Wari AC

Wari
ওয়ারী

Full name	Wari Athletic Club
Founded	1898 (1898) (as Wari Club) 1949 (1949) (as Wari Athletic Club)
Ground	Various
Chairman	Indranath Paul
League	CFL Premier Division
Home colours Away colours

Wari Athletic Club (Bengali: ওয়ারী অ্যাথলেটিক ক্লাব) is a professional multi-sports club based in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. It currently competes in the Premier division of the Calcutta Football League.

Wari formerly competed in the CFL First Division, second tier of the Calcutta Football League system.

The club was established in 1898 as Wari Club in Dacca, East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh). Following the partition of India, Calcutta-based members of the club shifted a branch in the city, and it continues to participate in state tournaments conducted by the Indian Football Association.

History

Formation and journey in Dacca

When the Wellington Club was discontinued, a few of its sports-loving members in 1898 went on to form the Wari Club at Dacca and thus was established the oldest club in Dhaka. Zamindar Rai Bahadur Surendranath Roy played a key role in the formation of the club. The first success came in 1910 at Cooch Behar, when Wari defeated the British Kings' House club at a tournament. After gaining popularity, the club in 1930, found their playing field at Paltan ground in Dacca. They also had moderate success in the prestigious IFA Shield tournament until 1945.

From 1931, Wari also expanded to other sports like cricket, hockey, tennis, volleyball, table tennis and indoor games.

Later years after partition in Calcutta

Wari AC co-founder and then DSA captain Pakhi Sen (on right) and Islington Corinthas captain P Clark shake hand just before the match in 1937

Following the partition of India, while the main Wari club remained in Dacca, a branch of the club shifted its operations as Wari Athletic Club in Calcutta by 1949. The founders of the club, Bhupendra Mohan Sengupta, also known as Pakhi Sen, (played for East Bengal in 1939 and Dacca XI in 1937), Tejes Bagha Shome and Dinesh Dutta were all members of the Dacca Wari Club before the Partition. Through the initiative of the AIFF official Pankaj Gupta, they were inducted into Calcutta Football League third division by 1949. By 1952, they got promoted to First Division and even reached the semi-finals of 1953 IFA Shield. The next year in 1954, Wari AC finished as runners up in the Calcutta Football League. The club achieved fame when they defeated East Bengal 1–0 in the CFL in 1978, which prevented the "red and gold brigade" from retaining the title it won seven times between 1970 and 1977. 1984 season was disastrous for the club as they finished in bottom of the league table consisting of twenty seven teams, and was relegated to third division. In 2003, Wari appointed legendary Iranian-Indian footballer Jamshid Nassiri as its technical director.

After getting promotion from the CFL First Division (third tier) in 2019, the club on 28 July 2022, unveiled their new jerseys and announced new sponsors Maco Chicken and Hotel Royal Bengal, ahead of the CFL Premier Division B kickoff. Wari got relegated to the third tier again in 2022 Premier B season with sixteen points in fourteen matches.

In June 2023, the IFA announced that they have merged both Premier Division A and B of the Calcutta Football League ahead of its 125th edition, in which Wari was included in Group II.

Other departments

Field hockey

Wari AC has its field hockey division, which is active since its foundation. Affiliated with the Bengal Hockey Association (BHA), the team previously competed in Beighton Cup, which is one of world's oldest field hockey tournaments.

Men's cricket

Wari AC has a men's cricket section. It is affiliated with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), which is the governing body of cricket in West Bengal. Based at Tent Maidan, in Mayo Road of Kolkata, the club primarily participates in tournaments conducted by CAB, including First Division League, J.C. Mukherjee T-20 Trophy, A. N. Ghosh Memorial Trophy, CAB One Day League and P. Sen Trophy.

Women's cricket

Wari operates women's cricket teams, and takes part in CAB Women's Club T20 League annually.

Club overview

Club tent

Wari AC's club tent is situated on Mayo road in West-Coast Paper Maidan in Kolkata Maidan area near Esplanade. In the morning on 1 April 2019, the club tent went up in flame after a fire broke out due to short circuit. Four fire engines rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control when damage was done. In April 2022, new club tent was unveiled after a three-year long restoration works.

Jersey

Wari AC is among the few clubs playing in CFL whose club name on their official jersey is written in Bengali, compared to most clubs whose name is usually written in English.

Notable players

The club is known for bringing up talents in Kolkata football. Players like Tushar Rakshit, Ashim Shome, Tapas Shome, Nimai Goswami, Santo Mitra began their playing career in Wari. Legendary goalkeeper Pradyut Barman started his playing career with the club in 1957. Bhabani Ray was one of the earliest known stars of the club who later went on to represent India at the 1970 Asian Games. Parimal Dey played for Wari from 1961 to 1963, when Bhaga Som was coach. Samaresh Chowdhury appeared from 1967 to 1969. Pritam Kotal, who represented India at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, played for Wari until 2010.

Honours

Association football

League

• Calcutta Football League
  • Runners-up (1): 1954
• CFL Third Division
  • Champions (1): 1949

Cup

• Trades Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 2005, 2016

Cricket

• CAB Women's T-20 League
  • Champions (1): 2023–24

See also

• History of Indian football
• List of football clubs in India
• Football in Kolkata

References

Cited sources

Bibliography

• Mitra, Soumen (1 January 2006). In Search of an Identity: The History of Football in Colonial Calcutta. Kolkata: Dasgupta & Co. Private Ltd. ISBN 978-8182110229. Archived from the original on 21 October 2022.
• Kapadia, Novy (2017). Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-42641-7.
• Martinez, Dolores; Mukharjiim, Projit B (2009). Football: From England to the World: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-88353-6. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
• Dutta, P. L., Memoir of 'Father of Indian Football' Nagendraprasad Sarbadhikary (Calcutta: N. P. Sarbadhikary Memorial Committee, 1944) (hereafter Memoir)
• Majumdar, Boria, Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). Goalless: The Story of a Unique Footballing Nation. Penguin India. ISBN 9780670058747.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ghosh, Saurindra Kumar. Krira Samrat Nagendraprasad Sarbadhikary 1869–1940 (Calcutta: N. P. Sarbadhikary Memorial Committee, 1963) (hereafter Krira Samrat).
• Roselli, John. Self Image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal. Past & Present (journal). 86 (February 1980). p. 121–48.
• Sinha, Mrinalini. Colonial Masculinity, The Manly Englishman and the Effeminate Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995).
• Mason, Football on the Maidan, p. 144; Dimeo, Football and Politics in Bengal, p. 62.
• Nath, Nirmal (2011). History of Indian Football: Upto 2009–10. Readers Service. ISBN 9788187891963. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
• D'Mello, Anthony (1959). Portrait Of Indian Sport. P R Macmillan Limited, London.
• From recreation to competition: Early history of Indian football Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine. pp. 124–141. Published online: 6 Aug 2006. www.tandfonline.com. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
• Sharma, Nikhil Paramjit; Gupta, Shantanu (4 February 2019). India's Football Dream. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9789353283063. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
• Majumdar, Boria; Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). A Social History Of Indian Football: Striving To Score. Routledge. ISBN 9780415348355. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021.
• Basu, Jaydeep (2003). Stories from Indian Football. UBS Publishers' Distributors. ISBN 9788174764546. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022.
• Majumdar, B. (2006). "Cricket in colonial Bengal (1880–1947): A lost history of nationalism". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 23 (6): 960–990. doi:10.1080/09523360600802562. S2CID 216152701.

Further reading

• Hoque, Shishir (4 March 2018). "Football before the birth of Bangladesh". archive.dhakatribune.com. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
• Banerjee, Ankan (25 March 2015). "The Introduction of Football in Colonial Calcutta- Part 1". footballcounter.com. Kolkata: Football Counter. Archived from the original on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
• "Tarapada Ray of East Bengal Club". facebook.com (East Bengal Samachar) (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 8 September 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• Arif, Mahbub (17 November 2015). "বাঙালির ফুটবল-সাফল্য এখন কেবলই স্মৃতি". u71news.com (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
• Sengupta, Somnath; Ghosh, Aindrila; Sengupta, Bhaktimoy (23 August 2013). ""Lack of Focus on Youth Development Is The Biggest Problem of Indian Football" – Arun Ghosh (Exclusive Interview)". thehardtackle.com. Kolkata: The Hard Tackle. Archived from the original on 27 January 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
• "Former India star Parimal Dey passes away". The Telegraph. Kolkata. 2 February 2023. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
• PTI (1 February 2023). "India's Merdeka Cup bronze-medal winning hero Parimal Dey dies". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
• "AIFF condoles the demise of former India International Parimal Dey". the-aiff.com. All India Football Federation. 1 February 2023. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
• Chaudhuri, Arunava (2004). ""Khadims" Traders Cup 2004". indianfootball.de. Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
• Bhattacharya, Ayan (10 September 2023). "বাংলা ভাগের ক্ষত কিভাবে বিষিয়ে দিল মোহনবাগান আর ইস্টবেঙ্গলকে?" [How did the wound of the partition of Bengal poisoned both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal?]. inscript.me (in Bengali). Kolkata: ইনস্ক্রিপ্ট বাংলা নিউজ. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
• Iftekhar, Rubaid (2 October 2019). "Mohammedan Sporting Club: The fall that hurt the most". tbsnews.net. The Business Standard. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.

External links

• CFL clubs at IFA (archived 9 October 2022)