City speedster once bowled Gavaskar for four

I am thrilled by Vidarbha team’s excellent performance in the Ranji trophy final as I had the most dear memories of cricketing days in Nagpur in the 50s and 60s.

Here, I not only saw some wonderful matches, but had the good fortune as a teenage journalist to chat with the great CK Nayudu. I particularly remember what he told us about fast bowling. ‘A real fast ball is the one which beats the batsman, the wicket-keeper, even the player deep in the boundary, hits a dog beyond and the dog die,’ he said.

Wesley Hall of the West Indies was one such fast bowler. He and Roy Gilchrist made a formidable opening pair in those days. As youngsters, we were awestruck as Hall started his run-up from almost close to the boundary at the VCA ground. He was a huge man and one can imagine how terrified the batsmen must have been.

We were fond of cricket and identified with the cricketers so much that when Collie Smith, a Hall’s teammate, died in a road accident in 1959 in England. I felt uneasy for several days. Going through old records today, I was more saddened to realize that the man at the wheels was none other than the great Sir Garfied Sobers who got away with a small fine. He himself was injured too, but recovered well enough.

I began as a cub reporter in Nagpur Times at the age of 18 in the early 60s and left Nagpur to join the Times of India in 1968. Nagpur Times, now defunct, had its office in Ramdaspeth, not far from the present Lokmat office.

I used to go around several grounds on my bicycle, which was the main vehicle at that time. I was a struggling young man, studying in college and working at the same time for a living. It was tough but fun. Sports reporting gave me so many friends that it was jokingly said that when I went on the bicycle, I had to keep one hand constantly raised to greet people coming from the opposite direction. This was because I used to cover all games and knew so many players. The Bilimoria pavilion was there in VCA even then but for big matches, temporary structures and stands were built for the spectators. For radio commentary, a machan-like structure was built.

During the few international matches which were played then, I met some prominent British cricket writers of the time. One of them was Dicky Ratnagur, Bandra-born, who later married my Times of India colleague Delshad Karanjia, daughter of the then Filmfare editor BK Karanjia. Dicky, based in London, covered India widely and wrote about match fixing way back in 1979 when Pakistan visited India and received threats from bookies.

GK Menon, then in the Indian Express, used to come to cover matches from Mumbai. He used to speak Marathi so fluently I would not believe he was a Menon. Later, we became colleagues in the Times of India. Here, it was my good fortune to be a colleague of KN Prabhu , the sports editor, who was quite widely read. One could discuss a lot with him. I still remember the opening lines of his write-up when India recorded a famous victory over Australia with Jasu Patel taking 14 wickets in the Kanpur test in 1959, including 9 for 69 in one innings. ‘Let the drums be beaten and the bugles blown,’ Prabhu began his report. I was then in college and I remember avidly listening to the radio commentary in a wayside dhaba on way to SFS College on Seminary Hills. I then had a three-speed gear bicycle which cost Rs 250, quite a sum in those days.

Back then, SFS College was a rival of Hislop College in football and I was accused of favouring the former in my reports. In cricket, there used to be rivalry between MW Mandpe group and Suresh Sahu group for control over VCA. Later, Gopal Kelkar, my family friend, became secretary for many years.

He later bought the bungalow in which I lived on rent in Dhantoli. Shashank Manohar, then a little boy, lived a little further with his father, the noted lawyer VR Manohar. Dhantoli then was like Shivaji Park in Mumbai, a breeding ground for cricketers. Also, near my house lived Challa, a dashing batsman with a keen sense of humour, and stylish left hander Subhash Date who died young.

Among the cricketers then was Sharad Kelkar or Balloo, who later became a brilliant IAS officer, and Maharashtra’s industries secretary. His life was cut short sadly in Manila on the tennis court when he was deputed there to the Asian Development Bank. He died of heart attack while playing.

In Nagpur, I saw Sunil Gavaskar during the inter-university competition. Playing for Bombay University, he was clean bowled by Nagpur’s fast bowler Anil Kale for about four runs or so. Osmania university won that competition after a disastrous start in the very first match facing a knock-out. Such is the uncertainty of cricket.

I also recall Prem and Peter Bhelwa of YMCA, the Apte sisters, national badminton champions Sarojini and Sunila. It’s a pity that very few people remember these famous names. Chandrakant Deoras is still active. But very little information is available of the old days even on the internet. Someone clearly needs to write a good descriptive history of sports in Vidarbha and other regions as well.

My links with the old days in Nagpur are revived when in Mumbai I meet someone like Bal Mahajani, the former badminton champion and son-in- law of SK Wankhede. As a journalist in TOI, I saw Mr Wankhede both as a cricketing personality and as the speaker of Maharashtra assembly as well as industries minister.

I am happy with Vidarbha’s showing because in those days, it invariably did rather badly, often slumping after a good advantage. Raj Singh Dungarpur, who played for Rajasthan, was tall and imposing as a pace bowler and used to run through Vidarbha. Vijay Manjrekar and Hanumant Singh used to be among his team mates.

I have seen Aditya Sarvate, the star Vidarbha allrounder, as a little boy. His grandfather, Shyam Sarwate, a radio commentator and veteran sports journalist, was my immediate neighbour in Nagpur for many years.

Present day cricket with its commercialization holds little interest for me. In Mumbai, I live not far away from Sachin Tendulkar, but he is invisible even to his immediate neighbours. I knew his father Ramesh Tendulkar, a well-known poet, who was such a simple man, not at all occupied with money.

Cricket has to be seen in a larger perspective and we need to give recognition to other games as well. ‘What do they know of cricket, who only of cricket know,’ as the famous West Indian Marxist and ardent cricket lover CLR James said. He also wrote about the aesthetics of cricket and I know there is still nothing thrilling as watching the opening batsmen walking up to the crease in front of a filled stadium and the fast bowler leaping in the air to deliver the first ball. I was glad and joined in the cheering.

(

Vidyadhar Date

, a veteran sports journalist and a former TOI employee, strolls down memory lane)