MUMBAI: In a magnanimous gesture, the Mumbai Cricket Association, on the occasion of Wankhede Stadium’s 50th anniversary, on Wednesday rewarded the eight surviving members of the Mumbai team which played the first-ever first-class match at the iconic venue, back in 1974 (Nov 17-19) against Baroda, with Rs 10 lakhs each.
The eight surviving members of that Ashok Mankad-captained team are cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Karsan Ghavri, Ajit Pai, Padmalkar Shivalkar, Milind Rege, Abdul Ismail and Rakesh Tandon. Five of the players of that team-Ghavri, Pai, Shivalkar, who arrived for the function on a wheelchair, Rege, Ismail and Tandon were present on the occasion received their cheques from MCA.
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A domestic giant in those days, a star-studded Mumbai team, which included as many as seven Test players in Gavaskar, Sudhir Naik, Engineer (wicketkeeper), Ghavri, Mankad, Eknath Solkar and Ajit Pai, and domestic stalwarts like Padmalkar Shivalkar, Rege, Ismail and Tandon had trounced Baroda, who only had only Anshuman Gaekwad as an India player, by an innings & 96 runs on that occasion.
Powered by half-centuries by Ghavri (83), Rege (63) and Engineer (51), and 48 by Solkar, Mumbai scored 348. Wreaking havoc on a green top, seamers Ghavri (five for 25) and Ismail (four for 27) then shot out a woeful Baroda for 60 in just 27.5 overs. After being asked to follow on, Baroda made 192 in their second innings, with Ismail taking three for 32 to finish with match figures of seven for 59.
Mumbai went on to win the Ranji Trophy that season (1974-75), beating Hyderabad in the final.
Naturally, the MCA’s gesture warmed the cockles of the hearts of Mumbai’s ”74 batch,’ who are still alive. Ismail said, “It’s unbelievable. We never expected this. I didn’t even imagine this in my dreams. We enjoyed our cricket with the Bombay team both on and off the field. I used to love bowling from the North Stand at the Wankhede. My natural ball was the outswinger,” the 80-year-old Ismail, told TOI.
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Ajit Pai, also 80, gushed, “It’s a fantastic gesture. I never anticipated this. I think it’s our luck that we played the first match at the Wankhede and we’re alive!”
“It was an absolutely memorable match, because it was the first (first-class) match ever played at the Wankhede Stadium. And today, after 50 years, people and MCA still remember (us). It shows how much they love the game. This kind of a recognition to us, Rs 10 lakhs, is secondary for us, because the most important thing is that the MCA has given us the opportunity to play. That itself is a bigger award and reward. There cannot be a bigger reward than this. We appreciate this gesture with all our heart,” Ghavri, 73, told reporters.
Curators, groundsmen felicitated too
In the morning, the MCA organized a felicitation function where it honoured almost 200 groundsmen of Mumbai, including three of its curators-Ramesh Mamunkar, Nadeem Menon and Madhukar Botle at the Wankhede Stadium. There was an interactive session with Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy captain Ajinkya Rahane and Dr Adil Chagla for the groundsmen, a health camp and then a special lunch for the groundstaff, the unsung heroes of cricket. The MCA also felicitated all its former elected managing committee members from 1975.