Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

SPORTS

BALL BADMINTON

tered in Germany (The World Games are meant for such sports that are not in the Olympic fold). Ball Badminton is played on a court measuring 80 feet by 40 feet with a six-foot-high net in the middle using a yellow woollen ball measuring 5 cms in diameter and weighing 15 grams. Arjuna Awards: J. Pitchaiah, Jayamma Srinivasan, A Kareem, L.A. Iqbal, A. Sam Christ Das and D. Rajaraman.

Though it is commonly believed that ball badminton evolved from the game of shuttle, in reality it is the other way round. The origins of ball badminton can, in fact, be traced to the pri- ncely families of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, who were the first exponents of the game in 1856. After a lull, interest in the game was revived

BASEBALL

in the early twentieth century, largely due to the efforts of the Trade Staff Club of Madras, which not only framed the rules, but also or- ganised the first tournament in 1906. The game became popular largely in South India and is believed to have been played even in Poona as ‘Poonai’. It is from there that the Britishers took to the game and carried it over to England, where they evolved shuttle badminton. Members of Canara Club, Bangalore are also reported to have played the game in the 1920s. Subsequently the game was patron- ised by the members of the Merry-Go-Round Ball Badminton Club and the game spread rapidly. The game, which requires a great amount of wrist work, antici- pation and keen eye-sight, developed as a sport in the 1930s. Interest in the game, however, declined in the 1940s due to the Second World War. The Mahila Samaj Tennis Club, Bangalore, formed in 1927, also conducted ball badminton tournaments. Since the 1950s, the game began to gain in popularity and the All India Ball Badminton Federation was inaugurated at Madras on February 27, 1955 with Mr. C. Ramaswamy as the first president. The federation had been formed in 1954 itself, the year in which the All India Council of Sports was constituted by the Centre. The first national championships for men and women were held at Hyderabad in December 1955. The junior event was introduced in 1957. In 1975, the National Federation decided to separately or- ganise the national championships for seniors and juniors. The intermediates (men in the age group of 18 to 24) was introduced in 1979 and the classification of junior and sub junior (boys and girls) below 22 and 16 respectively came into existence in 1981. Bangalore city had the privilege of hosting the second national championships from December 28, 1956 at the Mahila Samaj Courts. Dakshina Murthy, Gopal Iyengar, Siva Swami, Anugraham, Shenoy, Hameed Pasha and Gulam Mohamood were some of the stalwarts of the game. Hameed Pasha and G.S. Naidu, who to a large extent were responsible for the formation of the National Federation, did yeoman service for the cause of the game. Hameed, who served the Federation as general secretary for 20 years, sub- sequently became the president of the apex body for the develop- ment of the sport in India. The Asian Ball Badminton Federation was formed on February 25, 1982 with India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as the members. A tour of the Indian teams to the United Arab Emirates was arranged in April 1988. Two Indian teams left the shores of Bombay on an eight-day tour of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah on April 6,1988 and returned on April 14. The Ball Badminton Federation of India with the federations of such similar games, which did not form a part of the Olympic move- ment, formed the Non-Olympic Games Federation of India and got affiliated to the International World Games Association, headquar-

Though regarded as the American national game, baseball is generally believed to have evolved from the British game of ‘Rounders’. The story that baseball was spontaneously invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839 at Cooperstown has remained a myth. Refer- ence, in fact, has been made to the English

game of ‘Base Ball’ in the first half of the 18th century itself. The basic rules for the modem game were formulated in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York. And the first game as per these rules took place on 19th June, 1846, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey between Knickerbockers and the New York Base Ball Club. Doubleday, however, laid out the first baseball field for a game played by military cadets. Baseball entered the annals of Indian sport on 1st January, 1985 when the first national championships for men and women were conducted coinciding with the inauguration of the Amateur Baseball Federation of India (ABFI), thanks to the efforts of Mr. P.C. Bhardwaj, Physical Education Director, Ramjas School, New Delhi. It goes to the credit of India for simultaneously introducing the game among women, while internationally women prefer to play softball. Moves are afoot to introduce women’s baseball at the international level. Only six men’s and women’s teams participated in the first national championships at New Delhi. The game soon spread and the numbers respectively swelled to 16 in the second national championships. About 18 states are now affiliated to the ABFI, which has evolved a pattern for .holding the national championships on an annual basis. India made its international debut by participating in the Asia Cup Championship held at Japan in 1987. Dilip Kudduvali of Karna- taka set an Asian record by hitting a home run - the first by a player of a country on its debut. The ABFI, with a view to popularising the game arhong the masses, introduced the junior national championships for boys and girls under-17 in 1989 and the sub-junior national championships for boys and girls under-15 in 1990. The other programmes under the ABFI calendar include the Federation Cup for men and women (eight teams qualify for this tourney from the senior national championships) and the inter- zonal championships. The ABFI also utilised the services of five reputed foreign coaches - three Americans, a South Korean and a Japanese - to hone the skills of the game among Indian players and coaches, and to better learn the nuances of the game. This nine-a-side game is played on a field called ‘a diamond’ with dimensions: an infield of 90 feet square; an outfield of 320 feet;