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30th Agrahayan 1323, (In Gregorian Calender - 16th December, 1916), 5
years after Mohun Bagan won the prestigious IFA Shield, Jiten Ghosh was
born in Sitaram Ghosh Street, North Calcutta.
During his childhood, he had affection for football. Those were the days
when football and Mohun Bagan were two words very close to a Bengali's
heart. There was no exception in Jiten. He started watching others
playing the game, and when he was a teen, he found himself playing
football in Right-In position.
Balai Das Chatterjee, the renowned
sportsman, who ruled maidan football with Gostho Pal, Umapati Kumar, and Rubi
Chatterjee in the 20s (1921 - 1930) and coached Mariners later in achieving
their success in IFA Shield and Rovers Cup had an eye on Ghosh. Ghosh started
playing under the coaching of Chatterjee.
Jiten Ghosh was not only a good
footballer, he was an equally good cricketer and hockey player as well and
represented Mohun Bagan in all three arenas. He also represented Sporting Union
and Bhowanipur as a cricketer.
During his tenure as Mohun Bagan
footballer, Ghosh became a part of history when Mohun Bagan won their maiden
Calcutta League in 1939. Ghosh was a regular footballer of the 1st 11 of
Mariners then. K. Dutta, Manmatha Dutta, Premlal, Bimal Mukherjee, Anil Dey,
Mohini Banerjee, Satya (Sotu) Chowdhury, Mana Guin and of course Langcha Mitra
were the key players of the club. Sotu Chowdhury was the captain of 1939 team.
While representing Mohun
Bagan, Ghosh was seriously injured twice, once when his shin bone was broken in
a knock-out tournament in Mourigram and the other time when he had a head injury
leading to concussion. This time he was representing Mohun Bagan against
Calcutta Club.
Ghosh quit playing football in
1944 and got married to Ashalata Ghosh in the same year. Although he quit
football, he continued playing cricket and hockey for next 6 years besides being
employed in Calcutta Corporation as Corporation Inspector.
Of course, he was a regular visitor
to the Mohun Bagan tent to see matches played by his beloved club, and till date
this Mohun Bagan member feels proud in remembering his days with the club as a
player. A true Mohun Bagani by heart, for this 88-year-old man, Mohun Bagan is
still a temple and why not!
[ November 21, 2005, A special thanks to Mr. Shibram Kumar, an eminent
sports writer ]Report: Kaushik Chatterjee, Photograph: Tridip, and
Interview: Tridip and Shiladitya |
