Mohun Bagan Ground
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Mohun Bagan Ground is first ground of the Mohun Bagan Club was inside the famous marble palace, owned by Kirti Mitra of the Mitra family, known as Mohun Bagan Villa. It was situated at Fariapukur street of north Kolkata. But as a football ground this was not sufficiently large.
It is believed that Mohun Bagan played the first match on this very ground against the students of Eden Hindu hostel.In 1891, with the help of the Maharaja of Shyampukur, Durga Charan Laha, club ground was relocated to his ground at Shyampukur. That place is now known as Shyampukur Laha Colony. Later, with the help of Mr. Harry Lee, the chairman of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the ground was again shifted to Shyam Square. The ground was shared with the Aryans Club and Bagbazar Club.
Club Secretary Subedar Major Sailen Basu was the First and Highest Ranking Indian Officer of the 49th Bengal Regiment. Basu’s role for the club and team making is remarkable. Such as the arrangement for a new club tent, a new ground, making a good football team and increase the number of Club members.
In 1900, Mohun Bagan became the partner of Presidency College and shared the same ground at Kolkata Maidan (Ground). Mohun Bagan continued to play here for 15 years. Then in 1915, Mohun Bagan got the ground of National AC. On this ground, Mohun Bagan played till 1963. In 1915, that ground was stretched east–west. But afterwards, it became north–south like the other club grounds in Kolkata Maidan. Presently, that ground is occupied by one of the oldest clubs of Kolkata, the Aryans Club, who shares the ground with the East Bengal Club.
There was no discrimination regarding collection of membership fee from the rich to the poor. But the fund was not sufficient to build club premises on the Ground. It is known that a meeting was held among the Officials of the club. Jyotindra Nath Basu, Sailen Basu, Dwijen Basu, Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra and Dr. Girish Ghosh were present at that meeting. The meeting was regarding the construction of Club house. Surprisingly, after some days, one fine morning people noticed a club house inside the Mohun Bagan Maidan premises . There is no evidence of this in the financial records of the club.The donors remains unknown to us till date.
The current Mohun Bagan Ground is the best football ground in Kolkata. Fitted with the floodlights and concrete gallery. It is slightly high at the center circle. and lower at the side lines. So that the rain water drained off easlily. The grass of this lush green carpet has been imported from Brazil.
