GOA EXPRESS

On November 30, 1985, when Goa made their debut in the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament, there was nervousness in the air. Goa were playing at home in Vasco and didn’t know what to expect against visiting Kerala.

The start of the three-day encounter wasn’t encouraging.

Goa lost their first six wickets for a mere 81 runs on the board, bringing Sharad Pednekar to the crease.

Born in Bombay, now Mumbai, Pednekar had carved a reputation for himself as a top-notch fast bowler who rubbed shoulders with many of the greats. But here, as Suresh Mahadevan watched from the other end, he had to put his batting skills to use and save Goa the embarrassment.

Pednekar ended up scoring 40 runs, the highest for Goa in their first innings score of 188 (Namdev Phadte scored 72 of the 153 runs in the second). He also grabbed three wickets in the first innings to emerge as the most successful player on the state’s debut.

For someone who generated so much speed and showed so much promise when he was still in his early twenties, it’s surprising that Pednekar played just 15 first class games. He quit quite unexpectedly with 38 wickets –best of 4 for 51 against Karnataka -- at an average of 28.78 after just three years.

“Maybe I should have continued playing,” says Pednekar, now 60 and leading a retired life in the city. “At the time, there was hardly any incentive for playing cricket. We got paid almost nothing. In fact we had to pay from our pockets. I also thought it was better to make way for youngsters.”

Cricket in the eighties, as Pednekar reminds us, wasn’t really a well-paying sport. Players got paid Rs 140 for a three-day game and Rs 20 as pocket allowance. It’s a different world now with Rs 1.4 lakh on offer for each game in the Ranji Trophy.

No wonder nobody thinks like Pednekar and steps aside at the height of their game.

That Pednekar had real talent was never in doubt. Having represented Podder College in Mumbai, which has produced the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar, he was among the known faces. But the city was teeming with so much talent that it would take only something special to make it to the top.

Around the same time, Goa were pencilled to make their debut in the Ranji Trophy and he chose to return home.

“Goa were in the south zone, which was clearly the strongest in the country. We had to play against Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, all teeming with top-notch players. It was very challenging,” says Pednekar.

Whenever he bowled, he put his heart into it.

He was marked as the dangerman by most opponents with former India captain Kris Srikkanth once telling his teammates at the Panjim Gymkhana ground, “don't take any chances against Pednekar.”

Interestingly, Srikkanth himself took a chance with the first ball which he drove back to the bowler, but Pednekar dropped the catch. “I wasn’t expecting it,” he says.

When opportunities were there for the taking against big names, Pednekar, however, grabbed it with both hands. His wickets include, amongst other greats, Gundappa Viswanath, Brijesh Patel, Sadanand Viswanath, Sandeep Patil, Sanjay Manjrekar, Eknath Solkar and his all-time favourite Mohammed Azharuddin.

“Azhar was a treat to bowl. He was a different kind of a batsman, not your regular player. He was artistic. If you bowl an out-swinger, he could still flick you to the midwicket boundary. You had to use your brains to get him out. You had to innovate. Azhar’s wicket was always priceless,” says Pednekar, who has been the state’s chief selector in the past.

Pednekar came up with consistent performances at the national level but never managed to catch the eye of selectors. “We didn’t have officials who could make a case for us,” he says. “If Goa had some representation, like say a Chetan Desai or Vinod Phadke (both influential Goa Cricket Association officials), it would have been a different story.”



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