Till Sarat Sadan came up, Howrah Maidan was the hub of all sporting activities in Howrah town. Most of these activities were part of Howrah Sporting Club events, coaching camps and practice sessions that were held on the open ground. A leading sports club of the town, Howrah Sporting Club still has a number of popular sports on its activity list. Starting from football and cricket, tennis, table tennis, billiards, carom, chess and athletics are some of the sports that the members indulge in.
The club has turned 125 this year and is celebrating its anniversary with a number of sports events from January to March. The first was an invitation table tennis tournament among national ranking players both from the Bengal Table Tennis Association and West Bengal Table Tennis Association. At the same time, a veterans’ table tennis championship was organised by the club where state and national rank players participated.
Howrah Sporting Club was established in 1889 by local youths like Bama Charan Kundu, Ananda Chandra Mullick, Sarat Chandra Dutta, Khagendranath Mitra, Monmata Kumar Basu and others. These young men were inspired by Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, who is the father of Indian football. Nagendra Prasad is said to have introduced soccer at Hare School and later formed the first football club in Calcutta. The founders of Howrah Sporting Club also thought of starting a football and cricket club.
Howrah Sporting Club was an ace sports club ever since its inception and participated in all the leading tournaments since 1890 and played against clubs like Military and Civil XI, British Royal Wales Club, Mohun Bagan AC and other well-known clubs in and outside Bengal. Many players who started their career at this club have made a name for themselves. Starting from Nandalal Sinha, who was the national champion in billiards, table tennis and carom to Hiralal Mukherjee, the goalkeeper of Mohun Bagan in the 1911 team, many such players had made Howrah Sporting Club the stepping stone to their success.
Legendary footballer Sailen Manna had started his sports career as a cricketer of Howrah Sporting Club before he went on to play football. The list is exhaustive as many personalities of Howrah and Calcutta have been members of this club at some point of time.
A number of tournaments are being organised in the next few months to celebrate 125 years of the club. An All Bengal T20 cricket tournament will be organised in April this year with 16 teams from across the state. “We have the T20 tournament every year, but this year we are planning a grand event since this is the 125th year of the club,” said Nimai Charan Dutta, the general secretary of the club. A number of other tournaments are also scheduled for the next few months, including a national chess championship in association with Howrah District Chess Association, a national carom tournament in collaboration with Howrah District Carom Association and others.
Apart from sports, a two-day trip to Santiniketan is being organised for members and players in March. Since the club has a library, a seminar on books and reading habit will be organised too. Life members, who have been with the club for over 50 years, will be felicitated.
