Not just at home, Balaram’s prowess was getting the better of teams, which was evident at the 1962 Asiad when he
teamed up with Chuni and PK to make short work of Thailand, Japan and South Korea, scoring against the former two
and assisting Goswami against the latter.The brilliance of Balaram’s brand of football spilled onto the Olympic
arena as well.
After falling behind Hungary 0-2, Balaram punted a great assist from Chuni into the Hungarian goal to
reduce the margin and repeated his spectacular show in a game against France that India lost narrowly due to a
defensive lapse. Balaram’s best moment in international football came against Hong Kong in the 1958 Asiad. The
mmatch spilled into extra-time with the two teams tied at 2-2 in full-time. It was then that Balaram turned his
magic on with two assists and one goal to help India clinch the issue 5-2.
Balaram became the captain of East Bengal in 1961, which was a glorious season for him. Marshalling his resources
from the front like a true general, he finished the season as the top scorer with 23 goals and also bagged the best
player award.
Balaram was equipped with a unique sense of football as he could improvise instantly while playing and brought a lot
of variety to the game with his kind of play, so much so that at one point a section of the
discernible felt that he was better than even Chuni, arguably India’s best-ever football player. Balaram received
the Arjuna Award in 1962 and was expected to continue playing for some more years but, due to nagging health
problems, he retired from the game in 1963, leaving behind a rich legacy and the ‘Chuni-Balaram-PK’ refrain that
still does the rounds of the football circuit of India.