In 1952, the Ceylon Football Association organised an international football tournament as part of the Colombo Exhibition. The tournament was arranged for March 1952 in order to coincide with the visit of Princess Elizabeth to Ceylon, but, due to the death of King George VI, this visit did not take place.
The trophy awarded to the winner of the tournament was called the Colombo Cup. Competition was confined to four countries of the former Indian Empire: Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan. The competition itself was generally referred to as the "Asian Quadrangular Football (or Soccer) Tournament," sometimes with the word "Asian" omitted.
The success of the 1952 quadrangular tournament encouraged the four countries to complete a sequence of annual tournaments, one hosted in each country, with additional trophies to be presented along with the Colombo Cup to the winning team. For example, in 1953 the Burma Bowl was presented, and in 1955 the Pakistan Silver Cup.
Following the fourth tournament of the sequence (1955), the next edition was planned to be held in March 1957 in Ceylon, but it never took place. Ceylon's government withheld funds, and the All-India Football Federation withdrew its involvement, expressing the view that the quadrangular tournament was unnecessary because the Olympic Games and the Asian Games already provided sufficient competition. After this announcement, the Ceylon F.A. secretary was quoted as having said: "without India, the tournament is dead." In January 1958, a suggestion was put forward that the Colombo Cup could be contested by Ceylon and India only, but this was rejected by India.
Following the decline of the Quadrangular tournament, Ceylon went for several years without substantial international competition until the Southern Pentangular tournaments (in which Ceylon competed along with several southern states of India) began in the early 1960s.
Year Venue Winner 1952 Ceylon India and Pakistan (shared) 1953 Burma India 1954 India India 1955 Pakistan India
All matches were played on the Colombo Oval at Wanathamulla.
9- 3-1952 Ceylon 0-3 India
[Venkatesh x2, Mewalal]
16- 3-1952 India 4-0 Burma
[Mewalal x3, Guha Thakurta]
[Note: Guha Thakurta's goal also attributed to Venkatesh]
18- 3-1952 Ceylon 0-2 Pakistan
[Wahid, Kutty]
20- 3-1952 Pakistan 1-0 Burma
[Sharif]
22- 3-1952 Burma n/p Ceylon [cancelled due to the death of Ceylon's Prime Minister D.S.Senanayake]
23- 3-1952 India 0-0 Pakistan
=1.INDIA 3 2 1 0 7- 0 5
=1.PAKISTAN 3 2 1 0 3- 0 5
=3.Burma 2 0 0 2 0- 5 0
=3.Ceylon 2 0 0 2 0- 5 0
Notes: The competition rules stated that, in the event of a tie on points, goal average would be the tiebreaker.
However, the organising committee took the view that goal average could not be considered, since neither
India nor Pakistan had conceded any goals, and consequently it was decided that the trophy should be
shared. Pakistan won a coin toss to decide which country would receive the trophy for the first six months.
Exhibition matches:
3- 3-1952 Madras 0-3 India [at Madras]
[Mewalal x3]
4- 3-1952 India Culture League 1-3 India [at Madras]
[Angamuthu / Anthony, Moin x2]
11- 3-1952 Badulla District 0-5 India [at Badulla]
[Veeriah OG, Anthony, Liaq, Moin x2]
17- 3-1952 Kandy District 2-5 Burma [at Kandy]
[L.Silva, Sumanadasa / Ba Kyu x4, Chan Sein]
25- 3-1952 Badulla District 1-11 Pakistan [at Badulla]
[K.Fernando pen / Jamil x4, Ghani x3, Shafi x2, Sharif, Fakhri]
26- 3-1952 I.F.A. XI 4-1 Burma [at Calcutta]
[Guha Thakurta x3, Robi Das / Pe Khin]
Ceylon squad
Coach: Neville Abeyagunawardane
E.A Parker, T.H.B. Munna, T.H. Noor (Capt) T.H. Soono, E. Ramasamy, Basheer Ahmed,
Poddiappuhamy, Andrew Fernando, J. Howell, G. Lyall, J. Kitchener, K. Sugathapala,
M.T.A. Ossen, K.S. Richard, C.S. Richard, Subood, Jabir, Naylor, Veeriah and
Krishnarajah.
All matches were played at the Aung San Memorial Stadium.
23-10-1953 India 1-0 Pakistan
[N.de Sousa]
24-10-1953 Burma 3-2 Ceylon
[Samuel x3 (1 pen) / Ossen, Azeez]
27-10-1953 India 2-0 Ceylon
[Venkatesh, Ahmed Khan]
28-10-1953 Burma 1-1 Pakistan
[Ba Kyu pen / Jamil]
31-10-1953 Burma 2-4 India
[Aung Shein, Ba Kyu / Thangaraj, Venkatesh, Ahmed Khan, Jayaram]
[Note: Jayaram's goal also attributed to Thangaraj]
2-11-1953 Pakistan 6-0 Ceylon
[Akbar Jan, Jamil x2, Junaid OG, Kutty x2]
1.INDIA 3 3 0 0 7- 2 6
2.Pakistan 3 1 1 1 7- 2 3
3.Burma 3 1 1 1 6- 7 3
4.Ceylon 3 0 0 3 2-11 0
Notes: upon the Indian team's return home, their trophies (the Colombo Cup and the Burma Bowl)
were confiscated at the airport by the customs authorities.
Exhibition matches:
3-11-1953 Pakistan 1-0 India
[Kutty]
5-11-1953 Burma 7-9 Ceylon
[Boomgardt x2, ?x5 / Azeez x2 (1 pen), K.Fernando x3, A.Fernando, ?x3]
Ceylon squad
T.H. Soono (Capt), M. Sheriff, O.L.M.H. Deen, A.C.M Junaid, A.C.M. Khan,
Karunapala Fernando, T. Bongso, L. Cornelies, Andrew Fernando, T.J. Azeez,
M.T.A Ossen, Peter Ranasinghe, Basheer Ahmed , K.A Premadasa, A.R. Jailabdeen,
M.I.M. Laheer, K.S. Richard, K. Poddiappuhamy.
All matches were played on the Calcutta F.C. ground.
18-12-1954 India 1-1 Ceylon
[Noor / A.Fernando]
[Note: Noor's goal also attributed to Moin]
19-12-1954 Pakistan 1-1 Burma
[Fakhri / Sein Pe]
21-12-1954 Pakistan 2-1 Ceylon
[Jamil, Amin / Sainoon]
23-12-1954 India 2-1 Burma
[Puran Bahadur, Anthony / Samuel]
25-12-1954 Ceylon 2-1 Burma
[Deen, A.Fernando / Htoo Wa]
26-12-1954 India 3-1 Pakistan
[Puran Bahadur x3 / Fakhri]
[Note: Attendance reported as "about 100,000"]
1.INDIA 3 2 1 0 6- 3 5
2.Ceylon 3 1 1 1 4- 4 3
3.Pakistan 3 1 1 1 4- 5 3
4.Burma 3 0 1 2 3- 5 1
Exhibition match:
28-12-1954 India 5-3 The Rest
[Gulab Singh x5 / Jamil (Pakistan), Fakhri (Pakistan), Aung Sein (Burma)]
India squad
Manager: Saroj Bose
Coach: Syed Abdul Rahim
Coaching consultant: Albert Flatley (England)
GK: Sett [Bengal], Sanjiva [Bombay]
FB: Aziz [Hyderabad], Manna [Bengal] [captain], Latif [Hyderabad]
HB: Pearl [Services], Gokul [Bengal], Chandan Singh [Bengal], Prakash Singh [Services],
Noor [Hyderabad]
FW: Venkatesh [Bengal], Moin [Hyderabad], Laiq [Hyderabad], S.Banerjee [Bengal], Sattar [Bengal],
Ahmed Khan [Bengal], Puran Bahadur [Services], Jaganathan [Mysore]
Note: following injuries to Venkatesh and Laiq in the first match, Anthony [Madras-Malabar]
and Neville de Sousa [Bombay] were added to the squad.
Ceylon squad
Manager: A.W. Musafer
Assistant Manager: R. Jeevarathnam
Referee: Clarence McHeyzer
GK: M. Sheriff, J.A.G. Wilson
FB: O.K. Khan, A.C.M. Junaid (vice-captain), M.B. Saldin
HB: Peter Ranasinghe (captain), T. Meedin, K.A. Premadasa, M.I.M. Laheer
FW: T.S. Jayman, M. Sainoon, Tom Marikar Deen, Andrew Fernando, N.B. Hemachandra,
Tom Ossen, A.R. Jailabdeen, Karunapala Fernando
All matches were played at the Dacca Stadium.
17-12-1955 Pakistan 4-2 Burma
[Qayyum x3 (2 pens), Jamil / Bahadur, Kyaw Zan]
18-12-1955 India 4-3 Ceylon
[P.K.Banerjee x2, Mewalal, Sattar / Ranasinghe x2 (1 pen), A.Fernando]
20-12-1955 India 5-2 Burma
[P.K.Banerjee x2, N.de Sousa x2, Kempiya / Bahadur, Aung Shein]
21-12-1955 Pakistan 2-1 Ceylon
[Fakhri x2 / Ranasinghe]
23-12-1955 Burma 3-1 Ceylon
[Bahadur x2 (1 pen), Aung Myint / Sainoon]
24-12-1955 Pakistan 1-2 India
[Fakhri / P.K.Banerjee, N.de Sousa]
1.INDIA 3 3 0 0 11- 6 6
2.Pakistan 3 2 0 1 7- 5 4
3.Burma 3 1 0 2 7-10 2
4.Ceylon 3 0 0 3 5- 9 0
Exhibition matches:
14-12-1955 East Pakistan 1-3 Pakistan
[Rashid Chunnah / Jamil x3]
25-12-1955 Pakistan 1-0 India
[Manna]
Sources included: various newspapers from Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan.
Data on the 1954 Ceylon squad from an article in "The Morning Leader" of Oct 1, 2008 (vol. 4 no. 14); Ceylon squad in 1952 and 1953 from Sunday Times
With thanks to Mark Cruickshank, Manuel Montero, Frank Rankmore, Bojan Jovanovic and Abdul Rasheed Khan.
Thanks to Arunava Chaudhuri, Syed Akber Ali Wahidi and Piet Veroeveren for a previous version of this file.
Prepared and maintained by Neil Morrison for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Neil Morrison
Last updated: 24 Oct 2019
(C) Copyright Neil Morrison and RSSSF 1999/2019
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