The recently held World Cup Football Championship has revived interest in football in the country, where cricket has become the biggest craze at the expense of hockey and football. One remembers the days when footballs were not so light but heavy and huge in size. The massive weight could sprain an ankle or give a headache if one went in for a header. The stars of those days were the Hyderabad City Police and of course the Bengal teams, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammaden Sporting. Some members of the first and last named teams stayed at Karim Hotel in the Jama Masjid area.
One saw Laiq, Abdul, Majid, Latif, Moosa and Aziz coming to the paan shop to buy cigarettes while the rest of the players were laying down to rest. They liked the food but ate sparsely at lunch in preparation for the evening match. But on an off day they really enjoyed their dinner. Biryani was a favourite and kheerthe preferred dessert as it was light and not too sweet. But only one shaokara (earthen quarterplate) of it was what each of them had.
Keen footballer
One of Karim's sons was a keen footballer attached to a Delhi team. He used to take tips from the outstation stars who dazzled on the field during the Durand and DCM tournaments. A little practice with them at Edward Park (now renamed after Netaji) was enough for the stocky Mohammad Ahmed. Sometimes the ball went over the high iron fence and had to be retrieved from outside the main gate of Victoria Zenana Hospital. On Friday afternoons the players prayed at the Jama Misjid in lungis or pyjamas and skull-caps, though one saw a few wearing fez caps, which came into vogue after Kamal Ataturk's revolution in Turkey.
Just before a match, the players would leave the hotel in their uniform and reach the stadium outside Delhi Gate in rickshaws or tongas. A huge crowd saw them in action and when the game ended the fans trooped back to the Walled City, disrupting the traffic and shouting slogans in support of their teams. In schools and colleges there were heroes like Lovey Malviya, a lecturer and his senior colleague, Basil Paul, both products of Ewen Christian College, Allahabad. To see Malviya dribble against the RAF teams was like watching Sir Stanley Matthews weaving his magic on the field. In school, Anthony and Joseph Bujeja, of Turkish descent, and their cousin Marseilles excelled. Charlie Nicholas, an Anglo-Burmese, was a good forward and so was Gaitley. The Barnett brothers were splendid as full-backs and left-winder Julian Francis seldom failed to put the ball past the upright.
There were matches galore, especially during the rainy season when hockey gave way to football. One still cannot forget the smell of grease on the ball that had Davico written right across and the stitches put by the school cobbler, Cyprian on the latest tear in it.
