The first hockey club in India was formed in Kolkata in 1885-86. The oldest hockey tournament in India - the Beighton Cup - started in Kolkata in 1895. The first hockey association in India was formed in Kolkata in 1908 - the Bengal Hockey Assocation. The first national hockey championship of India was held in Kolkata in 1928. It was called the inter-provincials, with 5 provinces of undivided India participating. The first Indian Olympic team for the Amsterdam Games was selected in Kolkata after the 1928 nationals. Kolkata,despite its pioneering role in the history of Indian hockey, is the only major metropolis in India without an artificial turf. The photograph below was taken before a match between India XI and Rest of India XI played in Kolkata.

Back in the 40s and 50s, Bengal had strong teams in Calcutta Customs and Port Commissioners in Kolkata, and Bengal-Nagpur Railway in Kharagpur. Bengal went on to win the 1952 national hockey championship held in Kolkata. They snapped Punjab's hat-trick of national hockey titles that year. It took two matches to decide the 1952 championship. The first match ended in a goalless draw, before Bengal wrested the trophy from Punjab in the replay. Over the years Bengal has produced Olympians like Pat Jansen, Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt, Gurbaksh Singh, Joginder Singh, Inam-ur-Rehman and Thoiba Singh, among others. The photograph below shows a match played in Kolkata between Bengal XI and a New Zealand team touring India in 1947-48. Pat Jansen is seated fifth from the left.

The first hockey association in India was formed in 1908 the Bengal Hockey Association. The first national hockey championship of India was held in 1928. It was called the inter-provincials, with 5 provinces of undivided India participating. The first Indian Olympic team for the Amsterdam Games was selected in Kolkata after the 1928 nationals.

Twenty-seven Olympic gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal ~ that is what Bengal's hockey can boast of. However, all that is history and Kolkata no longer has a hockey Olympian. Despite its pioneering role in the history of Indian hockey, Kolkata is the only major metropolis in India without an artificial turf. "How can you hope to produce international class players if you cannot give the players astroturf to play on? asks Gurbux Singh, secretary of the Bengal Hockey Association. Leslie Claudius agreed that the absence of astroturf is responsible for this decline, but added: Ours was a different era. We were successful, so the enthusiasm for the game was naturally high. How can you have that today? Even the educational institutions are not interested in hockey nowadays. But you can't blame them. Young people don't find hockey exciting enough. Maybe if we can give them astroturf, the fast surface can lure them back into the game.