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SPORTS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
played on an annual basis among the provincial cricket associations.
The inaugural match was played at Madras on 4th November, 1934
with Madras defeating Mysore by an innings and 23 runs in a single
day.
Bombay, however, cornered the glory by winning the trophy in
its year of inception. The Bombay team also won the trophy 15 suc-
cessive times from the 1958/59 to the 1972/73 seasons. After the
partition and over the years, the format of the tournament has been
undergoing a lot of structural changes in tune with the demands of
the changing times and the growing popularity of the game in the
country.
The Duleep Trophy tournament was started in the 1961/62
cricketing season. At the 33rd annual general body meeting of the
BCCI held on 30th September, 1961, it was decided to conduct a
national tournament on a zonal basis and name it after Duleep-
singhji. The first match was between South Zone and North Zone in
Madras. The idea for a tournament on the lines of the Irani Trophy
was first mooted by the well-known commentator A.F.S. Talyarkan
in the 1940s itself. The BCCI, however, decided to hold the event in
1959 and the first match was played as part of the silver jubilee
celebrations of the Ranji Trophy championship.
The Rohinton Baria intei;-university tournament was started in
1935 to tap the cricketing talent at the university level itself. The
tournament is being conducted by the Inter-University Sports
Board, since its formation in 1941.
The other major national level tournaments include, the Vizzy
Trophy, the C.K. Nayudu Trophy, the Wills Trophy, the Ghulam
Ahmed Trophy and the Cooch-Behar trophy.
ONE-DAY CRICKET
This revolutionary change in the game was evolved during the
1970/71 “Ashes” series in Australia between England and Aus-
tralia when the Melbourne Test was forced to be abandoned due to
rains. The officials of the Australian Cricket Board with the consent
of the players from both the teams decided to arrange a 40-over-a-
side match on 5th January, 1971, which was won by Australia by
five wickets. The match witnessed by 46,000 spectators gained
instant popularity. Sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Com-
pany, three-one-day games became a part of the package of the
1972 ‘Ashes’ series.
However, the concept of one-day games was evolved earlier in
England in the 1960’s with the introduction of the Gillette Cup in
1963 in England to attract audiences who were slowly being
weaned away from cricket by more entertaining forms of sports and
entertainment packages. The Gillette Cup was replaced by the
Natwest Trophy. Earlier, an Irish businessman B.Harvey, had
discovered and exploited the potentiality of short-duration, limited-
over games in terms of TV sponsorship revenue. Harvey with
Learie Constantine and Ted Dexter formed the International Cava-
liers, who played limited overs matches on Sunday afternoons,
which were telecast by the BBC, bringing in revenue in the form of
commercial sponsorship. -
The ICC borrowed the idea and once again with the financial
sponsorship of the Prudential Insurance Company conducted the
first World Cup one-day Championship on the lines of World Cup
Soccer in 1975. This form of cricket well suited the West Indian
style and they instantly emerged as the one-day heroes by winning
the 1975 and 1979 championships. In 1983, when the West Indians
were on the verge of a hat-trick of triumphs, the Indians, led by
Kapil Dev, upset their applecart by defeating them in the final and
claiming the Cup.
One -day cricket has now become a very popular form of sport in
almost all cricket playing nations and each nation has evolved its
own national one-day championship. Australian TV tycoon, Kerry
Packer, added a new dimension to the one-day version by introduc-
ing the day-night matches under flood lights, coloured clothing for
the players and the white ball instead of the traditional cherry
coloured ball.
In 1987, the World Cup championship moved out of its original
home and was co-hosted by India and Pakistan. While the 1992
World Cup was jointly conducted by Australia and New Zealand,
the 1995 World Cup will see a three-dimensional effect, with India,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka succeeding in their joint bid to host that
year’s championship.
WOMEN’S CRICKET
Though women’s cricket in India has not become as popular as
the men’s version, one name in particular stands out among the
Indian women cricketers. Shanta Rangaswamy of Karnataka has
done yeoman's service for the game of women’s cricket, both as a
player and promoter.
Though the Indian women’s cricket association was formed in
1973, the game was introduced by Australian school teacher Ann
Kelleve in 1913 in Kottayam, Kerala. Ann Kelleve taught in the
Baker Memorial Convent, where cricket was a compulsory sport.
Awards and Winners
Padma Bhushan:
C.K. Nayudu, Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram,
M.V. Mankad, S.M. Gavaskar, Lala Amarnath, Kapil Dev and D.B.
Deodhar.
Padma Shree
: Vijay Hazare, Jasubhai Patel, Syed Mushtaq Ali,
P.R. Umrigar, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, C.G. Borde, E.A.S. Pras-
anna, B.S. Bedi, G.R. Vishwanath, A.L.Wadekar, Kapil Dev, Syed
Kirmani, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammed Azharuddin.
Arjuna Awards:
Salim Durrani, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, V.L.
Manjrekar, C.G. Borde, A.L. Wadekar, E.A.S. Prasanna, B.S. Bedi,
Dilip
Sardesai,
S.Venkataraghavan,
Eknath
Solkar,
B.S.Chandrashekar, Anjan Bhattacharjee, S.M. Gavaskar, Shanta
Rangaswamy, G.R. Vishwanath, Kapil Dev, Chetan Chauhan, Syed
Kirmani, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath, Diana Eduljee,
Ravi Shastri, Shubhangi Kulkarni, Mohammed Azharuddin,
Sandhya Agarwal and Madan Lai.
Dronacharya
(for coaches): D.P. Azad, Gurcharan Singh,
Ramakant Acharkar.
CYCLING
Though Leonardo da Vinci (1452 to 1519) is
credited with the earliest design for a machine
driven by cranks and pedals with connecting
rods, it took until the turn of the 19th century for
the basic technical developments of a bicycle to
be completed. The sport became popular in
Europe and the USA and has been a part of the
Olympic calendar since the inception of the modern Olympics in
1896. It has also been on the programme of the Asian Games since
1951.