The victorious captain of the 1990 Fifa World Cup and the most capped German player of all time walked into the Yuvabharati Krirangan complex on Sunday afternoon. But he was not there for any football event. Lothar Matthaus was the chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony of the 126th edition of the Beighton Cup. The event, said to be the oldest hockey championship in the world, was being hosted at the newly opened astroturf stadium.
After nine days of action on the electric blue field, it was Army XI (Red) which made it to the final, by trouncing Indian Navy 3-0. Facing them was Indian Airforce, which had dribbled past Canara Bank 2-0 in the other semi-final.
A special moment was when hockey legend Gurbux Singh, gold medallist in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and bronze medallist in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, was introduced to the Ballon d’Or-winning champion midfielder. “The European nations learnt to play hockey from Pakistan and India,” Matthaus told him, when Gurbux shared memories of having played in international tournaments featuring West Germany.
Incidentally, the team that Matthaus led in 1990 was still West Germany, and the World Cup in Italy was the last sports meet before Germany was reunited later that year.
Stick magic
The final remained goalless at half-time but Army XI (Red) put two past their opponents in the second half to lift the trophy. Manpreet Singh of the winning team was named the player of the tournament.
Local MLA and minister Sujit Bose lauded the sports department for building the facility. “We want to promote hockey. The best Indian players are saying this is the best stadium in India. We did not get much time to organise Beighton Cup this time and will prepare in advance next time, said Bose, who is also the president of Hockey Bengal. He added that he had spoken to sports minister Arup Biswas so that other than Beighton Club and hockey league, the new stadium can host the semi-finals and finals of school-level tournaments. We will also try to host international tournaments here. Hidco has built another stadium in Dumurjola (in Howrah). We have fallen back in hockey somewhat. We hope to make progress and come back in front,” Bose said.
President of Hockey India, Dilip Tirkey, also remembered the great role played by Bengal in the development of hockey in the country. “When the country’s first hockey league was started here in 1905, there used to be crowds of 50,000-60,000 to watch those matches. The Bengal Hockey Association was formed three years later. The national championship started from here as an inter-provincial tournament, among five provinces, in 1928. A team was selected on the basis of that tournament and sent to compete for the first time in the Olympics. They came back from Amsterdam with gold, thus flagging off our glorious history in hockey,” the former captain of the Indian hockey team recalled, adding that he was confident about good players coming up, thanks to the new facility.