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The unbelievable legend of the cow dung tennis courts: “Visitors heard stories of germs and the smell scared them”

American doubles players Dennis Ralston and Chuck McKinley, during the series against India in 1963, which was played on cow dung courts. (Photo: @USCTennisBook)

The history of tennis it is made of heroes and deeds. Of memorable games and others that are forgotten a few seconds after they end. Also, of course, a little magic. Of games that were played and are played on grass, on cement, on brick dust. Even on wood, as Paraguay once successfully used to surprise powerful rivals in the Davis Cup. Or on courts that looked like ice, as Argentina once suffered on a trip to Belarus where it was almost impossible to return a serve. But that story was also written, in a not so distant time, in pitches built on cow dung. Yes: some Davis series and ATP tournaments were played on that surface that is so difficult to conceive, at least for our eyes.

Ever Juan Domingo Peron In an attempt to explain the enormous differences between the currents of the movement that he had created, he stated that the huts were built with mud and straw, “but also with a little dung.” On the other side of the world, someone in India had the idea that manure could also be used to build tennis courts.

The courts they had a structure similar to those of brick dust, with several layers of stone in the lower levels. The upper part was covered with 200 liters of cow manure and groups of workers smoothed out the surface and then painted the lines. For maintenance I needed fresh coats twice a week.

In the 70s, the game was played on this type of court. Mumbai Open, which saw crowned in 1977 and 1979 to Vijay Amritraj, specialist on the surface in addition to one of the best tennis players in the country in all history: he was 18th in the ranking in 1980 and led India to the Davis Cup final in 1987, the year in which in the first round he achieved a memorable victory in five sets against Martin Jaite to win the series against Argentina (which was played on grass and not on the aforementioned surface, which deprived our team of telling some surely amusing anecdotes upon their return).

Rod Laver (right) with Indian youth Zeeshan Ali after an exhibition on a cow dung pitch in Bombay in 1986. (Photo: @zeeshanalitennis)
Rod Laver (right) with Indian youth Zeeshan Ali after an exhibition on a cow dung pitch in Bombay in 1986. (Photo: @zeeshanalitennis)

“It didn’t seem crazy to me, but for foreigners it was,” commented a while ago amritraj in statements rescued by the site The Indian Express. Back in the 80s, no less than Rod Laver played in Bombay an exhibition on that surface. And in 1994, the British Tim Henman At the beginning of his career he made a successful tour in India of what were the Satellite Tournaments and won a tournament in Ahmedabad on fields on cow dung.

Those who played on it say that the surface, which in the official ATP records appears as Clay or brick dust, was a little faster than that of Roland Garros, without the possibility of “skidding”, and at the same time slower than grass and cement. And that it had the advantage of being padded, which was good for avoiding joint ailments.

Leander Paes, the recently retired Indian tennis legend who became an Olympic medalist and world No. 1 in doubles had played his first matches on those courts. Leander was talented and roguish on the court. Outside of it, he declared himself a fan of the American comedian Jerry Seinfeld and showed his ability to declare when he could. When talking about those cow manure fields, he did not hesitate: “To be honest, they smelled pretty bad.” It was also formed in them Sania Mirza, another eminent doubles player born in India who reached the top of the couples ranking and is still active.

Indian tennis players felt very local on those courts. Like in 1970, when they gave the surprise in the Davis Cup series by comfortably beating the mighty Australia. A few years earlier, in 1965, the Spanish moved influences and managed to change the location of a series that was going to be played in the Asian country.

“We were literally going to play on cow shit. The Indians pressed it to make tennis courts. You had to move to the jumps like someone who doesn’t want to step on eggs “, the former tennis player recalled at the time José Arilla in an interview to The newspaper. He added: “The first time I played in Calcutta on that surface, I was really scared when I saw a man in a white coat sitting next to the chair umpire. They explained to me that he was a doctor. ‘It is mandatory that I be there to apply the tetanus vaccine if a tennis player falls,’ they told me. The truth is that I did not play calmly”.

As you can imagine, the Indian tennis players tried to take advantage of that apprehension that the visitors had at least initially. “For them it was on the one hand fascinating and on the other terrifying,” told the ex-Indian tennis player Zeeshan Ali, who also claimed that foreigners “heard stories about germs and the smell scared them.” Faced with this situation, the Indians sought to throw angled and low balls at them so that the head and the fears could play their own game.

Sania Mirza, the Indian-born doubles player who reached the top of the couples ranking and remains active.  He began his career on cow dung fields
Sania Mirza, the Indian-born doubles player who reached the top of the couples ranking and remains active. He began his career on cow dung fields

To begin to understand how a country comes to accept the idea of ​​making courts on bovine excrement, it is good to stop at a scene that occurs every year in the Indian city of Gumatapura: thousands of people throw piles of cow dung at each other in a ritual involving adults, children and the elderly. For the vast majority of foreigners, the image will not only cause them repulsion, but they will also think about the risk of infections that those who are exposed to excrement run in this way.

The look is totally opposite for those who participate in the “battle”: they feel that they are immersed in a sacred ritual that also protects them, since they fervently believe that this manure has healing properties. It is well known to those who have changed diapers to a baby, who must be dissuaded from pawing or putting his foot in what he has been leaving lying around: the notion of disgust in the face of excrement is not born with the human being, but rather It is acquired during life. It is a cultural issue that, as is clear, may not be the same everywhere.

Cows have a sacred meaning for the Hindu religion, which is predominant in India. They are a symbol of fertility, in connection with the earth and nature. Its mistreatment and above all, quite contrary to what is usual in these parts, the consumption of its meat is prohibited.

What’s more: Indian news portals abound with stories about the different uses given to cow dung. In mid-2020, a government agency specialized in the design of soaps and various products based on urine and cow dung reported that it had developed a chip with these products, which protected against radiation from mobile phones. And in 2021, in the Indian state of Gujarat, A large number of people covered their bodies with cow fecal matter in the belief that it could be a remedy against COVID-19.

So it’s not so surprising that someone long ago imagined that the manure produced by some of India’s hundreds of millions of cows, if properly treated, could be used as a surface for tennis courts. By the end of the 1990s, those courts began to be left behind, generally at the hands of the cement ones, which had much lower maintenance needs. The dictatorship of progress left only in memory those courts that, from this side of the world, it is hard to believe that they ever existed.

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