The author, a former state-level table tennis, football, and cricket player, recalls the wondrous and lush playgrounds of Guwahati and the sporting activities he had been part of in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Guwahati of the 1950s was a lush green township with big trees along the roads and lots of open spaces.
Residents mostly lived in houses with a compound, whether small or big. After my father’s retirement from service we came to Guwahati in 1958 to settle permanently in Rehabari. At that time Guwahati city was bounded by Chandmari in the east, Santipur in the west, Kalapahar in the south and the Brahmaputra River in the north.
However, this small town boasted of a number of playgrounds spread across the city. Young boys had the luxury of playing football mostly on these fields. Cricket and other games were not played much. These fields are Sonaram School field in Bharalumukh, Machkhowa Idgah Field, Police Reserve Field in Tokobari, Church Field and Judge’s Field in Panbazar, Latasil Field in Uzanbazar, Engineering Institute Field in Chandmari, New Field in Paltan Bazar and many small fields in Sarania, Ulubari and Kalapahar areas. At that time a lot small clubs were there and where ever open spaces were available football was played religiously with a lot of tournaments held.
The criteria of these tournaments were very interesting. There was no age bar and players were allowed to play according to their heights. Nine players of 4’-6” and two players of 4’-8” height were allowed in a team under this system. Once, while playing in such a match at New Field, I was tackled heavily by a stocky guy and I was shocked to see that he was none other the Post Office Peon who distributed letters in our area.
The league, inter college and inter school tournaments were held at Judge’s Field, New Field and Sonaram School Field as these were standard sized fields. Bordoloi Trophy was held at Judge’s Field. Inter club, inter college, inter school, cricket matches were played at Judge’s Field and New Field. Ranji Trophy matches were also played at Judge’s Field. Generally, all football matches drew large crowds wherever they were played and the referees had a torrid time conducting the matches. However, at the end of the matches there were no hard feelings and the supporters of both the teams went home before sundown following the unwritten rule of those times to return home before sun down.
Cricket was played in winter but matches were very limited as it was a costly game. Only inter school, inter-college and inter club of the GSA were held and were played at Judge’s Field where a proper cricket pitch was available. Besides these, some small clubs used to play friendly matches at Latasil Field and Sonaram School Field on makeshift pitches made by scraping the grass and watering the exposed earth to soften it so that the ball would not bounce too high. All the efforts went in vain though as the ball used to bounce and shoot quite as it pleased. Moreover, the small clubs did not have adequate pads, batting gloves etc. One pair of pads was shared by the two batsmen who wore it on the exposed leg.
My sports career started from class VII playing football for the different small clubs of Rehabari, Chatribari, Ulubari and Sarania area. I was hired by different clubs to play as a forward as I used to score a lot of goals. Generally, to the far-flung fields of Sarania and Ulubari etc, I was transported by the club officials on bicycle to and from my residence and at that time it was a privilege very few players enjoyed. However, I had to switch to table tennis at my parents’ insistence who felt that football was making my studies suffer.
New Field: My first experience of playing in Guwahati was participating in the Rongali Bihu sports at New Field in April 1959 as a class VII boy. I came first in the events 100 metres dash, cockfight and a three-legged race. Since I was a new boy in the area this performance made me a celebrated sportsman and clubs approached me to play football for them. At New Field I played a lot of football tournaments for the clubs of Rehabari and Chatribari which had massive crowds attending. In the late forties and early fifties cricket was played on this ground. The India famed Late Mustaque Ali played for Holkar in Ranji Trophy against Assam in 1949–50 on this ground.
Latasil Field: My introduction to this field is very interesting. At that time no cricket was played at Rehabari. Since I had a cricket bat and a ball, I used to play in our compound with a few friends. One day my cousin, Late Amal Choudhury of Jorpukhuri, saw me playing cricket and hired me for his club in Jorpukhuri to play against a team from Bharalumukh at Latasil Field. The wicket was a bald strip that was heavily watered and bowling was allowed from one end only. Each team had one pair of pads and two pairs of batting gloves. One pair of wicket keeping gloves was meant for use by both teams. The two playing batsmen had to share one paid of pads; the other pair was used by the wicket-keeper of the fielding side. There were no abdomen guards and the ball used was a new red cherry. We batted first on this dangerous wicket trying to save ourselves from injury more than scoring runs. We were all out for 18 of which I scored 9 remaining not out. The other team scored the required 19 runs losing 6 wickets. But the real fallout of the match was that I became a cricketer from the table tennis player that I was. I was asked to join the school net practices the very next day and my cricket career started in class VIII with the score of 9 not out at Latasil! No wonder I am still sentimental about this field!
Judge’s Field: After being selected for the school team I started playing school cricket at Judge’s Field and was selected to play for Guwahati Town Club. At that time all the big matches cricket or football were held on this field. This field has a very sentimental connection with our family. My father played for Cotton College Football team on this field against the Guwahati Police team in 1924 and beat the Police team with him playing a stellar role, He was immediately offered a job by the British police officer and started working before his BSc result was out. I was also picked up for the Assam School Team after scoring runs against Kamrup Academy in the finals of the Abhoysankar Cup on this field. Later, I played football for Guwahati Town Club in Guwahati Football League on this field in the mid-sixties. In those days, this field was always heavily crowded and one good performance in any game on this ground made one a household name. All the great players of football or cricket from Guwahati are the products of this field. The premiere football tournament of India, Bordoloi Trophy, was started on this field in 1952 and was played here until it was shifted to Nehru Stadium in 1962.
The other fields of Guwahati – big and small - where a lot of sporting activities took place were Church Field catering to the clubs of Pan Bazar, Sonaram School Field for the clubs of Santipur and Bharalumukh, Police Reserved Field which was beautifully maintained and where English cricketer Sir Denis Compton played in 1945 for an Army Team when he was on duty here during the World War II and Engineering Institute Field.
When sometimes the memories of these playgrounds come to my mind it feels rather unreal that most of these playgrounds have shrunk or vanished within the concrete jungle of the city. Even most of the big trees along the main roads are no more.
At present, sadly, out of all these fields, only the Judge’s Field is available for sporting activities exclusively. This field was also closed from 1992 to 2006. But due to personnel efforts of a few people like Devajit Saikia, the Advocate who filed a PIL in Gauhati High Court for the revival of sporting activities on this field and the untiring effort of the minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the field was renovated in 2008 to its present condition.
The work of renovation was started in September 2006 with funds from GMDA and a modern ground with underground drainage and floodlights and a modern pavilion came up in 2008. I had the privilege of being a member of the team led by the minister and played my part as the chairman of the construction committee.
In conclusion, I would like to request the Assam government and other agencies to preserve the open spaces in and around Guwahati for sporting activities for the young generation. Even the spaces below the flyovers of the city can be utilized for games like Boxing, Judo, Karate in the different areas of the city. The corporate sectors of different fields can be asked to run these with rights to advertisement of their products.
I hope our young and sports-minded chief minister will kindly look into the matter and instruct the concerned department to come up with a plan to use the spaces below the flyovers where height in the midsection is sufficiently leaving the other portions for parking etc. For the record, I had earlier broached this topic with MLA Pankaj Bora in 2003 and again with Himanta Biswa Sarma in 2008.
(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own)