It is just every other evening close to the Churchgate area. As one evades the packed site visitors alongside Mahatma Gandhi Road, masses leave Azad Maidan. Almost 99.99, consistent with a percentage of them, have just used the direction via the floor side to reduce the brief a -kilometre stroll to the Churchgate Station from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. A floodlit recreation is underway; however, aside from the ones seated on the lawns of the Maidan, which are enjoyable after a protracted day, few have their eyes on them. A couple of middle-elderly guys spit their paan masala, no longer far from the boundary line, as the first-rate-leg fielder screams, “Bhai, idhar nahi.”
Across the boundary line at the south, Bombay Gymkhana stands majestically lit. The wood flooring, staircase, and pavilion overlooking the Maidan were built by architect Claude Batley in 1875. It nonetheless seems posh, Raj’s splendor obvious in almost every brick that uses the British. Patchworks are completed without demanding originality. Members relax right here and there with their beer and bridge.
It can’t get greater contrasting than this in only a few yards. But that is how it’s far in Mumbai, the way it was in Bombay. The gulf between the ends of the monetary ladder is visible anywhere. Under the Raj, locals were denied access. Even now, those underneath a positive cut-off don’t get entry. Till well after Independence, the membership becomes out of reach for girls. Only within the twenty-first century were they allowed clubs. Today, it’s miles one of those golf equipment wherein you may discover girls during the day, creating a stopover after selecting children from the school or chatting with pals.
The walls are adorned with photographs of the membership’s polo, tennis, and rugby groups. Cricket doesn’t locate a great deal area except for within the trophy cabinet and the bar, which greets the entrants with a massive photograph of Douglas Jardine and CK Nayudu, taken simply moments earlier than the historical moment when Gymkhana hosted the first-ever Test on Indian soil, among MCC and India from Dec 15-18, 1933.
It has long ceased to be the heart and life of Indian cricket. Within a kilometer of the Gymkhana came Brabourne Stadium, after which Wankhede Stadium lowered the grand old venue’s significance. RN Renjen, CEO of Bombay Gymkhana, is short of reminding: “Now, you locate the celebrities of world cricket assembling in India. In the Twenties, while the membership used to host the well-known Quadrangular Tournament, the quality ones performed right here.” Before Ranji Trophy became the pinnacle of domestic cricket, the Quadrangular was performed with teams from the English, Parsis, Hindus, and Muslims.
While the event changed into extreme, there have been moments of were among the groups that threatened India’s freedom movement. “As the event became popular, Mahatma Gandhi didn’t emerge as a fan. Although he no longer cricket to prevent it, he wasn’t encouraging something that turned divided communities.”
There are testimonies of the Hindu team taking lower back an invitation despatched to PA Kanickam after getting to know he changed into a Christian. With cricket being divided on caste and racial lines, the tournament continued no matter the opposition and even became Pentangular following the inclusion of a crew referred to as Rest, comprising Christians, Buddhists, and Jews. As nationalistic feelings intensified, greater voices favored geographical representation instead of community-based. In 1946, the Board of Control for Cricket in India stopped the tournament, and the Ranji Trophy became the most efficient occasion.
Today, Bombay Gymkhana hardly ever reveals pointpointsidia’s cricketing panorama. With the advent of academies and coaches, the Gymkhana isn’t the primary factor locals Google for cricket. However, enjoyment sports have ensured that they remain applicable over the years. Today, the bigwigs and wealthy of Mumbai pay a huge sum to be part of activities in this historic area. “We haven’t presented club for some years now. However, a person inquires about some very dry things, which is best because of this club’s history. We have a cricket crew that participates in Mumbai Cricket Association tournaments. Still, we’ve other sports activities like rugby, tennis, table tennis, and squash where our teams are nonetheless one of the best,” says Renjen.
Madhav Apte is one of the oldest surviving Indian cricketers at 86.
He remains lively, so much so that his routines protected a visit to the Gymkhana to play badminton and reminisce about the Forties and 50s, the superb long time he spent playing cricket at this venue. “The Pentangular is frequently credited to the tournament that helped India to end up with a Test crew, but it wouldn’t have taken place had the Parsi Gymkhana and Islam Gymkhana not promoted the game. Even earlier than Hindus, Parsis had been hooked on to it.” The first high-quality fixture on Indian soil became unavoidably played among them and the British, while Hindus and Muslims had yet to develop a liking.
Rarely seen in cricket recently, the Parsi network in Bombay became the primary set of Indians to take it up severely. In 1886 and 1888, their teams even toured England. They won only one of the 28 suits, prompting Wisden to write: “From a cricket factor of view, the excursion of the Parsis became a failure, and we had not thought it profitable to print any of the scores.” But Apte recollects how the Pentangular helped the community grow from electricity to electricity. “PE Palia and MS Colah were huge names. Even returned then, they used to journey throughout the usa to play. Later, we saw the likes of Rusi Modi and Polly Umrigar. The satisfaction that stood out was aptitude. Every time you thought they have been fading, a newcomer could come up. After Umrigar, (Nari) Contractor, came Farokh (Engineer),” he says.
That delivery line has long stopped. No Parsi after the Engineer has performed Test cricket. In India’s recent domestic season, only one Parsi took the sphere — Arzan Nagwaswalla for Gujarat.
Sunil Gavaskar and Milind Rege are, nonetheless, their teenagers at the Brabourne Stadium, home to the Cricket Club of India (CCI). They are there to watch Tiger Pataudi, who they have examined and heard about. They eat up with the aid of an unusual sight. It is common for batters to get hold of a standing ovation for their deeds. Rege and Gavaskar noticed something specific. The former says it’s the only time he’s seen something like that everywhere. “Pataudi tossed the ball to Chandra (Bhagwat Chandrasekhar), and the crowd stood in unison and started clapping earlier than we ought to recognize what is occurring. We didn’t apprehend what was happening.
It took us a second to recognize that each cheering turned for Chandra. I never saw or got here throughout an incident while a bowler marking his run-up got such interest,” Rege remembers. The legends of Vijay Merchant, the Apte brothers, and Dileep Sardesai have been born here. Once, Abbas Ali Baig was even kissed by a lady while batting.
What is going around comes around. This satisfaction defines the CCI, which came into life in 1933. While the Bombay Gymkhana Club became the torchbearer of cricket in the city, it had flaws. The biggest was that non-Europeans were denied admission to the pavilion and looking place. Disgruntled locals made it difficult, but the monopoly it loved made them arrogant, like the BCCI of the pre-Lodha duration. It changed while equal treatment was meted out to the Maharaja of Patiala.
A cited patron of cricket, the Maharaja persuaded Delhi-primarily based English businessman Grant Govan and Anthony de Mello (the first president and secretary of BCCI) to champion his cause. With their assistance, a stadium was built at CCI, thanks to Lord Brabourne, the Bombay Governor, who gave the land. The largest enchantment becomes the pavilion balcony, from which one feels near the motion.
“It was the first stadium in India constructed exclusively for cricket. The CCI preamble mentions its key goal — ‘To sell and encourage the game of cricket in India,'” says Sachin Bajaj, who has been associated with CCI in various roles over 25 years.
Compared to Bombay Gymkhana, CCI has proven to have better vision and pressure to make cricket a quintessential part of the metropolis. “Back then, while we didn’t have a stadium, it was all approximately the maidans. With Gymkhana having reservations, the CCI’s imaginative and prescient way of building a stadium made a massive distinction. We abruptly had all the infrastructure thanks to the businessmen concerned with CCI, and even the BCCI had an excellent rapport with the membership,” recalls Apte, once a Sheriff of Bombay and also a former CCI president.
Though the CCI became registered in Delhi, it soon became the headquarters of Indian cricket because the BCCI offices started operating from its premises. Later, under Raj Singh Dungarpur, the membership thrived. Carrying the legacy, Dungarpur ensured the CCI remained a cricketer’s membership.
Leaving aside his relationship with Lata Mangeshkar, which makes many associates with the CCI smile, there’s overwhelming acceptance of his contributions to this institution. “Raj Bhai believed CCI existed for cricketers. He turned into a cricket romantic. He had a big imagination and was prescient for the membership, and he was the one who first made reciprocal agreements with the MCC, MCG, and even the New Zealand Cricket Board. Whenever groups visited India, they would make a forestall on the CCI,” Rege remembers.
Rege, who was added to the CCI via Dungarpur, played a pivotal role in ensuring a thirteen-12 12-month-antique got a membership at the club. When Sachin Tendulkar changed into an unheard-of name in Bombay, Rege had auditioned the kid before Dungarpur and Apte, who by some means wanted to make the boy their very own. But there has been one roadblock.
“The membership rule stated you must be 18 to become a member. Apte and Dungarpur saw the boy and were hell-bent on giving him membership. There was competition, but Raj Bhai stood his ground and stated that the membership was for cricketers. In a count number of days, Tendulkar changed into a CCI member.”
The CCI stands simply throughout the Marine Drive, a stone’s throw away from Wankhede Stadium, which came into existence following a rift among the Mumbai Cricket Association and government at Brabourne Stadium ticket allocation for massive matches. Years later, a disgruntled MCA would do to CCI what the CCI had carried out to the Gymkhana. But that’s every other tale. “It continues to be the excellent club in India; it is not necessarily satisfactory for cricket. Times have changed. Back then, on any given day, you would have Merchant, Umrigar, and Manjrekar around the membership because they focused on cricket. Today, it doesn’t have cricketers walking the committees. Despite all this, the CCI has retained its nostalgia,” says Rege.
While Wankhede Stadium’s appearance intended a drop in the frequency of fits at CCI, a renovation for the 2011 World Cup ensured Dungarpur’s last want ended up a truth — Test cricket returns to Brabourne Stadium. Sharad Pawar granted the wish when he turned into the MCA president. But Dungarpur died three months earlier than that India-Sri Lanka fixture in 2009.
He didn’t live to see Test cricket return to his adopted home; however, he had the time to put it in writing: “I nonetheless cannot consider that worldwide cricket is poised to return to the CCI in this type of massive way. It’s nearly like a widow getting remarried and starting a new life. But make no mistake, the widow continues to be quite stunning.” Oh yes!
