A file photo of the Tata Finlay shield football tournament in progress in Munnar in 2020.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After a two-year gap, Munnar’s famed Tata Finlay shield football tournament is set to kick off on Saturday. According to officials, the tournament is one of the oldest in the country, started in 1941 by the British. For the past two years, the tournament was however not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials say the 74 edition of the tournament will kick off at the Kannan Devan Hills Plantations (KDHP) ground). Munnar Deputy Superintendent of Police Alex Baby will inaugurate the tourney and the inaugural contest will be between Nallathanni and Pallivasal-Periyakanal. The final match will be held on March 25.
Sanjith. P. Raju, senior manager, human resources, KDHP Private Limited says: “The olden days had 30 teams participating and it used to be a one-month-long tournament. After the amalgamation of the Kannan Devan Hills Plantations in 2005, the number of estates was reduced by seven.”
“As many as 13 teams will participate in the tournament this time from four different organisations in Munnar. The organisations are KDHP, Harrisons Malayalam Limited (HML), Instant Tea Division (ITD), and Tata Business Support Systems (TBSS). Apart from the winners’ trophy, there are trophies for the runner-up, the team coming third, the best-disciplined team, best player, best goalkeeper,” says Mr. Sanjith.
Mattuppetty Estate team practising for the Tata Finlay shield football tournament at the Munnar High Altitude stadium on Friday.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
According to officials, the tournament was started in 1941 by the then general manager of KDHP company, E.H. Francis, under James Finlay and Company Limited. The Finlay shield (trophy) was donated by James Finlay and Company Limited and was designed by G.S. Giles, the then chief engineer of the firm. The shield is made of rosewood and studded with silver plaques of each year’s winners. The shield depicts the Munnar football ground in the foreground and the Anamudi Peak in the background.
In his book Munnar Charithram, Visheshangal, writer and journalist M.J. Babu describes the history and attraction of the people in Munnar to the Finlay tournament.
“The tournament was a major celebration in Munnar in the early days. Another specialty was that a large number of women arrived at the ground to enjoy the matches,” says Mr. Babu.
