HYDERABAD: There is
considerable anguish
among sportspersons for whom the
Gymkhana Ground
has for
over a century
been a home away from home.The
Telangana government
's move to take over the land has caused much dismay to generations of cricketers who have handed down tales that have become the stuff of Hyderabad cricketing folklore.
The Gymkhana has been the playing field for the likes of Eddie Aibara, Tiger Pataudi, ML Jaisimha, Abbas Ali Baig, Syed Abid Ali, Krishnamurthy, Govindraj, Jayantilal, MV Narasimha Rao, N
Shivlal Yadav , Arshad Ayub, Mohammad Azharuddin, SL Venkatapathi Raju, Noel David, VVS Laxman and Pragyan Ojha, apart from a lot of domestic kings.
Tales abound of how the late Col CK Nayudu when the Commonwealth teams used to play matches at the ground hit a six that landed atop Plaza theatre opposite the Gymkhana. There are stories, too, of how people used to come in droves to watch a zonal match between Hyderabad which had five Test players and Secunderabad which had only the late ML Jaisimha, but still had the wood over their famed rivals.
Such was the frenzy for their heroes that every player had his own fan following and the melting pot that the Gymkhana was triple Olympian N Mukesh Kumar will vouch for that cricketers learnt a lot from sportspersons honing their craft in hockey, football, basketball and athletics, also at the Gymkhana.
Gymkhana also produced the highest recorded first-class score in India 944 for six which Hyderabad posted against Andhra with MV Sridhar scoring a triple century , while Vivek Jaisimha and debutant Noel David scored a double each.
That the players are sad as all these memories cannot be physically revisited is an understatement and the most common refrain among them is that they wouldn't have been anything sans Gymkhana. “What?" asks an exasperated Laxman. “What happens to cricket then?" Or like Raju put it, “Gymkhana is the school of cricket. I have seen some of the best matches in cricket played there, which shaped my career."
“It was not just a cradle of cricket for us, but also for Indian players, who found themselves out of reckoning. Players like Rahul Dravid (named in England side while playing at Gymkhana), Abey Kuruvilla and even Sanjay Manjrekar have a fond association with this ground," said the left-arm spinner, who made it to the Indian team with his matchwinning effort in Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone here in 1989.
Former BCCI president Shivlal Yadav has also seen the Gymkhana transform over the years. “In the best interest of cricket, the government should give the association alternate land in lieu of the Rs 4.5-5 crore the Hyderabad Cricket Association has paid for lease.
The Gymkhana has a lot of history . It will be a big loss and a sad day for cricket if it happens. HCA president Dr Vivek has a vital role in securing alternate land as otherwise all cricketing activity will cease and the game will die,“ said the former Indian spinner, who served the
HCA and BCCI.
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