The Davis Cup is a team competition in which sport?

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.