Madras Week | The north’s love affair with sports

August 20, 2021 01:21 am | Updated 05:02 am IST - CHENNAI

A way out: For several youths in the north of the city, football was an escape route from their daily trials and tribulations

A way out: For several youths in the north of the city, football was an escape route from their daily trials and tribulations

Wherever we go, there it is. The COVID-19 pandemic has overwritten several scripts, laid to waste the plans of all. And this year, as the city celebrates Madras Day, in commemoration of a pact inked 382 years ago, it makes sense to anchor the overarching theme to the disruptions a pandemic causes. For a week, these columns will open a window to the past to examine aspects of the city that are in some way connected to such disruptions. While Madras Day events are low key and the usual pomp and frenetic activity that Chennaiites see during this week in August are missing, people have taken the online route, as with most things these past couple of years. For Chennai is still a city that its residents love, and harking back to its connect with good ol’ Madras is an annual ritual that has come to stay

The south of the city has tended to overshadow the north in modern times. This is why, as cricket ruled the roost in the south, with swanky facilities and ace training centres, the tenacious connections that north Madras had with sport were often eclipsed. While the entire city has been struggling to access sporting facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the north of the city, sport continues to play an essential role in the lives of people.

North Madras has had a hoary history of association with sports such as boxing, swimming, football and hockey, while the city itself came to be known internationally for its links with cricket and tennis. But cricket is certainly not the only sport that the British brought to these shores.

Boxing for fun

 

When the British came ashore in the 1600s, they needed a pastime, and the sailors divided themselves into two teams — to fight in the ring. Like wrestling, boxing was played with bare hands. It was somewhere in the later centuries that people began covering their hands with cloth to avoid injuries and the focus was on the power of punches, according to Na.Bha. Sethuraman, a trainer. In March 1925, newspapers carried an article calling on boys to participate in the second annual inter-house boxing competition. The response was huge, and the contest went on for nearly three hours. Each bout lasted two minutes. In that event, two boxers faced each other blindfolded, adding to the entertainment.

This , it is to be noted, was not restricted to one or two places, but it looked like all of north Chennai was celebrating boxing. The South Indian Athletic Association Limited held a show at People’s Park, entertaining 5,000 spectators, and at another competition at Perambur Mills School, the headmistress distributed prizes, newspaper reports recorded. Sponsored exhibition matches were held at Esplanade theatre, and newspapers gave evocative accounts. Boxers came from across the country. Soon influential Indians began patronising the sport. Among them was Madras High Court judge Pandalai, who sponsored the Madras Tournament.

In March 1934, the Amateur Boxing Association for Madras Presidency was established with the aim of preventing irregularities creeping into the sport. The association called for developing a practice ring and mooted the idea of becoming part of the Olympic Federation. Members of the Anglo-Indian community, who had settled in large numbers in north Madras, became legends for their boxing prowess.

Boxer Gopi of Mattungkuppam rationalises that the rugged, aggressive cultural setting of the slum tenements gave them a good physique, and an attitude that made them fit for the sport. T. Sundar, a third-generation boxer and coach at Sundar Raj Boxing Club, launched in memory of his grandfather, said the fishing community at Ayodhya Kuppam, Nochi Kuppam, Mattungkuppam, Kasimedu, Royapuram and Washermanpet had generated a large number of talented young boxers but they tended to fade in the absence of sponsorship.

Playing ball

In other pockets of north Madras, youngsters enthusiastically kicked the ball around. Football was very popular. Football enthusiast Paul Sunder Singh, who runs NGO Karunalaya for children and trains disadvantaged children in various sports, remarked that along with boxing, football, hockey, swimming and Kabbadi attracted a lot of youngsters of north Chennai. While interest thrived, it was only in the last decade or so that provision of good sporting infrastructure (for instance, Nehru Stadium) helped to make football a serious sport for a large number of children from Royapuram, Thiruvottiyur, Washermenpet, George Town and Purasawalkam.

Old Madras had football legends — in Nagesh (boxing also had a legend with the same name) and Sriramulu. There were days when people bought tickets to watch Sriramulu play. Mr. Singh, who is coaching a girls football team for the Street Child Football World Cup in Doha next year, says, “The local legend used to pedal a long distance just to play football, all the way from his house at Thiruvottiyur.”

Local greats

Football coach Thangaraj, of the Slum Children Sports Talent and Education Development Society in Vyasarpadi, remembers several football greats — ‘Kulla’ Palani, ‘Ottaga’ Maya, ‘Olli’ Bharani and ‘Mukkuthi’ Kuppa — having a good fan-following in north Madras. Similar to the effect the game had on children of Brazil and Argentina living in poverty, playing and watching matches were, for several youths in the north of the city, an escape route from their daily trials and tribulations. It will be easy to encounter boys named Messi or Neymar or Ronaldo on the streets of north Chennai. That is the intensity of the fan-following. Sometimes, among themselves, Vyasarpadi is referred to as a ‘mini Brazil’.

Kabaddi has been the sport of choice for children at Royapuram, with the Babu Jagjivanram Stadium hosting local tournaments. It is with the professional kabbadi league that opportunities opened up for youngsters, coaches say. Several kuppams along the Marina beach have been churning out national swimmers for years, thanks in part to the swimming pool constructed by the Chennai Corporation.

North Chennai is continuing to play the same sports as it did when it was Madras. Even as the city changed and some additional infrastructure was located in this area, the plea has been that it does not match up to the facilities in the south. , both private and public. Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University secretary K. Kannadasan agrees: “If we can provide infrastructure, equipment and coaches, they will flourish. We also need sponsors to develop the sport.”

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