KOLKATA SPORTS

Kolkata Sports − Fact Sheet

•23 February, 1792 − first ever cricket match reported in the Madras
Courier played by the Calcutta Cricket Club (CCC) against Barrackpore and
Dumdum.
•The first organized match in India with detailed record was played on 18th
and 19th of January 1804 at Calcutta. The complete scorecard was printed
in the Calcutta Gazette on 26th January , 1804.
•Auckland Circus Gardens was named as Eden Gardens after the Misses Eden
, Auckland’s sisters ( some time in mid 1800)
•1829 : The Royal Calcutta Golf Club was established.
•1858 : First recorded soccer match was played at Esplanade between the
Calcutta Club of Civilians and The Gentlemen of Barrackpore.
•Ballygunge Cricket Club was set up in 1864. In 1950 it merged with CCC .
•Calcutta Football Club (CFC) was set up in 1872.
•In 1888−89, first English team lead by G. F. Vernon, visited Eden Gardens.
•1889 : Mohun Bagan club was founded.
•First Indian Hockey club was formed in 1885 in Calcutta
•1891 : Mohammedan Sporting Club founded.
•1892 : Shovabazar Club scored the first ever victory of an Indian team
over a European one.
•1893 : IFA ( Indian Football Association) was formed.
1911, 29th July: Mohun Bagan won the
IFA Shield defeating East Yorkshire 2-1
in final.
1920 : South Club ( Lawn Tennis) was
established.
1921 : Gobar ( Jatindracharan) Guha won
the World Light-Heavylight title at San
Francisco.
1921 : East Bengal club was founded.
1926-27, first official tour of MCC
1938 : Bengal won Ranji Trophy for the
first time ( led by Tom Longfield).
1952 : In Helesinki Olympics Indian
women took part for the first time in
Olympics. Among the four , two were
from Calcutta : Nilima Ghosh for
Athletics and Arati Saha for swimming.
1959 : Arati Saha became the first Asian
woman to cross the English Channel.
1977 : Football King Pele ( Cosmos Club)
visited the city and played one exhibition
match against Mohun Bagan.
•1982 : Nehru International Gold Cup - first ever international soccer
tournament was held in Calcutta.
•1985 : Yubabharati Krirangan ( Salt Lake Stadium) , largest in Asia (
capacity 120,000) was inaugurated.
•1987 : World Cup Cricket ( Reliance Cup ) Final match was held in Eden
Gardens.
•1990 : Dibyendu Barua won Gold Medal in the 2nd board in Chess
Olympiad in 1990.
•1996 : Leander Paes of Calcutta won the only medal ( bronze medal in
Tennis singles) for India in 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
•1999 : Saurav Ganguly was declared as the captain of Indian Cricket
team.
•1999 : Baichung Bhutia started playing for Bury Club of England. First
Indian to play in professional British League.
•1900: Norman Pritchard of Calcutta won two silver medals at the Paris
Olympics in the 200 meters run and 200 meters hurdles. First Asian to win
a medal in Olympics.
•1980 : biggest tragedy - 16 people died in a Calcutta Senior Division
League match between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan at Eden Gardens.
 Labeled as the nucleus of Indian Football.
The first football enthusiasts in Calcutta
Kolkata Soccer were the students of St. Xavier's College,
Bengal Engineering College, Presidency
Premier League 2006 College, La Martiniere etc. Who played
Team Matches soccer with gusto.
Points Nagendra Prasad founded the first Indian
K. East Bengal 14 32 football club. It was the 'Wellington Club'
Mohun Bagan 14 30 in 1884 and then in 1885 the
Mohammedan 14 24 Shobhabazaar Club. Norman Pritchard, a
Chirag United 14 17 Calcuttan of St. Xavier's College and the
first Indian Olympic medallist (silver 200 m
Calcutta P T 14(-1) 14 dash and hurdles at thr 1900 Paris
Eastern Rail 14(-1) 14(-3) Olympics) scored the first hat trick against
George Teleg. 14 13 Shobhabazaar Club. In 1892, Shobhabazaar
Railway F.C 14 8 Club registered a grand victory over the
East Surrey Regiment in the Trades Cup.
This was the first glorious triumph of an
Indian team over the Europeans.
Indian Football Association
(IFA) was born in 1893 and since then, the IFA Shield
became the most esteemed soccer trophy in India. The
first winner of the exclusive Shield was the Royal Irish
Regiment. The 5th Royal Artillery became the runners-
up.Shobhabazaar lost miserably (0-3) to the 5th
Artillery in their maiden match.
Issued in
1989 to
mark the
centenary
of Mohun
Bagan
Club,
Calcutta
Mohun Bagan ground.

Mohan Bagan Club founded in 1889, won the IFA Shield on 29th
July, 1911 beating East Yorkshire 2-1. Shibdas Bhaduri and
Abhilash Ghosh scored for Mohan Bagan. This mega incident
gained unprecedented applause from the Indians. On the eventful
day, two rupee tickets were sold for fifteen.
They played bare foot. Indian players used to play bare-footed and
were reluctant to play with boots on. In the 1930s, the
Mohammedans persuaded the Indian players to wear boots for the
first time.
Mohammedan Sporting Club came into being
in 1891 as a formidable team to reign the rest
of British era. To celebrate its promotion to the
first division in 1934, the club won the IFA
League with elan. The triumph-story of
Mohammedan Sporting continued unabated till
1941 save 1939.The Mohammedan Sporting
players were regarded by all for their integrity,
killer instinct, skill and plucky attitude.
East Bengal Club emerged in 1921. It finished
as runners-up in the League five times before
winning it in 1942. The club bagged both
League and Shield in 1945. After partition,
Calcutta was deluged by people coming from
East Bengal. These tortured victims of partition
who had lost all hopes and aspirations, found a
new ray of hope in life through this soccer
team. The East Bengal team as if, reflected
their dreams and, joys. Their forward line in
the late 1950s was simply irresistible. Appa
Rao, Dhanraj, Ahmed, Venkatesh and Saleh
the invincible five were a nightmare to any
opponent during that time.
In 1955 a worthy technical innovation was
introduced in Calcutta soccer by changing
from the two-back to three-back system.
This was, again, changed to four-back
system in the mid-1960s.
'Arjuna Awards' instituted since 1961 has
been won by several footballers. Chuni
Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, Jarnail Singh, S.
Nayimuddin. Sudhir Karmakar etc. are
some of the towering figures.
A multitude of players have come from all
over India to play in the Calcutta soccer
since the 1930s. Some such illustrious
names are Venkatesh, Appa Rao, Ahmed,
Saleh, Rahim, Abbas, Murgesh, Masum,
Taj Muhammad, Peter Thangaraj, Ram
Bahadur, Sattar, Jarnail Singh, Balaram,
Kittu, Shyam Thapa, Habib, Xavier Pias,
Babu Mani and many others. Several
foreign players have also played for
Calcutta teams and been household names
at different times. Pugsli, Majid Baskar,
Jamshid Nasiri, Omar, Musa, Masud Fakri,
Chima Okerie, Bernard etc. are some of the
better known foreign players
Kolkata Cricket
Calcutta has played the big brother in organizing and
standardizing Cricket a game invented in England.
'The Madras Courier' matches were played by the
'Calcutta Cricket Club' against Barrackpur and Dum
Dum as early as 1792 (23rd February).'The Calcutta
Cricket Club' was the oldest one of its kind. The first
organized cricket match in India was played in
Calcutta on 18th and 19th January, 1804. The
contenders were the old Etonians and a team with an
exotic designation 'Calcutta'. The participants were
the 'writers' of the Writers' Building. The pitch was
laid in the Maidan. Ballygunge Cricket Club was
founded in 1864, which merged with the Calcutta
Cricket Club (CCC) in 1950. The first official
international cricket in India Was against the MCC
held in 1926-27.
Triangular school compitition
Sarada Ranjan Roy (1858 - 1925), an erudite scholar,
fielded a 'Bengalee Schools' team against the 'British
Schools' in 1913. This became a regular fixture. The
Anglo-Indian Schools followed and thus emerged a
triangular competition.
Local Clubs
The notable cricket playing clubs are the Aryans, the
Town Club, the Sporting Union, the Kalighat Club etc.
Ironically, Kolkata the progenitor of Indian Cricket, has
not produced many talents to represent the national
team. Calcutta can however be proud of Sharadindu
('Shute') Banerjee (1911 - 1980) of the Aryan Club, was
an 'Express' bowler and arguably one of the fastest
bowlers India has ever produced. Pankaj Roy was
another illustrious cricketer from Bengal who played 43
Tests and opened India's innings for four years with
aplomb. Prabir Sen, Dilip Doshi and Arun Lal have also
made the city proud by being members of the national
squad at different times.
'Made-in-Calcutta' genius
The latest feather in the cap of Calcutta Cricket is the
inimitable Saurav Ganguly the has carved a niche for
himself in the history of the game. A spontaneous,
graceful and flamboyant left-hander batsman, a witty
bowler and a great thinker of the game he led the team
to victory against
The Maidan, about two miles in
length and a mile in width, is the
best-known open space; the major
soccer, cricket, and hockey fields
are located there. Adjacent to the
Maidan is one of the oldest cricket
fields in the world, Ranji Stadium,
in the Eden Gardens; Netaji
Stadium, for indoor events, is also
in the vicinity. The Salt Lake
Stadium, built to the east of the
city, can seat 100,000 spectators.
There are two racecourses and two
golf courses within the city, and
rowing at the Lake Club and the
Bengal Rowing Club is popular._
Hockey -The first Indian hockey clubs were
formed in Calcutta in 1885. The Beighton Cup
Tournament was initiated in 1895 in Calcutta.
The All India Hockey Federation held its first
National Championships at Calcutta in 1928.
Calcutta had established itself as a formidable
power in hockey both in the Senior League as
well as the Beighton Cup. Apart from the
Customs, Port Commissioners and Railways
as well as private clubs viz., the Xaverians,
Mohan Bagan and the Rangers had also made
remarkable progress.
Some outstanding players in Calcutta, in the
pre-independence era were Allen, the Tapsell
brothers, Dickie Carr, Shaukat Ali, Joe
Gallibardy etc. In the post-independence era,
Calcutta made outstanding contributions to
Indian Hockey through Pat Jansen, G.
Glacken, Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt, M.
Daluz, Gurbux Singh, G.S. Dubey, C.S.
Gurung. Incidentally, the first woman recipient
of the Arjuna Award for Hockey was Ms. Ann
Lumsden of Calcutta.
 Lawn Tennis - Though not a hot favourite of the
masses, it has contributed immensely to the game at
the higher levels. 'The Bengal Lawn Tennis
Championships' started in 1887 in the outfield at
Eden Gardens. Japanese players like Zenzo
Shimidzu and Okamoto dominated the Tennis
circuits in Calcutta. The oldest tennis club in Calcutta
was the North Club at Beadon Square (now
Rabindra Kanan). However, the South Club, which
followed, soon (1920), grew more popular in a short
LAWN TENNIS CLUBS while. Akshay and Gyanesh Dey and Anandi
OF KOLKATA Mukherjee founded it. With six well-tended grass
courts, the club was justifiably referred to as the
Bengal Tennis Association Wimbledon of the East. Renowned players from all
over the globe have played in this court. Several
Calcutta South Club Davis Cup ties have been played at the South Club.
International Club
Outram Club This club started the Calcutta Lawn Tennis
Championships in the early 1930s. It inaugurated the
Royal Calcutta Golf Club National Championships in 1946. Some of the
Saturday Club illustrious players of South Club who have enriched
Indian Tennis are Dilip Basu, Sumant Mishra,
Shyambazar Tennis Club Naresh Kumar, Akhtar Ali, Joydeep Mukherjee,
Enrico Piperno etc. Leander Paes, the Junior
The Calcutta Gymkhana Wimbledon titleholder in 1990, is a proud possession
Tollygunge Club of Calcutta.
 Badminton - Calcutta has made a
significant contribution in Badminton as
well. In 1934, the All-India Badminton
Association was founded in Calcutta.
The first National Tournament was held
here the same year. The winner was
Vijay Madgavkar, a Calcuttan.
The city can boast of producing some
outstanding Badminton players like
Manoj Guha, Gajanan Hemmadi,
Dipu Ghosh, Ramen Ghosh and even
the national women's champion
Madhumita Singh Bisht (Goswami).

Table-Tennis - The Bengal Table

Tennis Association was founded in 1934
as the first one of its kind in India.
Three years later, the All-India Table-
Tennis Federation was established at
the South Club. Calcutta has produced
some of the best exponents of the game
Issued in 1975 on Issued in 1980 on like Rupa Mukherjee, Kalyan Jayant
the occasion of the the occasion of and Indu Puri. Calcutta hosted the
World Table the Asian Table World Table-Tennis Championships in
Tennis Tennis 1975 at the Netaji Indoor Stadium
Championships at Championships at exclusively built for that stupendous
Calcutta Calcutta occasion.

"Before doing muscle-control", he
said gently, "it helps if you have some
muscles…."
Body-Building - The legendary Eugene
Sandow came to Calcutta in 1905 and
bolstered the spirits of the youth. Body-
building became a craze in the city. S.N.
Majumder introduced the first modern disc-
loading barbell set in India around 1907-
1908. An All India Association was
founded in the 1920s and subsequently the
national weight lifting championship started.
The Bengal State Association for weight
lifting was formed in 1933. Notable weight
lifters from Calcutta who represented India
in the international meets were Nilmani
Das, Mohanlal Ghosh, Alok Ghosh,
Kamalakanta Santra, Anil Mandal etc.
Body-builders from Calcutta won the
'Bharat Shri' national body-building
championships umpteen times.
Parimal Ray, a Calcuttan had won the title
of 'Mr. Asia' for the first time. Later,
Monotosh Roy and Monohar Aich bagged
the 'Mr. Universe' titles in their respective
categories. Bishnucharan Ghosh was
another renowned body-builder and a yoga
maestro.
 Monotosh Roy
Born 1917 in
Gajaria in Dacca
district of India.
Died June 29th
2005.
Mr. Universe 1951
(Class 3-short men
division - 5' 5")

Founder
Member IFBB in
India
 Monohar Aich : Mr. Universe 1952
Physical instructor, circus strongman, circus proprietor, gym owner, Monohar Aich has had
a chequered career. All through the long years he has kept up his training. "Without regular
training I don't see how one can exist as a human being."
BOXING was introduced in Calcutta
by the British Army. The first recorded
bout took place in October, 1884 at the
Parsee Theatre. The Anglo Indian
schools cultivated the sport and made
pugilism a popular sport among the
Calcuttans. The Bengal Amateur Boxing
Federation was founded in 1930. The All
India Boxing Federation was founded at
Calcutta in 1948. Ace pugilists from
Calcutta like Bob Lal, Binay Basu, Robin
Bhatta, M. Joachim, R. Cranston etc

GOLF - The Royal Calcutta Golf

Club, which was established in 1829, is
the oldest institution of its kind outside
Britain.
At present, it has shifted to Tollygunge
from Dumdum via the Maidan. The
Tollygunge Club has a marvellous
course. The 'Royal' is the founding force
behind the Indian Golf Union. It
conducts the Amateur Golf
Championship at Calcutta, Delhi and
Mumbai in rotation.
 KOLKATA RACES - As per Hicky's Gazette the first recorded meet of a Horse
Race held in Calcutta was on 16th, 17th and 18th January 1794. Races were held at Akra
near Metiabruz till 1809. Then the venue was shifted to the Maidan. Races were first held on
a straight course in the morning. Later, the rules were amended and today the racecourse is a
triangle with the corners rounded off. Racing in the afternoon started after 1876.

Two supplementary courses were founded at Tollygunge and Barrackpore. However, the latter
was very short lived. The Calcutta Turf Club was founded in 1847. It was rechristened the
'Royal Calcutta Turf Club' after the visit of George V in the city in 1911. Until the 2nd World
War, the jockeys were mostly Australians and Britons. The first Indian jockey who won the
prestigious Calcutta Gold Cup was Kheem Singh in 1950.