Sports Bodies, Cups and Trophies: Exam Lists and PYQs

The correct answer is D, Kolkata. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club was founded in 1829 in the city that was then the capital of British India, and it is counted as the first golf club established anywhere outside Britain. Option A is wrong because Shimla, though a favourite hill station of the same administration and the birthplace of the Durand Cup in football, received its golf course much later. Option B is wrong because the Gulmarg course in Kashmir, famous for its height and its setting, also came after Kolkata. Option C is wrong because Mysore has a long sporting tradition under its rulers but no claim to the first golf club. The safe rule for early Indian sport is that the first of almost anything belongs to Kolkata, which held the capital and the largest British population of the time.

The correct answer is B, Kolkata. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was founded in 1889 in Kolkata and is among the oldest football clubs of the country. Its victory in the IFA Shield of 1911 against a British regimental team, won by players who took the field barefoot, was celebrated across the country as far more than a sporting result, and the club remains one of the great names of Indian football along with East Bengal, also of Kolkata. Option A is wrong because Jaipur has no connection with the club. Option C is wrong because Lucknow, though rich in its own sporting history, is not its home. Option D is wrong because Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh has no link with it at all. Kolkata is the answer whenever an early Indian club is named.

The correct answer is A, 1888. The Durand Cup was begun at Shimla in 1888 and is named after Mortimer Durand, who was then the foreign secretary of the British Indian government. It is the oldest football tournament in India and in Asia and among the oldest in the world, and it was later shifted to Delhi and then to Kolkata. Option B is wrong because 1911 is the year of Mohun Bagan's famous IFA Shield victory, a date of the same sport but a different event. Option C is wrong because 1934 belongs to the first season of the Ranji Trophy in cricket. Option D is wrong because 1941 is the year the Santosh Trophy, the championship between the states, was started. Keeping these four years apart settles a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is B, badminton. The Thomas Cup is the world team championship for men in badminton, and its counterpart for women is the Uber Cup, while the Sudirman Cup is the mixed team championship of the same game. Option A is wrong because the team championships of table tennis are the Swaythling Cup for men and the Corbillon Cup for women, a pair that is often set beside the badminton cups to confuse candidates. Option C is wrong because lawn tennis has the Davis Cup for men and the Billie Jean King Cup for women. Option D is wrong because squash has its own world team championship and no trophy of this name. The easiest way to hold the set is to remember three sports and two cups each, one for men and one for women.

The correct answer is B, the Ranji Trophy champions against the Rest of India. The Irani Cup was begun to mark twenty five seasons of the Ranji Trophy and is a single first class match in which the reigning national champions meet a side drawn from the best players of the other teams, which makes it a selection trial as much as a contest. Option A is wrong because the tournament played on zonal lines is the Duleep Trophy, named after Duleepsinhji. Option C is wrong because India A and India B sides meet in other domestic and touring fixtures, not in this cup. Option D is wrong because the one day tournament is the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the twenty over one is the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and neither feeds into the Irani Cup.

The correct answer is C, Lausanne in Switzerland. The International Olympic Committee, founded in 1894 on the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, moved its seat to Lausanne during the First World War and has worked from that city ever since, which is why Lausanne is called the Olympic capital. Option A is wrong because Athens hosted the first modern Games in 1896 and holds great symbolic weight, but never the headquarters. Option B is wrong because Paris is the city where the committee was founded at a congress held in the Sorbonne, and candidates often mistake the place of founding for the place of work. Option D is wrong because Rome hosted the Games of 1960 and has no such office. Remember Lausanne for the Olympic movement and Zurich for FIFA.

The correct answer is B, football. The Santosh Trophy is the national football championship of India, played between teams representing the states and certain institutions, and it has been held since 1941. For decades it was the most important competition in Indian football and the main window through which players reached the national team. Option A is wrong because the national hockey championship is played for the Rangaswamy Cup, and the older hockey tournaments of the country are the Beighton Cup and the Agha Khan Cup. Option C is wrong because volleyball has its own federation cup and no trophy of this name. Option D is wrong because kabaddi is organised through its national championships and league. Tie Santosh with football and Rangaswamy with hockey and the pair is settled.

The correct answer is A, table tennis. The Swaythling Cup is the men's team championship of the world table tennis championships and the Corbillon Cup is the women's team championship of the same event, and the two names are almost always set together in question papers. Option B is wrong because the team cups of badminton are the Thomas Cup for men and the Uber Cup for women. Option C is wrong because basketball has no trophies of these names and its national competition in India is the federation cup. Option D is wrong because hockey in India is played for the Beighton Cup, the Agha Khan Cup and the Rangaswamy Cup among others. Learn the two pairs of cups, Thomas and Uber for badminton and Swaythling and Corbillon for table tennis, as a single block.

The correct answer is B, tennis. The Davis Cup is the international team competition for men in lawn tennis, played between countries in ties spread over a season, and the corresponding competition for women is now called the Billie Jean King Cup. Option A is wrong because the team competitions of golf are the Ryder Cup, between Europe and the United States, and the Walker Cup for amateurs. Option C is wrong because cricket has no trophy of this name; its Test series carry names such as the Ashes and the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Option D is wrong because chess is played for the world championship and for the Chess Olympiad and has no Davis Cup. Questions of this kind are settled by learning the cup along with the game and never on its own.

The correct answer is B, 1928. The Board of Control for Cricket in India was formed in 1928 and India played its first Test match four years later, in 1932. The board organises every domestic tournament, from the Ranji Trophy downwards, and selects the national teams. Option A is wrong because 1909 is the year in which the world body was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference, later the International Cricket Council. Option C is wrong because 1934 is the year the Ranji Trophy was launched, a date that belongs to a tournament rather than to the board. Option D is wrong because 1947 is the year of independence and has no special place in cricket administration. The three years 1909, 1928 and 1934 are asked together often enough to be worth memorising as a set.

The correct answer is A, hockey. The Beighton Cup has been played at Kolkata since the closing years of the nineteenth century and is among the oldest field hockey tournaments anywhere, older than most international competitions in the game, and the great teams and players of Indian hockey have all passed through it. Option B is wrong because the old football tournaments of the country are the Durand Cup, the IFA Shield and the Rovers Cup. Option C is wrong because cricket in India is played for the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup. Option D is wrong because polo has the Ezra Cup, another Kolkata trophy of the same period, which candidates sometimes confuse with this one. Group the Kolkata trophies by game and the confusion disappears.

The correct answer is A, Zurich. FIFA was founded in 1904 and has long had its headquarters at Zurich in Switzerland, from where it organises the World Cup and governs the national federations. Option B is wrong because London houses the International Tennis Federation and the old cricket home of Lord's, but not FIFA. Option C is wrong because Paris is the city in which FIFA was founded, and the founding place is regularly offered as a distractor against the present seat, exactly as it is with the Olympic committee. Option D is wrong because Madrid is a great footballing city with no governing body of this rank. It helps to note how many world sporting bodies sit in Switzerland, among them FIFA at Zurich and the Olympic committee and the hockey federation at Lausanne.