Jas Bains, author of Corner Flags and Corner Shops co-arranged the tour, that saw the Indian national team play three games against Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Bangladesh. A 2-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham and a 1-0 victory against their fierce rivals Bangladesh, brought the tour to a successful end.

Arunava Chaudhuri, from the Indian Football website, feels the tour represented a positive breakthrough for the national team, which is currently ranked 115 in the world. “What the players saw and learned in England was professionalism.” Chaudhuri also felt that India also surprised a few onlookers as well, “The importance grew even further as India were quite successful, as before the tour many feared that India would be thrashed by Fulham and West Brom.” At present, only one member of the squad plays outside of India. Baichung Bhutia, who plays for Bury, is the first Indian to play professional football in England. It is hoped that the tour will lead to further Indian players moving abroad, and that it will also provide the whole squad with greater experience in their mission to place India firmly on the world football map.

The tour also represented a number of beneficial elements for the English game as well. The lack of Asian players and fans in our professional game is a subject that has been discussed in depth for a number of years now. British fans of Asian origin were given a rare opportunity to see Asian footballers competing at a professional level.

One of the continuing problems in attracting more Asians into football is an extreme lack of role models for young children to look up to. Chaudhuri feels it will not be long until we see British Asians gracing the Premiership, “Harpal Singh might make his breakthrough this season at Leeds but a mass breakthrough by Asians into British professional football may take another five or ten years.”