Vijay Manjrekar: Cricket was religion to him, technique a way of life

It was a chilly Baroda morning of January 1972. A tiny scoreboard at the picturesque Motibaug palace ground read "Bombay: 76 for 7". Sitting next to me was a former Bombay cricketer. Glancing at the scoreboard from the corner of his eye, he furiously picked up the Bombay cap and running his fingers over its lion-embossed crest, said loudly "My lion has been converted into a timid mouse by these Bombay batsmen."
In a couple of minutes the team broke for lunch.As one Bombay player rushed to grab something to eat, the man thundered, "No lunch for anyone and if you don't fight back, forget dinner as well."
If it was the threat that pepped Bombay, we do not know. But Bombay did rise. Baroda were reduced to 19 for nine by the superlative swing bowling of Abdul Ismail and Ajit Naik. They were bundled out for a paltry 42!
As wickets kept tumbling, Bombay players mocked the opposition by singing on the field a popular number from the film Amar Prem, 'Yeh Kya hua, kaise hua, kab hua'. We were all amused by this turn of events. Everyone laughed, except one man, Vijay Manjrekar to whom Lion crest on the Bombay cap was priceless. When cricketers of his generation meet, talk about his wry humour is a must. His remarks often hurt players but even they accept that it was for their betterment. To him cricket was a religion and technique, a way of life.
When one would try to convince him about the runs a particular batsman has been scoring in local cricket, he would say in his inimitable style. "Yes, but he is a first class batsman of second class bowling in a third class tournament."
Abbas Ali Baig, the youngest Indian to score hundred on Test debut at Old Trafford in 1959 says," With due apologies to Rahul Dravid and Sanjay Manjrekar, Vijay Manjrekar was and still remains technically the best equipped batsman I have ever come across. His main strength lay in his ability to play the ball late like Ken Barrington."
By playing late, Manjrekar was able to negotiate any delivery on all sorts of pitches. EAS Prasanna realised this in the Ranji semifinal match between Rajasthan and Mysore. Played on the Central College ground in Bangalore, the ball did abnormal things that even bowlers like Prasanna and Chandrashekhar had no control over.
"I was exasperated" said Prasanna, "When he would defend with soft hands, the ball would drop at his feet. He would cut a good length ball for a boundary. Usually on a turning track, no batsman takes a risk of cutting an offie but here was Manjrekar cutting with such mastery that we spinners looked novices. He scored 175. With the defence of Gavaskar and strokes of Viswanath, I have no hesitation in saying that Gavaskar + Viswanath = Vijay Manjrekar." A huge compliment from a bowler who made world class batsmen dance to his tune.
Manjrekar's knock of 133 in the Headingley Test in 1952 after India were three down for 42 and his partnership of 222 with skipper Vijay Hazare was described by the media as the most classical display of top-class batsmanship against the likes of Alec Bedsar and Fred Trueman.
Off the field, he was different. Once, in order to scare his teammates, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi had arranged for a ‘fake encounter' with ‘bandits' in the jungles of Gwalior. Baig remembers Manjrekar's display of innate timidity. "He kept pleading with the ‘bandits' that since he wasn't a Maharaja they shouldn't harm him. To be fair to him I can't imagine anyone else acting differently."
Others like Prasanna, young Vishwanath and the rest were tied to trees by the so called ‘bandits' till Rajsingh Dungarpur arrived on the scene and stopped Pataudi from continuing with his pranks.
In 1965, Manjrekar was dropped after scoring an unbeaten hundred against New Zealand. That was the end of his international career. To a man who served Indian cricket for years with distinction, this would have been no less than absolute humiliation. But Manjrekar was too strong a man to have been embarrassed by such a thing.
He would have surely had a witty remark up his sleeve for this too.