Madras and Indias oldest hockey match

Would you consider that India’s oldest hockey match is being performed proper now on the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai? And that it’s in its 96th version? Strictly talking, it must be the 126th because it was first performed in 1901 however two World Wars and far else in between, triggered some breaks within the custom. It was reborn because the MCC All India Hockey Tournament and it’s at the moment often known as the MCC Murugappa All India Hockey Gold Cup Tournament.

The Madras Cricket Club, established in 1846, was the venue the place many sports activities that we take without any consideration at the moment had been first performed in our metropolis. Hockey was one amongst them. It made its look late within the nineteenth century, mainly as a sport for cricket gamers to maintain match in the course of the off season. ‘Playing hooky’ which meant going away out of your official duties was an expression that got here on account of this. Interestingly, hockey or hooky was initially performed in Madras with none information of the principles of the sport. The first report of it within the metropolis dates again to 1894.

The Madras Hockey Tournament, performed for “the Silver Cup offered by the Madras Cricket Club”, was the forerunner of what turned the MCC All-India Hockey Tournament. The first announcement of this trophy appeared within the Madras Mail on July 20, 1901. The very first of its variety in South India, it commenced on July 22. Here once more, as in cricket, we discover the Madras United Club doing its bit to get Indians to play the sport. The MUC’s XI, South India’s first ‘native group’ took to the sector towards the twenty fifth Battery, Royal Field Artillery, from Bangalore. The MUC, judging by the report of the match, seems to have identified little of the sport, and was trounced 15-0. The subsequent day, the MCC ‘A’ group seems to have performed the eventual winner of the match, the Durham Light Infantry, with an in depth report of the match being carried by the Madras Mail. Newspaper experiences referred to ‘harmful play’ being a characteristic of the sport.

By the Nineteen Twenties, the sport had come into its personal particularly with R.C. Summerhayes of Burma Shell, and a hockey blue from Oxford, taking particular curiosity. He acquired the legendary M.J. Gopalan within the sport. By the Thirties, Anglo Indian groups of Madras had been taking the sport to new heights. The Madras Hockey Association got here into being in 1931. When it got here to Indian participation within the Olympics, Madras produced its share of hockey gamers by the use of R. Francis, Munir Sait, V. Baskaran, V.J. Philips, V.J. Peter and Krishnamurthy Perumal. We may embrace Charles Cornelius right here although he primarily performed for Punjab.

The MCC All India Hockey Trophy was one of many massive sights throughout that golden period for the sport. Teams from everywhere in the nation got here to take part. But even then, there have been breaks regardless of finest efforts. The Murugappa Group, with its Murgappa Gold Cup instituted in 1962 to commemorate the sixtieth birthday of A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar, joined the MCC in 1996 and since then the sport has seen a recent lease of life.

The semi-finals and finals of the continued match will happen on July 19 and 20 respectively. Initially performed at Chepauk within the MCC’s B Ground, it has moved to the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in current occasions. For the primary time this yr, an abroad group, from Malaysia, is collaborating. And there’s a third umpire to discuss with. Finally, ten timber will likely be planted for each objective.