Coach to get doctorate on Mumbai cricket

MUMBAI: One of the city's best-known cricket coaches for struggling youngsters is now trying his hand at acquiring a PhD to explore why Mumbai has maintained its numero uno in Indian cricket for so long.
Former Baroda cricket association CEO Makarand Waigankar, also a cricket columnist, is now looking to chronicle little-known tales that so endear the game and its legends to the public.Waigankar says he wants to give weightage to every cricketer who travelled for hours in jam-packed local trains to reach the city's famed maidans for practice, acknowledge the contribution of the Parsee community since 1848 and underline the city's cricketing grid: its 80-odd annual tournaments, 66 cricket grounds, over 18,000 registered cricketers and 200 schools that participate each season.
The 62-year-old has a weighty reason for his labour of love. Every cricket lover is, for instance, familiar with the 25-year-old tale of Sachin Tendulkar's guru Ramakant Achrekar putting a one-rupee coin on Tendulkar's wicket and asking the young boy to earn that coin by not getting out. Waigankar says there are many such stories—maybe not as popular as those involving Sachin—involving legends who built the city's cricketing reputation. "We blame youngsters for not knowing enough about the history of Mumbai cricket. But where are the documents or where is a facility available by which they can learn and know more," he asks.
Waigankar has already spoken to cricketing legends like Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Bishan Singh Bedi, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Erapalli Prasanna and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar who underlined how tournaments like the Kanga League had helped the city produce tough players. "Some startling information has also emerged. All along, we thought Farokh Engineer was the first Indian to play county cricket. But Rusi Cooper had played for Mumbai in 1944 and scored a century against the Holkars which was led by C K Nayudu in the Ranji Final. He went on to study at the London School of Economics and played three years from 1947 for Middlesex with Denis Compton and Bill Edrich," says Waingankar.
"Many non-Mumbai cricketers, including Bedi, say Mumbai always wins on first innings. However, my research indicates that Mumbai won a whopping 73.62 % of matches outright till 2009. Of the 417 matches played by Mumbai from 1934-35 to 2008-09, Mumbai won 307 matches," he says.
We blame youngsters for not knowing enough about the history of Mumbai cricket. But where are the documents from where they can learn and know more.