Delhi Dynamos brings back memories of Bombay Dynamos Pran saabs dream in the 1950s. By SUNDAY MiD DAY SPECIAL |Posted 14-Jul-2013 And it was through Akhtar that Pran came onto the football field. Talking about how his passion for football took root, Pran disclosed: ‘Akhtar Hussain had signed me to work in his film Pyar Ki Baaten. However, I was intrigued to find that Akhtar packed up at 4.30 pm. In fact, that was not the first time! Akhtar would regularly “pack-up” as early as 4 or 4.30 pm! We didn’t know why – but soon found out! Actually, Akhtar was a great football fan and even had his own club, which he had named The Globe. He used to rush to the Cooperage whenever his team was playing, or whenever any exciting matches were to be played. I, on the other hand, had never yet seen a football game. ‘So one day I joined him to see a football match. I liked it so much that I also started going with him regularly. I made friends with a lot of the footballers. And they made me a member of their club.’ Pran continued his reminiscences: ‘I began to like football so much that I wanted to make my own team. I talked about it to Raj Kapoorjee. He said: “Okay, we’ll do it and the filmwallahs will contribute.” ‘Then there was a man who had (a vast) knowledge of football, and he knew practically everybody. So I met him and he suggested some players’ names, and together we formed a team in the early 1950s, calling it the Bombay Dynamos Football Club after the famous Moscow team. Our team had six members who represented Maharashtra including one who represented India at the Olympics… His football club ‘The team was pretty good too! Most of them were local Bombay boys. But I recruited Sanjiva, from Calcutta, who was the goalkeeper at the 1948 London Olympics. Another Olympian who played for us was inside forward, Parab… ‘The only drawback was that the film people had backed out… It was very expensive too, since I had to support around fifteen players, paying for their boarding, lodging and other expenses… So, sadly, I had to close it down.’
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:39:18 +0000
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