Why is Jabalpur‘s sports history the oldest? 7: Pankaj Swami
(Players, sports organizations and sports lovers of Jabalpur and Mahakoshal are excited about the formation of Sports University in Bhopal. Probably, the sports history of Jabalpur is the oldest in the entire Madhya Pradesh. Jabalpur once had the title of sports capital of Madhya Pradesh. Here All sports started from Jabalpur and they spread throughout Madhya Pradesh. This is the seventh installment to present the history of all sports. .)
Continued from previous………….
tennis- The British introduced lawn tennis to Jabalpur. Tennis began at Robertson College in 1902. The identity of this game was associated with the richest people of the society. Badri Prasad Shukla, who received Indian Police status in Jabalpur in 1904, was recognized as an excellent tennis player. Not only Jabalpur but the oldest club of the country, Narbada Club used to organize CP & Berar Championship. Captain Berkley of Narbada Club was the World Army Hard Court Champion at that time. High Court Justices BK Choudhary and EV Bibb were considered the number one pair of India.
At that time, apart from Narbada Club, there were excellent tennis courts in Jabalpur at Victoria Hospital, Corporation, Phoenix, Telegraph, GCF, Railway, Robertson College, STC, Parsi Club. At that time, hockey Olympian M. Rock Tennis had earned a reputation as an excellent tennis player. Apart from them, names of players like Eric Shaw, Chander Naidu, RK Tankha, Nusarkar, Nanhoria, AK Dave, Jaywant were included among the outstanding players. The Markers brothers were renowned as coaches.
Despite the existence of good clubs, the popularity of lawn tennis later started declining in Jabalpur. The then competition president MK Kaul and secretary Parthasarathy made every effort to popularize lawn tennis again. In 1966, Justice PK Tare and Prof. With the efforts of Hajela, Jabalpur District Tennis Association was formed. For the first time in 1967, State Ranking Tennis Competition was organized in Jabalpur. The competition was organized with great enthusiasm and tennis lovers provided running trophies. After that, divisional and state level competitions started being organized in Jabalpur.
In 1969, MP Open Tennis Championship was organized for the first time in Jabalpur in which foreign players participated. The country’s best tennis players of that time, Dhawan, Jasjeet Singh, Shyam Minotra and Balram Singh, along with Nowicki and Rybarzyk of Poland, Dron Marmareanu and Kobzne Moreau of Romania and Moreau of France participated. At that time, the best players of Jabalpur SK De, SS Dixit and Surendra Singh (son of Sardar Rajendra Singh) also performed well in the competition.
In the year 1973, the vision of encouraging the budding tennis players of Jabalpur got good success when Ajay Seth was selected for training in Patiala. AJ Uday Kumar, who was once India’s No. 3 player, trained budding tennis players from across the country, including Ajay Seth. In 1978, the status of Jabalpur District Tennis Association was upgraded and it was converted into Divisional Tennis Association.
Jabalpur’s famous orthopedic specialist Dr. Ajay Seth was the most talented tennis player of Jabalpur. He won the title of Madhya Pradesh Sub Junior and Junior. He was a tennis player of the Indian circuit. Before this, he was once again selected for Patiala training where he was given intensive training by Naresh Kumar.
Jabalpur University along with Inter Colleges organized All India Inter University Lawn Tennis Competition. Some excellent tennis players kept emerging in Jabalpur from time to time but due to it being an expensive game, only a few people or families continued to play it and will remain so.
(Table Tennis in the next part)………….to be continued
