reschedule the match by requesting that to the IFA officials, as both Willis Plaza and Carlyle Mitchell would be on national duties.”