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Eternal India
encyclopedia
SPORTS
BALL BADMINTON
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
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-
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.
BASEBALL
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;