By-M. K. Dharma Raja :The Football season in India starts with the Durand Tournament. Sir Mortimer Durand, the then Foreign Secretary to the Government set the ball rolling for the country’s oldest National Tournament on the heights of Simla a hundred years ago. Sir Mortimer himself could not have dreamt that Durand would over the years come to be associated with the ultimate in India’s soccer organizations.
The Tournament instituted in 1888 has a fascinating history. Sir Mortimer Durand started the Tournament to provide recreation to British soldiers and the Simla Secretariat personnel. He was there at the inaugural kick-off for India’s first Football Tournament leading the Secretariat team. Six teams, all British, contested the Trophy donated by Sir Mortimer himself. So it remained until 1896 when the first Indian team entered the competition. With participation of Indian teams the tournament began to draw bigger audience and its popularity gain immensely over the years.
Until 1939, the Durand remained at Simla, the summer capital of the British Government. It shifted to Delhi in the following years simultaneously with the permanent transfer there of the Government’s headquarters. But the shifting, as events proved became an event enormously more important for Indian Football.
The year 1940 became a milestone in Durand since it signified the end of British Regimental domination in the Championship monopolized by them so far. The top British brass were shell-shocked when an Indian outfit, the Mohamedan Sporting Club from Calcutta, romped home winners with a convincing 3-1 verdict against the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. It was also the year when the first Indian referee Harnam Singh supervised a Durand Match. But when Harnam Singh (later an Army Captain) came in with his whistle to conduct the final, the Royal Warwickshire objected to his choice as referee. This impudent protest was wisely turned down.
The first-ever triumph of an Indian team in the Durand Tournament was greeted most joyously by Delhi’s citizens who celebrated it as a festive occasion. Crackers were burst and the Indian victors turned out national heroes overnight. A crescendo of ovation hailed their captain when he went up to receive the coveted Durand Cup from the Tournament’s Patron-in-Chief, the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow.
The year 1940 was of more than ordinary significance for Indian Football. The notable victory of Mohammedan Sporting signified that Indians had become proficient enough in the game to overcome the prowess of the domineering British regimental teams. In fact the game of Football had now become well organized on a recognized pattern in many parts of the country. But the war years mean while coupled with political upheaval in the country disrupted the Tournament.
The partition of the country brought rival claims for the Durand running trophy itself.
The Commander-in-Chief, Sir Claude Auchinleck was said to be more inclined towards Pakistan. The Cup’s affairs became an interesting story from then onwards. The Defence Secretary, Shri H. M. Patel used his trump-card of being in charge of the partition secretariat. Mr. Patel just walked into the Commander-in-Chief’s room and took away the Durand Cup.
The Cup was later deposited in the State Bank while efforts were under way to revive the Durand Tournament. Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee flew in the Mohan Bagan team from Calcutta to play an exhibition match for the Kashmir Fund. The effort proved a notable success. A Committee was set up to reorganize the Durand Tournament. A Durand Society was formed with the Chairman of the Services, Joint Chiefs of Staff as its President. The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the President of India is the Durand Society’s Patron-in Chief. It is this association with the Armed Forces that has conferred on the Durand Tournament the distinct merit of emerging as the country’s most efficiently run, streamlined Tournament. Shri K. K. Gangully Wing Commander (Retd) who has been associated with Durand Football for more than a half-a-century, first as a player and then as Secretary-General for over three decades, the Tournament Committee has a dedicated organizer who has spared no efforts in making the competition the most efficiently conducted annual event in the country.
This prestigious Tournament which brings into the arena the choicest football talent of the Nation through its various teams has now acquired the distinction of being the oldest in Asia and the second oldest in the World itself. But unlike the other competitions of later origin it has its own pattern of grooming and promoting talent. The Durand Committee has provided a lead in this direction by conducting the Subroto Mukherjee Tournament for boys under 17 years. Its scheme of scholarships and other incentives are designed to encourage and bring to the grounds meritorious youth who are found promising enough to don the national colours.
The Tournament authorities have also set new precedents worthy of emulation. The Fairplay Trophy awarded to the most disciplined team on the field is an excellent incentive for fair play in a game so often marred by violence and flagrant, indiscipline.
The Durand Centennial was in itself a memorable event. Mohan Bagan, the team with the unique distinction of a double-hat-trick of victories in the Tournament were set for a fourth-time in a row triumph. They were fifteenth time finalists and the most fancied team in the competition, defending the best-ever track record. But the final saw the Jagjit Cotton Textile Mills Phagwara score an early second half goal and latch on to their advantage to the final whistle. The doughty Phagwara team, magnificent in defence thus inscribed their name on the Durand Cup as its worthy Centenary winners.