Category Archives: Sports

Olympic gold-winning hockey legend Keshav Datt dies

Hockey player Keshav Chandra Dutt   | Photo Credit: Rajeev Bhatt

He was part India’s historic feat at the 1948 Olympics where they beat home team Britain 4-0 at the Wembley Stadium in London to win the first gold post Independence.

Two-time Olympics gold medallist Keshav Chandra Datt, the last surviving member of the Indian hockey team in the historic 1948 London Games, passed away here early on Wednesday, according to a Hockey Bengal (HB) statement. He was 95.

An HB official said Datt’s last rites would be performed after the arrival of his daughter Anjali from abroad in a few days’ time.

A product of the famous Government College, Lahore — which also produced Olympians like Syed Jaffar, Commander Nandy Singh and Munir Dar — Datt, born in Lahore on December 29, 1925, participated in the 1948 London and 1952 Helsinki Games respectively.

Some claim that he could not take part in his third Olympics, in Melbourne in 1956, due to “professional commitments with Brooke Bond”.

Datt — who migrated to India after the partition and played in Bombay and then in Bengal — was part of the Dhyan Chand-led Indian squad that toured East Africa in 1947. As a half-back, he played in 22 matches and scored two goals.

In 1949, Datt had the honour of playing against hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, who led the Rest of India squad, in two exhibition matches here.

First, Datt was part of the 1948 Olympics squad and in the second he was a member of the Bengal team.

In his autobiography Goal, Dhyan Chand rated Datt as one of the finest half-backs of that time.

Best moments

Defeating host Great Britain 4-0 in the final at the Empire Stadium, Wembley, London, to win Independent India’s first gold in 1948 on the British soil and then thrashing the Netherlands 6-1 four years later in Helsinki to bag the second consecutive Olympic Games title were the finest moments of Datt’s career.

By the age of 26, he had the prized possession of two Olympic gold medals.

He was among the last ones to witness India’s monopoly in the Olympics as it faced some challenge in the 1956 Games where it experienced tight matches — including 1-0 wins over Germany and Pakistan in the semifinals and final respectively.

Datt shone in his club career as well.

“While playing for Calcutta Port Commissioners, he impressed famous actor and Mohun Bagan Hockey secretary of that time, Jahar Ganguly. He joined Mohun Bagan in 1951 to respect the wishes of Ganguly and played till 1960.

“In 1952, Mohun Bagan achieved the first double in hockey when it lifted the Beighton Cup for the first time along with the Calcutta Hockey League (CHL),” the Bagan website said.

Datt won CHL six times and the Beighton Cup three times in his 10-year Bagan career. He was the first non-football sportsperson to be conferred the Mohun Bagan Ratna, in 2019.

Datt represented Punjab (in undivided India), Bombay and Bengal in the National championship.

Badminton player

He was also an accomplished badminton player and was Bengal No.1 of his times.

Datt’s passing away snaps the only living link with Independent India’s first sporting glory.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Hockey / by Y.B. Sarangi / Kolkata – July 07th, 2021

Stadium in Bengal’s Barasat named after Maradona

The football legend had conducted a clinic for schoolchildren at that facility three years ago

A stadium near Barasat, where Diego Maradona was last seen in action in India, was on Friday named after the football legend.

During his last visit to Kolkata three years ago, Maradona had conducted a football clinic with school children at the Aditya School of Sports in Kadambgachi on the outskirts of Barasat, about 35 kilometres from here.

“The stadium has now been converted into a full-fledged cricket stadium and we have named it ‘Diego Maradona Aditya School of Sports Cricket Stadium’,” chairman of Aditya Group Anirban Aditya told PTI.

“This is the first-ever cricket stadium in the Argentine football legend’s name. We also have special Maradona memorabilia in the changing room. The seat and the cloth hanger that Maradona used would now be preserved with his autographed No. 10 jersey.”

Intense session

Maradona was last seen in action in India on December 12, 2017 when he turned up in shorts on a humid afternoon playing with 60-odd school kids. He was seen drenched in sweat, pouring water on his head during the gruelling session.

He also crooned Spanish songs and inaugurated a seven-a-side exhibition match featuring former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.

He was slated to feature in a match billed as ‘Diego vs Dada’ but by the time the match began, the 1986 World Cup-winning Argentine captain was completely drained out after the session with school kids.

Anirban said the stadium was built in four months and Maradona was the first sportsperson to step into it. “I remember taking Maradona from his hotel. He was tired but when he saw the crowd he became full of life. Initially, it was to be a 45-minute affair but it went on. He had promised he would be back and train the kids. So as a tribute to him we have named the stadium after him.”

Students heartbroken

Some of the students who had interacted with Maradona at the school were heartbroken.

“I had always heard of Maradona but never thought that we can touch him and play with the ‘God of Football’. It was completely magical.

“I will always remember the workshop that he took as the most remarkable event of my life, said 17-year-old Avita Sarkar of Aditya Academy Senior Secondary School.

“I was one of the lucky ones who got the football pass from Maradona. It was unbelievable,” said 18-year-old Aritra Sarkar.

Built on a 30-acre campus, the school conducted grass-roots programmes for Indian Super League franchise ATK Mohun Bagan.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News< Cities> Kolkata / by PTI / Kolkata – November 28th, 2020

City gets first racing team

Kolkata:

For motor sports enthusiasts in the City of Joy, it’s time to cheer! In a proud moment, the city got its first racing team with the official launch of ‘Kolkata Joba Racing’ on November 3.

The team was launched by Firhad Hakim, state urban development and municipal affairs minister, who is also the chairman of Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The team is being promoted by Debdutta Mukherjee, popularly known as John Mukherjee – India’s first and only Marshal at the Formula I and Tathagata Mukherjee, a Formula 3 racer.

“It is indeed an exciting moment. Over the last few years, motor sports in the country have gained tremendous popularity particularly in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.

However, there was no representation from Kolkata, which is so passionate when it comes to sports and culture. This racing team will surely go all over the world and make our city proud,” said Hakim, during the launch.

A racing event is scheduled to be held in Chennai this month and the racing team from Kolkata will be participating giving the sports fanatics of the city to cheer its own racing team.

source: http://www.millenniumpost.in / Millennium Post / Home> Kolkata / by Team MP / November 04th, 2020

Veteran sports journalist Kishore Bhimani dies

The septuagenarian suffered a cerebral attack recently and was undergoing treatmentK

Kishore Bhimani / Twitter / @t2telegraph

Veteran sports journalist and cricket commentator Kishore Bhimani died at the age of 74, family sources said on Thursday.

He is survived by his wife Rita and son Gautam who is also a well-known TV personality.

“He had suffered a cerebral attack a few days back and was undergoing treatment,” a family source said.

Bhimani was one of the most recognised English voices of the 1980s.

Following his death, a pall of gloom descended on the country’s sports fraternity, with tributes coming in from all quarters.

“RIP Kishore Bhimani..he was one of the good Old Fashioned Crkt writer who took Crkt writings like a player who takes to playing…Condolences to his Spouse Rita & Son Gautam.. GodBless All Always.. Fondly,” legendary Indian spinner Bishan Singh Bedi tweeted.

“Farewell Kishore Bhimani. Cricket journalist and a true lover of #Kolkata,” politician Derek O’Brien wrote on Twitter.

Bhimani was commentating when Sunil Gavaskar became the first player to reach 10,000 runs in Test cricket, during the drawn match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad in 1987.

One of the most sought-after Indian cricket writers who would be wooed by British publications in the 1980s, Bhimani was also on air during the final moments of the famous 1986 tied Test against Australia at Chepauk.

It is said that Imran Khan, during his captaincy days, was a regular at Bhimani’s residence whenever he was in Calcutta.

Bhimani had worked for Calcutta daily ‘The Statesman’, was a noted columnist and wrote ‘The Accidental Godman’.

He was the president of Calcutta Sports Journalists Club from 1978 to 1980.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Sports / by The Telegraph Bureau & Agencies / Calcutta – October 15th, 2020

The long road to Eden Gardens, retraced

Historical venue: Eden Gardens came about after two attempts to have a ground failed.   | Photo Credit:  The Hindu

Cricket enthusiasts in the 19th century got little support from the colonial Army,

Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, India’s oldest cricketing ground, came about as the third-time-lucky effort of fans in 1864, after two attempts to have a good venue for the sport failed, because it was seen as an encroachment, and due to objections raised by the British Army at Fort William.

That story emerges from colonial documents at the Directorate of State Archives, West Bengal with other interesting facts on the history of cricket in India. A documentary has been made on this piece of sporting history. The first cricket club outside Britain was the Calcutta Cricket Club founded in 1792, and the first match was played 12 years later between the Etonians, senior civil servants and other company officials.

Sumit Ghosh, the Archivist at the State Archives, says the match was played in front of Government House which is the Raj Bhawan of the present day on January 18 and 19, 1804. “In 1825 the club got a plot of land on the Maidan between Government House and Fort William to be used as a cricket ground,” he told The Hindu.

In 1841, the club was permitted to enclose the ground with a fence. But the Army at Fort William, described the club as an “encroacher” and in 1853, the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta wrote to Cecil Beadon, Secretary to the Government of Bengal, on this act of “forceful occupation”.

Mr. Ghosh says Cricket Club of Calcutta authorities then looked for an alternative ground and at ₹1,000, found a new one, fenced it and made it playable. To their dismay they realised that a new road into Fort William was being built, which would cut into the ground. The Club officials appealed but their pleas were rejected.

The road to Eden Gardens is traced in a documentary titled Edener Itikatha (History of Eden Gardens) by Mr. Ghosh. “There is so much of recorded history but so little known to common people walking past these grounds. It is important that people know that in the mid-19th century, the vast Maidan was also used as pasture,” he adds. The Archives say Matabooddin Sirkar, a native took the land on lease for one year from February 1, 1854 to January 31, 1855 at a rent of ₹500. That contract allowed horse, cow, goat, sheep, donkey to graze, but not pig and buffalo.

Archivist Sarmistha De, who has worked on the area, says“State Archives from the mid-19th century show that Maidan was a zone of contention between the British military and British civil society. While the military thought it should mainly be for their purposes and monitoring of Fort William area, another section was actively considering it as a recreation zone with cricket as a part of that”.

After two failed attempts, in 1864, land was laid out for a ground for Calcutta Cricket Club in the extended part of Eden Gardens.

Eden Gardens made its first appearance during the time of Governor-General Lord Auckland (1836-42). Originally ‘The Auckland Circus Gardens’, the area south of Baboo Ghat changed to ‘Eden Gardens’. The Archives say Baboo Rajchunder Doss, husband of Rani Rashmoni gifted this land after Lord Auckland and his sisters Emily Eden and Fanny Eden helped him save his third daughter from a deadly disease. Eden Gardens, many believe, may be commemorating the Eden family.

“In 1868 there was a proposal for a new building of the Calcutta Cricket club ground but it was not sanctioned by the Government. The construction of a pavilion was sanctioned by the Government of India in their Military Department’s letter no. 699, dated the on April 19, 1871,” Mr. Ghosh says. The conditions imposed were club being at any time required to do so promptly remove the erection without any compensation.

“Now many people know that in 1856, a Pagoda was set up in the gardens and which has been a principal interest of the gardens. The Pagoda was built in Prome in the year 1852 by Ma Kin, wife of Moung Honon, Governor of Prome, Burma. The Pagoda was taken to Calcutta in 1854 by the order of Lord Dalhousie,” Mr. Ghosh said, adding that Pagoda still stands towards the northern part of the stadium.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – September 27th, 2020

A solo traveller around the world, on a bicycle

The cycle is as good for our personal health as it is for our environment, not to mention women’s empowerment: Lipika Biswas

Lipika Biswa cycles on a road in Kasba / Picture by Subhendu Chaki

Lipika Biswas’s landing in Europe for the first time in July 2018 was with a thud. She was in Frankfurt where first the immigration officer would not believe that a woman from India was on a two-month cycling tour in Europe, alone. Then Biswas realised that no mechanic was free to help her re-assemble her bicycle, which she was lugging behind her packed in a box.

But Biswas is not someone who gives up easily. Getting to Frankfurt had not been easy either.

She calls herself a solo traveller. An Eastern Railways employee where she works as a senior clerk, Biswas, who turns 52 on Wednesday, had planned the Europe tour meticulously. She would bike from Germany to Iceland. With loans from friends and a very supportive family, she had managed to put together Rs 4.5 lakh for the trip, and had trained herself relentlessly, but had missed the bit about the re-assembling.

In Frankfurt, she lost a day trying to get a mechanic to help her and several Euros, which would always and instantly be converted into rupees in her mind. “I paid Rs 3,500 as taxi fare in Frankfurt just to move to a new accommodation,” says Biswas, a resident of Kasba. The next day she got to work herself, going by instinct, and put together her bike, and set off for Mainz, when she also realised that she did not know how to use GPS.

But the roads held her up, as she was borne by the kindness of strangers.

Biswas had been a mountaineer from 1994, the year she joined the railways. She wanted to be an adventurer. She had grown up in Palta, on the outskirts of Calcutta, attending school there and college in Naihati. “I was a tomboy. I played daant-guli. No dolls for me,” says Biswas.

She joined a local mountaineering club, Nababganj Mountain Lovers, and with them, as with others, “summited” several Himalayan mountain peaks. In 1995 she trekked up to Kalindi Pass, which connects Gangotri and Gastoli. Within a few years, she was a veteran. For two years, 2014 and 2015, she was part of an Everest expedition team, but on both occasions she had to return from the base camp as the expeditions were cancelled.

She had always loved cycling. The last few years she has turned to these “magic wheels”.

“I still wanted to go far,” she said. To be able to go up mountains that seem to be rising straight up is to conquer fear. “While going up I would think not again. Coming down I would want to return right then.”

But she also wanted to go alone. It would help her to confront the final frontiers of fear. A doctor friend, her adviser, told her to try Europe. It would be “safe”.

So there she was, on way to Mainz from Frankfurt, on a bicycle assembled by herself for the first time.

In Mainz, she was told at a late hour that she would have to cross the Rheine to camp. Biswas would either be hosted by members of Warm Showers, an international free touring cyclists community, or stay at Airbnb places, or camp in her own tent wherever possible, even in someone’s garden, spending as little money as possible on food. But in Mainz, the couple told her she could stay the night at their place. This would be the first of the many homes that would be offered to her by strangers.

“One of the best things about cycling is meeting people,” says Biswas. She made many friends in Europe. She did not face a single incident of racism, she feels. She felt appreciated, though she surprised many as an “Indian woman” out on such a tour.

She rattles off the names of places she visited: Mainz, Cologne, Duisberg, to Arnhem, Amsterdam, Zalk (a village in the Netherlands), back to Germany, and Fehmarn, from where she entered Denmark. Then she visited Sweden and Norway. From Norway she reached Iceland from Faroe Islands by ferry. Reaching Iceland was an emotional moment. She biked through the country from Seyðisfjörður to Reykjavik, from where she took a flight to Calcutta via Copenhagen and Delhi.

“On some days I cycled for 100 to 120km,”says Biswas. “My friend from Calcutta insisted that I go wild camping. So I stayed alone in the forest at Kronsjo the night before I entered Norway from Sweden.”

She discovered the pleasure of railway waiting rooms. At Lunden, near Flam in Norway, she decided to spend the night at the tiny railway station just because it was so heart-stoppingly beautiful. She was the only one at the waiting room, surrounded by mountains and an immense solitude.

She also made friends out of a few Indian ambassadors at the capitals. “Despite some problems, the tour went off quite well,” says Biswas, who was back in Calcutta after two months.

Only to be back in another part of Europe the next year, same time, for two months. She took off from Vienna, biked through Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia to Istanbul, where she had a brainwave.

She felt she must visit Greece. She went to the island of Lesbos, the home of Sappho, the greatly admired poet of ancient Greece who also gives her name to the Sapphic tradition.

Biswas visited the island, but when she wanted to enter Turkey again, from where she would take the flight home, she realised that she had a one-entry visa. She spent a deeply anxious night with her passport taken away, after which she was finally granted another visa for Turkey.

Last year in April, she had also gone on a bike tour of Sri Lanka, but with a friend.

“And I will go again,” she says. And looks proudly at her three bikes – a folding bike, a mountain bike and a touring bike — which are all parked happily inside her bedroom at her small Kasba apartment.

She wants Calcutta to be more cycle-friendly. The cycle is as good for our personal health as it is for our environment, not to mention women’s empowerment, she points out. During the pandemic many cycles are out in the streets.

“But in Calcutta cyclists should also learn to follow traffic signals,” she insists.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Chandrima S Bhattacharya / September 14th, 2020

The long wait ends for India’s first Asiad gold medallist Sachin Nag

Swimmer Sachin Nag, who won the country its first gold medal at the inaugural 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi, gets Dhyan Chand Award

Sachin Nag’s son Ashoke will attend the online awards ceremony at the Sports Authority of India centre in Kolkata, where the president will virtually bestow the Dhyan Chand Award to his late father. (Photo courtesy: Ashoke Nag)

Ashoke Nag talks about having sleepless nights before the national sports awards were announced earlier this month. The son of late swimmer Sachin Nag, winner of the first gold medal for the country at the 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi, had experienced rejection in the past when he tried to secure his father’s legacy.

This was the fifth time Ashoke had applied to the sports ministry to bestow an award posthumously to one of Independent India’s first sporting superstars.

His father passed away in 1987 ‘with a broken soul’, Ashoke says.

Armed with 47 supporting documents, including black-and-white paper cuttings, certificates and a recommendation from paralympic swimmer Prasanth Karmarkar, Ashoke, a former sergeant in the Indian Air Force, applied again this year. The willpower to fight for the recognition his father deserved grew stronger every year that Sachin Nag’s name was not included in the list of awardees. 2009, 2012, 2018 and 2019 had brought only heartbreak.

“This year, I had reason to be hopeful because it is his birth centenary. And remember, he won three medals at the 1951 Asian Games. The gold in the 100m freestyle and bronze medals in the 400m freestyle relay and 300m medley relay. This was just four years after independence. India was a young country, those medals mattered a lot to the nation. I felt frustrated in the past when my father’s name was not included. My father passed away with a broken soul,” Ashoke, who has also penned his father’s biography in Bengali, says.

On Saturday, Ashoke will attend the online awards ceremony at the Sports Authority of India centre in Kolkata, where the president will virtually bestow the Dhyan Chand Award to his late father. “I attended the rehearsal on Thursday. I met archer Atanu Das and sprinter Dutee Chand. Felt good to be in the company of young achievers. I am looking forward to Saturday. After applying for the award, I would wake up at night and wonder if this would be the year,” Ashoke says.

As time went by, Ashoke knew he was in for a long battle.

The family had generously handed over Nag’s medals and blazers to the museum at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala in 1992, five years after the swimmer passed away. Nag was also a two-time Olympian and also part of the Indian water polo team. He coached for three decades as well. Ashoke felt his father got nothing in return after the initial fanfare died down.

Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Lady Edwina Mountbatten watched the event at the pool in 1951, Ashoke says. “Nehru ji was the first one to congratulate my father poolside when he won the gold in the 100m freestyle. I have pictures of Nehru ji and my father together. My father would say PM Nehru gave me respect but at times he felt that over the years people had forgotten him,” Ashoke, the third of six children, says.

Sachin Nag had won the first gold medal for the country at the 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi. (Photo courtesy: Ashoke Nag)

Nag, according to his son, was a proud man. He never asked for favours. Ashoke remembers how his father shot down the idea of approaching a top Swimming Federation of India official to recommend his name for the awards after they were instituted in 1961. “My father said, ‘I used to beat him in the 100m freestyle in the pool. I can’t go and ask him for a favour just because he has become a powerful official.’ He was a proud man,” Ashoke recalls.

Hurtful barbs

Some of the barbs Ashoke faced over the years still sting. Once after the awards were announced, he asked a footballer on the committee what went against his father. “The footballer asked me, ‘how many times did your father represent India? The footballer himself had won the Dhyan Chand award earlier. Yet he insulted my father by asking that question. It hurt me back then,” Ashoke says.

Nag had to deal with official apathy in the run-up to the 1951 Asian Games. The games were scheduled for early March, but Nag had arrived in Delhi in December, hoping to train in the capital. “An official of the organising committee asked my father why he had come so early and told him to go back to Calcutta. He was told there were no swimming pools in Delhi that he could use. But my father decided to find a way to train in Delhi. He located Sisil Hotel in old Delhi, which had a 20m by 10m pool, and requested an Italian lady who was the manager to allow him to use it for training. She agreed for a fee of about Rs 5. That too was waived off later.”

When he won the gold at the Asian Games a few months later, one of his first stops was the hotel. “He went to Sisil hotel to thank everyone for the support. He always remembered those who supported him.”

Caught in riots

If not for Nag’s steely determination, his swimming career would not have reached the heights it did in the late 1940s and early 50s. Nag suffered during the tumultuous days of Partition when he inadvertently got caught in the Calcutta riots. “He was returning from training at the Ganges when a bullet hit him on the right leg. He was badly injured and was admitted in a hospital for five months. When he was being discharged, the doctor told him that it would take him two years to get back to swimming,” Ashoke says.

But in a year’s time, Nag was at the 1948 London Olympics. He participated in the 100m freestyle and was a member of the Indian water polo team that beat Chile 7-4. All four goals were scored by Nag, Ashoke says.

To speed up his recovery, Nag returned to Banaras, where the family was based. He returned to the pilgrim town to rejoin the Saraswati Swimming Club, which he had founded. The masseurs in Banaras were excellent.

Another incident connected to the freedom struggle, where a young Nag was chased by police who were trying to break up a protest, resulted in his swimming talent being discovered early.

Ashoke narrates the sequence of events. “My father jumped into the Ganges to give the police the slip. He first hid underwater between two boats. But how long can someone stay underwater? There was a 10km swimming competition starting in the river and my father joined them. He finished third,” Ashoke says.

Back then, reputed swimmers from Calcutta clubs would enter long-distance competitions in Banaras. One of them, Jamini Das, who would captain the national waterpolo team at the 1948 Olympics, believed Nag had great potential and asked him to shift to Calcutta where he joined the Hatkhola Club.

One of Ashoke’s cherished memories from his childhood was his father pushing him and his brothers into the Ganges to swim. “We never became top-class swimmers like our father. But being successful in getting my father the prestigious award gives me immense satisfaction.”

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports / by Nihal Koshie / August 29th, 2020

Veteran Kolkata-Based Sports Journalist Samir Goswami No More

At a time when coverage of local sports in Kolkata was on the wane, Samir Goswami was one of the few journalists who would devotedly cover first division cricket, hockey league as well as of lower-division football

Samir Goswami
Composite: Facebook (Saba Nayakan)

Veteran journalist Samir Goswami, a much-liked figure in Kolkata sports journalism fraternity, breathed his last on Saturday after suffering from cardiac arrest.

He was 65 and is survived by his wife. Loved for his amiable nature, Goswami worked for more than two decades in popular Bengali newspaper ‘Bartaman’.

At a time when coverage of local sports in Kolkata was on the wane, Goswami was one of the few journalists, who would devotedly cover first division cricket league games and unfailingly updated the scores of hockey league matches as well results of lower-division (second to fifth division) football leagues.

He also diligently covered senior and junior level swimming competitions as well as table tennis events. After retirement, he used to freelance in different media including AIR Kolkata.

He represented Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club (CSJC) in J K Bose Trophy on many occasions apart from going as the manager. The CSJC and Kolkata Press Club deeply mourned the sudden demise of Goswami.

source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Website> Sports / by PTI / April 19th, 2020

What a win: Sourav Ganguly remembers 2001 Kolkata Test

In 2001, India, under Ganguly’s leadership, became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win the match after being forced to follow-on.

BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly (Photo | PTI)

New Delhi :

Board of Control for Cricket in India president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday reminisced the famous win over Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test. Ganguly retweeted a video of the Indian team at the time celebrating in the dressing room.

“What a win…” Ganguly said in his tweet.

In 2001, India, under Ganguly’s leadership, became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win the match after being forced to follow-on.

India were all out for 171 in reply to Australia’s first innings score of 445 at the Eden Gardens. Steve Waugh enforced the follow-on and India ended up declaring on 657/7 in their second innings, largely thanks to an extraordinary 372-run stand between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

Harbhajan Singh, who had become the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket in the first innings, led the way once again with the ball. He took six wickets as Australia were all out for 212 and India ended up winning the Test by 171 runs.

The match is regarded as one of the greatest Test matches ever and one of the most significant in the recent history of Indian cricket. The Australian team of the time was regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time and Waugh had termed winning a Test series in India as the “final frontier”. While they were unsuccessful in doing it that year, they went on to finally break the 35-year jinx when they came to India in 2004.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Sport> Cricket / by IANS / April 15th, 2020

Tactician, motivator, visionary: Indian football legend PK Banerjee’s pupils recall his greatness

Subhash Bhowmick, Gautam Sarkar, Subrata Bhattacharya and Shyam Thapa, some of the best players in the 1970s were coached by the legendary Banerjee.

File image of PK Banerjee | Indian Football/ Twitter

Subhash Bhowmick, a robust and lethal forward in Indian football in the 1970s, was down in the dumps with no visible light at the end of the tunnel until Pradip Kumar Banerjee gave his career a new lease of life, something he is grateful to this date.

Bhowmick, who later became an accomplished coach, owes his stardom to Banerjee’s skills as a coach that brought out the best in him. Similarly, Gautam Sarkar, an absolute feisty character who would send those pin-point passes to Bhowmick playing for Mohun Bagan also benefited from Banerjee’s astute coaching.

Thus, as the 83-year-old veteran lost his battle against prolonged illness, his students, who were stars of Kolkata maidan in the 1970s, an era that was a witness to some of the best matches in Kolkata football, celebrated the accomplished life by narrating several anecdotes from their time with their beloved “Pradip Da”.

“I was kicked out of Mohun Bagan after we lost the Durand Cup final to East Bengal (in 1972),” Bhowmick said, as he went down the memory lane in an interaction with PTI.

“He was the person who picked me up from ‘gutter’ and told me ‘you’re the best player in India, come and play for ‘East Bengal’,” he added.

Bhowmick was one of the key figures in East Bengal’s famous 5-0 demolition of Mohun Bagan on that fateful IFA Shield final on September 29, 1975.

The ‘vocal tonic’

Known for his vocal tonic, Banerjee spurred Bhowmick on by recalling the insults hurled towards him by Mohun Bagan officials. The rest, as they say, is history as Bhowmick played like a tiger on the prowl handing Bagan supporters a day that they have lived on to regret even after 45 years.

Bhowmick did not find his name on the score sheet in that great win but was instrumental in setting up the first two goals scored by Surajit Sengupta and Shyam Thapa.

“Death is always sad. His demise has left all of us sad,” Bhowmick said.

“But the way he was suffering, he did not deserve this pain. For me, Pradip da was dead since the day he left talking about football with me,” he added.

Ahead of his times

Banerjee also fashioned memorable treble for Mohun Bagan two years later in 1977 and this time it was Subrata Bhattacharya, who was the star of the show after three quiet years.

The Mohun Bagan captain was a big let-down in the 1977 Calcutta Football League derby, that the team 0-2 in front of a packed Eden Gardens and was a reason for unhappiness among the fans.

“The fans would not let us enter the field in protest… Such was the atmosphere,” Bhattacharya said.

“The practice would begin at 7.30 am at the Eden Gardens but he (Banerjee) would come one hour before and pay extra attention to me, he made him do some different pieces of training.” he added.

“We went on to defeat East Bengal thrice that season and won the Shield, Rovers and Durand. Nobody dreamt of such a turnaround. Only Pradip Da could do it. He was ahead of his time and crystal clear in his thinking.” Bhattacharya said.

A great motivator

Banerjee’s rivalry with another great coach Amal Datta was well known in Maidan circles but Bhattacharya reckoned that the former knew how to deal with stars and adapt to situations.

“Amal da may have been a great coach and hugely respected for his tactical and aggressive football, But Pradip da had the horses-for-courses policy. He was sharp and was quick to adapt. It showed in his results. I won 37 of my 58 titles under him,” he said.

Former midfielder Sarkar recalled yet another famous win for Mohun Bagan under Banerjee in the 1978 Calcutta Football League.

In his prime, Sarkar was dropped for three-four matches, a decision that caused quite a lot of chatter. He was suffering from giardia, an acute stomach bug that was prevalent in the 70s in Kolkata especially among the lower middle class that didn’t have access to clean drinking water.

“I panicked, everyone was asking why Gautam Sarkar was not playing. I was indispensable then. But he kept quiet,” Sarkar said.

It was just on the eve, Banerjee met Sarkar at the entrance of the club tent.

“He told me that he had kept me for next day’s match as I was a big-match player. He called the kind of the big games,” Sarkar said.

“I again felt that spark, the fire inside me, despite lying low due to my stomach illness. It was as if I was transmitted some supernatural power,” he said recalling how his crucial saves played a huge role in their 1-0 win where Shyam Thapa scored the winner.

Thapa also remembered how Banerjee played a key role in Mohun Bagan’s famous 2-2 draw against Pele’s New York Cosmos team.

“I was given an extra responsibility to stop Pele. The whole team put up a vibrant show. He would sit and plan with us with a board. He was way ahead of his time,” he said.

With Banerjee’s passing, a huge void has been left on the Kolkata maidan, but his legacy in the form of the impact he made on the football there lives on.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Indian Football / by Press Trust of India / March 20th, 2020