The British Raj left India but indelibly altered the then existing social and political structure which retained  vestiges of the colonial past.  The clubs being its most enduring legacy.

The CCFC or the the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is known to have been in existence by 1792. In fact, the club is a collective association of the Calcutta Cricket Club of 1792 vintage, Ballygunge Cricket Club (1864-1950) and the Calcutta Football Club (1872-1877).

The Club was founded as the “Calcutta Cricket Club Clippers” by British expatriates who had come over with the British East India Company. It is known to have been in existence by 1792.

Sports events were reckoned to be important and The Madras Courier dated 23rd. February, 1792 reported cricket fixtures between the Calcutta Cricket Club and Barrackpore and the Calcutta Cricket Club and Dum Dum. Clearly, the Calcutta Cricket Club was already in existence in 1792.

The story of how CC&FC traced its origins is interesting and is preserved in its archives thanks to Past President H.J. Moorhouse. It began in 1955 with a letter to The Times, London from Alan R. Tait, Honorary Secretary of Oporto Cricket Club in Portugal. The Club was celebrating its centenary that year, and Tait claimed that it ‘must be one of the oldest cricket club outside Great Britain’. This letter drew a good deal of response from several quarters. Several clubs were identified as being older than Oporto. To use a cricketing metaphor, the ball swung in Calcutta’s favour when one Irwing Rosenwater wrote to the Times about the news item in the Madras Courier dated 23rd. February, 1792, mentioned above.

When Wisden concurred with this finding, CC&FC earned rightful recognition as the oldest cricket club, outside Britain, in the world. Since the Bicentennial Year, 1991-92, 23rd. February – the date that marks the Madras Couriers memorable report in 1792 – is being celebrated as CC&FC’s Foundation Day.

In the absence of a permanent venue, the Calcutta Cricket Club played its games on the esplanade, parallel with the river Hooghly, between Fort William and Government House. By the 1820s, the members felt the need for a permanent ground. In 1825, the Calcutta Cricket Club managed to obtain the use of a plot of land on the Maidan as shown in the accompanying reproduction of the ‘Sketch of the Maidan’. In 1841 the Club was allowed to enclose the ground by putting a fence around it. The Army, garrisoned at Fort William, however saw the Club as an encroacher and was extremely suspicious of its alleged motives! They complained to the Chief Magistrate and as a result the Club was relocated to the eastern boundary of the Auckland Circus Gardens.

In 1862, the Brigadier General Commanding Presidency Division wrote to the Quarter Master General that ‘open space is preserved, as a general rule around forts as a Military precaution. And in 1864 the Club members found a new road was being constructed which would ‘cut directly through the ground and pass within a few yards of that portion of it on which the match wickets are invariably pitched’

The Club’s ‘prayer’ to the Governor General was rejected and it had to partially relocate to the ground on the eastern end of Eden Gardens, the current location of the test venue. The Club made several representations asking for permission to erect a suitable pavilion in the place of the makeshift tenement and was commissioned on 19th April, to be built on the lines of the MCC pavilion at Lords. This pavilion was pulled down in the mid 1970s for the construction of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s modern B.C. Roy Clubhouse.

The Calcutta Football Club was allotted a permanent ground on the Maidan, on the eastern end of Eden Gardens and permitted to build a pavilion for the use of the players. But after the Independence of India, the stronger Rugby players, the British and Anglo Indians left India and  the team was decimated. On 14th May, 1963 CFC partially gave up its exclusive rights on the Maidan tent and the ground in favour of Mohun Bagan Club.  In 1965, it merged with the Calcutta Cricket Club. and the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club came into being.

The origin of the Ballgunge Cricket Club is a matter of some speculation. Possibly the uncertainties regarding playing cricket at Eden Gardens in the 1850s and early 1860s led the players to form a separate Club in what was then a southern, civilian suburb of the city in 1864. Ballygunge Cricket Club had some illustrious members. J.D. Guise (1872-1953) played for India and MCC. India found a place on the ‘international’ cricket map for the first time in 1889-90 when, at the invitation of the Calcutta Cricket Club, organized tours of various English teams. These tours were also directly responsible for the formation of the Board of Control of Cricket in India and paved the way for India to gain Test status. Ballygunge Cricket Club, in deference to Calcutta Cricket Club, being an older Club, agreed to dissolve itself, after having transferred its lease on the Ballygunge ground to Calcutta Cricket Club.

The Calcutta Football Club, founded in 1872, is the oldest surviving rugby club in the world outside the United Kingdom.  By January 1873 as many as 137 members had enrolled. Probably the attraction of a bar that was free to members had something to do with its popularity! On 14 May, 1963 CFC partially relinquished its exclusive rights on the Maidan tent and playing field in favour of Mohun Bagan Club and like Calcutta Cricket Club moved to Ballygunge. In 1965, it merged with the Calcutta Cricket Club already established there and the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club came into being.

Trivia

  • Dr. B.C. Roy, elected Chief Minister of West Bengal in 1948 felt that Eden Gardens ought to be the ‘rightful’ home of the State’s cricket headquarters and on Independence Day in 1950, T.C. Longfield, President, Calcutta Cricket Club handed over Eden Gardens to the newly formed National Cricket Club.
  • Under the stewardship of Captain, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, G A James Rothney, the Committee of the Calcutta Football Club decided to donate a trophy made of ornate Indian workmanship to the Rugby Football Union from the available Club funds amounting to pounds 60 sterling. The offer was accepted and even today, every year, England and Scotland play an international rugby match for the “Calcutta Cup”.