Teenager Delwinder comes face-to-face with nostalgia

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Delwinder Singh was all of two years old when a Fandi Ahmad-inspired Singapore side demolished Pahang 4-0 and lifted the Malaysia Cup way back in 1994.

He has no personal memory of that match, much less any of Singapore’s much-told epic battles with many a Malaysian state team, including the famed rivalry with Selangor in a Malaysia Cup era that, for the Lions, came to an abrupt end weeks after that night at Shah Alam Stadium.

It was in memory of that rivalry that the Sultan of Selangor’s Cup series was inaugurated about a decade ago, intended as an annual event to maintain the close ties across the Causeway and celebrate the talents of stars of yesteryear like Fandi, Samad Allapitchay and Soh Chin Aun.

But nostalgia is a concept that seems awkward to a generation that has nothing to reminisce, a generation which Delwinder, now a strapping 19-year-old and a player in this year’s Singapore Selection squad for the tenth edition of the Sultan of Selangor’s Cup, represents.

The Tanjong Pagar United defender is the baby of the Singapore contingent, eight months younger than Courts Young Lions centreback Safuwan Baharudin and over two decades behind Tampines Rovers coach Steven Tan, the youngest of this year’s Singapore Veterans at age 40.

Sitting down for an after-dinner interview on the eve of this year’s showpiece – appropriately enough at Shah Alam – he was forthright in showing how much of a blank canvas he was.

“I heard from my dad about it, but I was so young then, so even if I watched anything, I wouldn’t remember,” said Delwinder.

“I know this is a prestigious tournament, but I didn’t know the meaning of it. I had to ask my dad, who explained to me that the rivalry between the states was intense, and that every match between Singapore and Selangor had great crowds.

“All of that is second-hand knowledge to me, though. When I went through the National Football Academy, the lowest level I had played in was against Malaysia’s national age group teams, so I’ve never faced a state team before.

“Anyone like me will feel lost, like I was when I realised that all the other players and the Veterans know what this is all about. Players like me, the younger generation, we don’t really know what the meaning behind all of this is.”

Not only did Delwinder have no first-hand experience of the rivalries that very much made up the fabric of Singapore’s Malaysia Cup story, he also had no previous involvement in the Sultan of Selangor’s Cup, even as a spectator.

Furthermore, unlike the case for previous generations, many Singaporeans born in the last two decades would have little affinity with most of Malaysia, beyond the cheap grocery shopping at Johor Baru and beach resorts down the Malayan west coast.

Delwinder might be ignorant, but he was not content to stay that way. Curiosity on the subject led him to do some research, reading up and listening to people who had all sorts of stories to tell.

“Judging from what I heard from my dad and friends, and from what I read in articles, I now know how prestigious this is,” he said of his findings.

“When past S.League Selections and Singapore Selections went for this tournament, people around Singapore would know about it. So for me, it’s an honour to be part of all this at the age of 19.

“To don the colours of Singapore is already an honour. But to be at this prestigious tournament will always be a special memory and a lovely experience.

“It’s a complete first experience for me – I’ve seen pictures of past editions, but then they didn’t really speak much. Within my own age-group, I’ll be the first to go through this, and a very close friend was very happy for me when he knew I was called up for it.”

Incidentally, Delwinder had been in the country only a couple of months earlier, as a member of the Lions squad that had held Malaysia’s Tigers to a 1-1 draw at Bukit Jalil Stadium.

For a player still going through his maiden professional season in an S.League where match attendances have seldom pushed beyond 2,000 this year, getting exposed to a crowd 40 times that in his first international trip out of Singapore was, unsurprisingly, a jolt.

That was between two national teams, though, and Delwinder acknowledged that facing very much the same kind of attendance at the Sultan of Selangor’s Cup will leave quite an impression in his young mind.

“At first I thought that, even with all the prestige, it wouldn’t turn out like Bukit Jalil and its 85,000 crowd,” he remarked.

“But then, from what I learnt now, Shah Alam has an 80,000 capacity, and a lot of people told me it’ll be easily a full house tomorrow. Judging by what I saw at the stadium, it’s going to be an experience even though I might not be playing at all.

“Definitely I will be a bit nervous, but I cannot let it take over me. If I’m given a game and I let my nerves take over me, I’ll not have a good game and I’ll not enjoy the experience!”

The experience of playing against Selangor could become a regular one for Delwinder and other Generation Y tail-enders, following the July announcement that Singapore will field a team in the Malaysian Super League once more starting from the 2012 season.

Much of the reaction from the general public has fed on the memories of the older folk, many of whom are more than happy to bring back something they had plenty of emotional investment in, almost to the point of ritual in some cases.

Delwinder was aware of the huge responsibility such fans have placed upon the virgin shoulders of people like him, but he once again expressed his wish to get a proper chance to get a feel of things for himself should the chance indeed come for him.