B’luru has an unique ethos with sport, every discipline had nat’l level athlete: Author

Bengaluru: Gunboat Jack , Arthur Soares, B Jayaram, BK Garudachar and K Thimmipiah are few names that are of importance in discussing the sporting history of India’s silicon valley. One would expect the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, G R Vishwanath and the ensemble team of the 1974 Ranji heroes to also be etched as part of the city’s sporting legacy.

 Veteran scribe and author Stanely Carvalho in his lecture says it shows why Bengaluru was once a hub for every sport and has seen its global heyday, thanks to the British and Missionaries. Carvalho was delivering his lecture “Bangalore and its Sporting History” as part of the fourth edition of the Ravi Sondhi Spirit of Bangalore Memorial at the Kothari Memorial hall here on Saturday. He laid down three important disciplines that put Bengaluru on the map before India’s independence - Golf, Boxing and Polo. With Boxing, the Opera house in brigade road, the Liberty Theatre in MG Road and the BRV junction in Shivajinagar once hosted international and national boxers.

“People from the west descended to India to take part in bouts, and the crowd it pulled was huge,” Carvalho said. He also explained how Gunboat Jack, an afro-American was once the most lipped name and was known for his technique. Cricket in the city grew all credits to B Jayaram, who scored Karnataka’s first century in first class cricket, and cricket administrator M Chinnaswamy, who stepped down from Attorney’s post to build the sport to what it is today.

He spoke about women in sports , mentioning the likes of Shantha Rangaswamy (Cricket), Margorie Suarez in athletics and the Indian omen’s Hockey team in the 1960s and 1970s in which more than five women were from Bengaluru.