SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 23 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Where was the Durand Cup Tournament started in India in 1888?

(a)Shimla
(b)Mumbai
(c)Calcutta
(d)Delhi

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The Durand Cup was first held at Shimla in 1888 and takes its name from Sir Mortimer Durand, then Foreign Secretary of British India, who instituted it.

It began as a tournament for British regiments stationed in India and was opened to Indian and civilian clubs later.

Its home has moved since — to Delhi, where it ran for decades, and then to Kolkata, which has hosted it since 2019. Those later homes are what make options (c) and (d) look plausible, but the question asks where it started, and that is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Mumbai — Mumbai has no claim on the tournament's founding. The Durand Cup began in the hill station where the colonial government spent its summers, not in a presidency capital.
(c)
Calcutta — Calcutta tempts because Kolkata is India's football capital and has hosted the Durand Cup since 2019. That is where the tournament ended up, not where it began.
(d)
Delhi — Delhi hosted the Durand Cup for decades after it came down from the hills, which is exactly why it draws the guess. The first edition of 1888 was still at Shimla.

Concept

The Durand Cup is the oldest football tournament in Asia, first played at Shimla in 1888.

Sir Mortimer Durand instituted it — the same official whose name is on the Durand Line drawn between British India and Afghanistan in 1893. That overlap is the hook SSC uses to move between the sport question and the map question.

Winners of the tournament receive three trophies: the Durand Cup, the Shimla Trophy and the President's Cup.

The paper supplies the year, 1888, inside the question. The item is therefore purely about the place, and no date needs to be recalled to answer it.

Key facts

The Durand Cup was first held at Shimla in 1888.
It is named after Sir Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India.
It is the oldest football tournament in Asia.
The Durand Cup has been hosted in Kolkata since 2019.

Study next

Indian football trophies: Santosh Trophy, IFA Shield and Rovers CupMatching trophies to their sports across cricket, hockey and footballSir Mortimer Durand and the Durand Line agreement of 1893

Common traps

Answering Calcutta because Kolkata hosts the tournament today.
Assuming a nineteenth-century sporting first must belong to a presidency city rather than a hill station.

SSC also uses the Durand Cup as the odd one out in a list of Indian domestic cricket trophies, on 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, General Awareness Q.18. Trophy-to-event matching returns on 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, General Awareness Q.15 with the Raja Bhalindra Singh trophy.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.