Welcome To Krirangn

Sports organisers were father figures: Lahkar

Guwahati, Jan 1: Jack of all trades—perhaps it is the best way to describe him. Shankar Dutta Lahkar, who played Ranji Trophy for Assam and also represented the State Table Tennis team in various national-level championships, was equally good in football and athletics. He was the record holder in the 100-metre race in the Inter University Athletic Competition and also represented Gauhati Town Club in the Bordoloi Trophy. Soft-spoken by nature Lahkar, a retired engineer in the State Irrigation Department who turned 77 in 2023, recently spoke to krirangn.com where he unfolded the sports scenario of Guwahati in the 1960s and 1970s along with his career. Here is the excerpt.(Concluding Part)
Q, In your time, you were also a good athlete!
Lahkar: Yes. Actually, on those days, we played multiple games throughout the year. I played cricket and table tennis regularly, but whenever I had the time, I participated in athletic competitions. In 1965, I set a 100-metre record at the GU Inter College Athletics competition clocking 11.7 seconds. I was also good at high jump and made the podium on several occasions.
Q, It was not easy to continue multiple games along with studies. How did you manage it?
Lahkar: It’s not difficult if you make it a habit and follow a regular schedule. When I was studying engineering, I stayed at the Assam Engineering College campus in Jalukbari. My class started at 7 a.m. and came to an end around 2 p.m. I finished lunch very quickly and caught a city bus to reach Judges Field for cricket practice. After that, I went to the stadium for table tennis training before returning to the hostel in the evening. It was my regular routine, and I didn’t face any problem maintaining it. There was one advantage at that time, as traffic was less on the road and we could reach Judges Field from Jalukbari within half an hour.
Q, Tell us your story with table tennis.
Lahkar: Table tennis was the game that I played in most of my career. I was selected for the Assam team from 1960–1972, although I had failed to join the State team on every occasion due to study. Table tennis was very popular in Guwahati in those days, and local organisers, including Pulin Das, worked very hard for its promotion. I got international exposure when Yogoslovakia’s national team visited Guwahati to play an exhibition match held at the indoor stadium in 1964. Legendary sports organiser RG Baruah was then the president of the Guwahati Sports Association, and he was one of the men behind this exhibition match. The Yugoslav team played four singles and one doubles against us. In the singles, I gave a good fight, and it was nice to see that a few lines were written in the next day’s newspaper praising my performance in the match. I was a state champion in both senior and junior categories and also led the Gauhati University team in the East Zone Inter University Table Tennis Championship in 1965, finishing runners-up, losing the final to Jadavpur University.
Q, During your illustrious career, you came in touch with several top players in the state in various sports. Can you still remember them?
Lahkar: Oh, yes. In football, I played with Tulsi Dey, Abdul Jalil, Amanullah, Indrajit Namsung, several others. In cricket, Prabir Hazarika, the well-known singer Dwipen Barua (popularly known as Bhoju), Bimal Bharali, Kanai Bezbaruah and Anup Ghatak were all my teammates. Badal Thakur, Ashwini Rajbongshi, Girin Barua, Nilimoy Choudhury, Manik Choudhury, M P Barooah, R P Kapoor, Abani Hazarika and Madhab Talukdar were our senior batch, and all had great skill in this game. There were several cricketers at that time who had Test cricket materials and Ashwini Rajbongshi should stay at the top of the list. On the field, Ashwinida was an interesting character and didn’t care who was facing him. Once Pankaj Roy, batting against him, was badly hurt. Rajbongshi went straight to Roy and asked, “How was the delivery?”
In table tennis, Bijoy Hazarika, Pranab Barua, Amar Hazarika, Pranab Changkakati and Amal Choudhury were some of my contemporaries. Among us, Amar had the potential to represent India in this game.
Q, You came in touch with many sports organisers during your long career...
Lahkar: In those days, sports organisers were like father figures to the players. Animesh Ganguly, Sashi Sarma, Gauri Himmatsingka, Pulin Das, Nripen Bhatta, Jibananda Choudhury, Phani Sarma, Kironmoy Lahiri, KD Hazarika, Golap Choudhury-all the organizers were very good and dedicated to the sports. You may have noticed that I have left one name, and it is none other than RG Baruah. His organising skills were great, and you can say he was the leader of all those sports organisers whose names I mentioned earlier. There was very good bonding among them, and it helped to develop the sports scenario in Guwahati.
Q, Assam Table Tennis was in its golden era in the 1970s, and you were one of the witnesses...
Lahkar: Initial work to develop the game in the State was done by Pulin Das, and later Phani Sarma took it to new levels. During the 1970s, Assam produced an array of table tennis players who later became national and international celebrities.
In the junior category, we had a good number of boys and girls players but at a certain age, girls quit competing, making it difficult for the TT organisers to select senior women teams for the Inter District and the National Championship. In the early part of the 1970s, we faced a similar problem and one day I had a call from Pulinda (Pulin Das) instructing me to look for a few new female players so that we had a team ready for the forthcoming Inter district Table Tennis competition. As I visited the indoor Stadium one evening, I observed a left hander girl skilfully troubling her opponent . I approached her right away and asked about her name and also about her interest to join the district team squad. She didn’t give a direct reply and requested us to take permission from her father. I was a little relieved by discovering his father’s name since I knew him well. We were finally given approval for selecting her for the team. The girl was none other than the second Arjuna Awardee from Assam, Monalisa Barua Mehta.
Phani Sarma, who was the father figure of State Table Tennis, worked a lot to develop the game in the State. Arunjyoti Barua, Rahul Dutta and even Monalisa received huge support from him to become national and international stars. He was a very innovative person and always tried to inject new ideas. I can still remember that he sent several players to Mumbai for higher training and also arranged the entire expenditure of that trip. It was not an easy task on those days. Sharma also worked to bring more female players into the game. I really missed those sports organisers.
Author: Swarupa Goswami

Football was very popular in our days: Lahkar

Guwahati, Jan 1: Jack of all trades—perhaps it is the best way to describe him.
Shankar Dutta Lahkar, who played Ranji Trophy for Assam and also represented the State Table Tennis team in various national-level championships, was equally good in football and athletics. He was the record holder in the 100-metre race in the Inter University Athletic Competition and also represented Gauhati Town Club in the Bordoloi Trophy.
Soft-spoken by nature Lahkar, a retired engineer in the State Irrigation Department who turned 77 in 2023, recently spoke to krirangn.com where he unfolded the sports scenario of Guwahati in the 1960s and 1970s along with his career. Here is the excerpt.(Part I)
Q. How was the sports scenario in Guwahati during the 1960s?
Lahkar: Guwahati then was a verdant town with large trees and a lot of open spaces. This small town was surrounded by Chandmari in the east, Santipur in the west, Brahmaputra in the north, and Kalapahar in the south. The town did have a number of play grounds which were dispersed across Bharalumukh (Sonaram Field), Machkhowa (Eidgah Field), Tokobari (Police Reserve Field), Panbazar (Church Field and Judges Field), Uzanbazar (Latasil Field), Chandmari (Engineering Field), and Paltan Bazar (New Field). On their tour to Guwahati a number of famous players regularly visited the ground to play matches held on those fields. I was told that during World War II, Denis Compton, a well-known English Test cricketer and former Arsenal football player, travelled to Guwahati with the Army squad and was frequently spotted playing at the Police Reserve field.
Football was the most dominant game in Guwahati those days, and all the open spaces were used to organise football competitions regularly. During that time the local football league was very attractive, and it brought a huge number of crowds. Inter-school and inter-college footballs were also held on a regular basis and Judges Field was the main venue of those competitions as it was the only standard ground in the city. The Bordoloi Trophy was another important football tournament that was held at the same venue for a long period before shifting to the Nehru Stadium. In our time, Judges Field also hosted different cricket competitions, including the Ranji Trophy, on a regular basis.
Q. How had your interest grown in sports?
Lahkar: Actually, sports were in my family. During the 1920s, my father Dandidutta Lakhar represented the Cotton College football team against the British team. My brothers KD Lahkar and Bimal Lahkar were also associated with sports. My eldest brother, KD Lakhar, was an athlete and represented Jadavpur University. Bimal was a table tennis player and played for Assam for several years. So, no one was surprised when I entered the sports arena at a very early stage. Although I represented Assam in table tennis and cricket, my first choice was football, and from my childhood days, I was very good at this game. City based sports organisers from different localities like Sarania, Chatribari, Rehabari and Ulubari frequently visited my house to hire me for their teams in various football competitions. They even sent a person with a bicycle to take me to the ground and return me to the house after the game. That time, it was privileged. However, when I was in class VIII, my father stopped me from playing the game perhaps he thought it could hamper my studies. Fortunately his decision was vindicated as I passed HSLC securing merit scholarship. Though I left football but played table tennis on regular basis and later joined cricket.
Q.But you represented Gauhati Town Club in football and also played in the Bordoloi Trophy!
Lahkar: There was no planning behind it and was happened all of a sudden. At that time, I was pursuing my engineering course at the Assam Engineering College, Jalukbari. One day our team was playing in the final of a local competition, but due to some reason there was a shortage of players in the team. My friends knew that I could play soccer, and some of the members came to me with a request to join the team. I agreed and played the match. Our opponent, a team from Gorigaon locality near Jalukbari, was a good side and they strengthened their line up by adding a few well known footballers like Dadhi Barman and Vijay Kowar, both of whom represented Assam in Santosh Trophy. Despite the opponent team’s strong performance in the match I was able to score four goals that day. Premadhar Sarma, a veteran sports journalist and sports organiser, officiated that match and he knew me very well. Initially, he was surprised to see me in the playing XI, as I was known to him as a table tennis player. After watching my game, Sarma was very pleased and he suggested my name to the officials of Gauhati Town Club. Later I got a call from the club to join the team which I accepted. My debut was against arch-rival Maharana AC in a local league match in 1966. We lost the game by a solitary goal and Maharana AC ensured the league title that year with this victory. Next year, I played in the Bordoloi Trophy representing Gauhati Town Club and also turned out for the club in various exhibition matches at Mangaldoi, Tangla, Rangia etc.
Q.Club football in Guwahati was perhaps at its best at that time.
Lahkar: Absolutely. There were eight clubs that took part in the local football league. Gauhati Town Club and Maharana Club were the two top teams in the city, and the rivalry between them was nothing less than Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. Sporting Union was known as the local Mohammedan Sporting in the Guwahati League. Friends Union, West Guwahati, Young Blue, Rising and Rajbari were the other local clubs that were a part of local football leagues. The level of competition was very high those days, and it brought a large number of crowds to the ground. Referees had to spend a very tough time conducting the matches as the crowd cheered for their teams standing close to the ground. Sometimes a little errors from the referees invited big trouble at the ground. However, the good thing was that at the end of the match, there was no hard feeling among the players and supporters.
Q. How your journey started in cricket?
Lahkar: As I told you, I was introduced to table tennis in class VIII, but I had a cricket bat and ball. Whenever there was free time, I used to play in our compound with my friends. One day, my late cousin, Amal Choudhury (who was also a state table tennis player), came to my home to hire me to play a cricket match for their club situated at Jorpukhuri. The opponent team was from Bharalumukh, and the match was held at the Latasil ground. That time, there were no individual kits. Each team had one pair of pads, one pair of batting gloves and one pair of wicket keeping gloves. Two batsmen wear one pad each in their leg and another pair of pads was used by the wicketkeeper. In that game, we bowled out a paltry 18 runs, and I scored an unbeaten 9. Bharalumukh won the match by four wickets. But the outcome of the match was that the very next day, our school’s game teacher and cricket secretary, who came to know my batting skills after that game from someone, came to my class and asked me to join the net session, and my journey in cricket started. I studied at Collegiate School and represented my school in Abhaya Shankar Inter-School Cricket Competition. Later, I was selected for the state school team before starting to play in the senior category for Gauhati Town Club. In 1968, I made my debut for Assam in the Ranji Trophy. I also lead Gauhati University in All India University meet at Cuttack in 1966. (To be continued)
Author: Swarupa Goswami