Moors Sports Club 100 years and strong
Richard Dwight
Every year the anniversary of the Moors Sports Club (MSC) falls on the month of March. This year however, there is an added measure of importance in that the MSC celebrates its centenary, since its formation in March 1908.
Through the ups and downs, success and failure, a sustained continuous '100 year' record of service to its members, the community and the country at large viewed by any standard and in any endeavour, is a fine achievement. The club does not say this with a semblance of accomplished arrogance, but with a deep sense of humility, in order to assist in the greater cause and the common good of its members.
Since it is a significant milestone in the annals of the MSC it does merit a brief narrative here and, according to the incumbent president of the MSC - M. Shafeek Rajabdeen MP, the concept of a club was initiated by founder convenor S.L. Mohamed Haji, and had its humble origin in Prince street Pettah in March 1908, under the presidency of the late Sir Razick Fareed successive presidents who followed, in Mohamed Macan Markar, A.M. Fuard, Faleel A. Caffoor, Rahuman Hathy, Bin Ismail and yet others were in a sense pioneers to be pathfinders.
They with sacrificial commitment, set the tone and direction for the club to forge ahead and, come to be located at Braybrooke Place, Colombo 2.
The venue pleasant as it was, did afford facilities for recreation and fellowship amongst the members - with however the main objective being in the promotion and fostering of sports, especially cricket, Hockey, tennis and billiards the MSC lost little or no time in becoming a leading front line club, with quite a few of its members holding responsible positions in the national governing bodies of the different sports.
In the earlier years some of its members acquitted themselves well in the field of hockey, while tennis has been well sustained through the years for its tournament to be regarded as open ranking competitions by the SLTA.
Billiards has proved to be very popular right through the club's existence, producing in its wake quality players who went onto to be champions at one time or another. The cricket team as in other clubs, is the show piece of the MSC.
The sport occupies a major part of the premises with a fine turf wicket, amidst pleasant surroundings. In the recent past five years the MSC with a very talented promising set of cricketers, were at the different levels of competition either runner up, on the verge of being champions or champions itself, which certainly augurs well for the future of cricket in the club.
It must not also be forgotten that in those distant years, the club had a wide array of repeated cricketers, in the pioneer of MSC A.M. Fuard, who captained Wesley College and represented the club for a considerable period of time.
His two sons the late Ansar and Abu and son-in-law the late, Makkin Salih played for the club. Both Abu Fuard and Makkin played for Ceylon, Abu established himself as a world class off spinner, while Makkin, was a renowned opening batsman.
The others who did well for MSC, were Tony Buhar, M.A. Caffoor, A. Weerasinghe, M. Khalid, M.S.M. Ghouse, A.C.M. Nadheem, M. Wahid, F. Mahamood Rauf Azzam, T.H. Assim, M.S. Shaharwardie, B.N. Mahamood, Zakcrof Cader, C. Warnakulasuriya Athas Kuthadoos, T. Cuncheer, M. Nazimudeen, Ghulam Razick, M. Anwer, A.R. Farcy and many more. Tony Buhar, Ghulam Razick and some others did represent the country too a journey of a 1000 miles they say begins with a single step and the Moors Sports Club has done well to arrive at this historic centenary milestone.
A significant event such as this, calls for celebrations in a manner befitting the occasion and, the club will mark it by holding a series of events - such as the open Junior tennis ranking tournament, which is complete.
Followed by the golden oldies six-a-side championship where 10 teams in tier 'A' and 10 teams in 'B' will compete on the 5th and 6th of April at the Moors grounds for the Falil A. Caffoor memorial trophy the winner will receive Rs. 50,000, a Trophy and the runner-up Rs. 30,00 and trophy and the man of the series Rs. 10,000.
The entry fee will be Rs. 1000. The open twenty/20 tournament will have 16 clubs taking part for the Rahuman M. Hathy Memorial trophy with the matches being played on April 19th and 20th at Moors and Colts on April 26th and 27th and on May 5th and 6th all at Moors grounds. The winner will receive Rs. 100,000 and a trophy, the runner-up Rs. 50,000 and a trophy and the man of the series Rs. 10,000.
The entry fee with be Rs. 2000. In addition there will be the open Billiards Championship in memory of late Al Haj Falil A. Caffoor MP, past president Moors Sports Club and BSA of SL.
The open snooker tournament in memory of N.J. NA and NR - Rahim brothers sponsored by Noor Zulsky Passela, the open 6 Ball Red Snooker Championship sponsored by Finance and Guarantee Group, the open pot black snooker competition and the club snooker doubles.
The celebrations will also include the publishing of a souvenir, the issue of a commemorative postage stamp and the opening of the new pavilion on June 14 which will be graced by V.I.Ps and other distinguished guests.
DN Wed Mar 26 2008
Stamp and First day Cover commemorating 100 years of the Moors' Sports Club issued in 2009