Memories in black & white

Two elderly women at the next table,being served their post-lunch coffee by a white-liveried waiter,seem mildly amused by the conversation. “Some things never change,” one says. “Wasn’t it Abbas Ali Baig who got a kiss on the cheek here?”

Many hundred miles away in New Delhi,Baig,now 70,distinctly remembers that day in January 1960,when he got a peck on the cheek from a young female fan for his second 50 in the Test,one that helped India draw the game and the series against Richie Benaud’s star-studded Aussies. “I was returning to the pavilion at tea when this girl jumped the fence and kissed me,” he says of the event that triggered a collective drop of the national jaw.

Almost five decades after Indian cricket’s most famous on-field cricketer-fan encounter,and more than three-and-a-half decades since a Test match was last played here,Baig lovingly recalls the venue.

“The ambience was homely and there was a picnic atmosphere all around. With accommodation provided on the floor above,we used to quickly go to our rooms after getting out and watch the game from there at times,” he says.

At the perpetually sleepy Cricket Club of India,taking a quick walk up those wooden steps today is impossible for anyone with even a fleeting interest in cricket,as sepia-tinted images of the game’s greats,magic moments and laminated pages from scorebooks of famous matches adorning the walls force most first-time visitors to stand and stare.

But with Test cricket returning after 36 years,nostalgia has reached epic,epidemic proportions,and the man in charge of cricket affairs,Sanjay Jaywant,is busy on the phone explaining to members why ticket distribution is not so simple.

But along with the excitement,there is a realisation among the Brabourne regulars that the India-Sri Lanka Test could be the final flicker of the cricketing flame at this historic venue. The home-coming after a long hiatus is being welcomed but most are aware that this could actually be a farewell of sorts for Test cricket here.

Former India captain Nari Contractor,who made his debut — and also scored the only century of his career — here,has mixed feelings. “We cannot say Tests are returning to CCI unless they are held more regularly,which is very unlikely. The only reason the match is even being held here is that the Wankhede is under renovation,” he says. The venue has hosted a few one-dayers and even a Twenty20 game in recent years,but the emergence of the ultra-modern DY Patil Stadium is seen as a development that could see one of the oldest cricket venues in the country confined to the history books.

Rs 6 per square yard
That eventuality would mean international obscurity for a ground that was once meant to be the Lord’s of Indian cricket,after administrators got hold of reclaimed sea-land from the governor,Lord Brabourne,in late 1930s at Rs 6 per square yard.

The ground hosted its first Test match in 1948,against West Indies,and 16 more over the next 25 years. Eventually,a tussle over ticket distribution with the Bombay Cricket Association resulted in a clash of egos,and the Wankhede Stadium was built across the railway line.

And while it was a clash of egos that led to the building of the new stadium,there was a subliminal clash of classes as well. Wankhede was,and perhaps is,seen as more of the common man’s stadium in comparison to the Brabourne. Some point to the geographic location — Wankhede right next to the railway tracks,the lifeline of Mumbai’s working class,and the CCI,always described as “just off Marine Drive”.

For those sitting in the pavilion,Tests at Brabourne meant rubbing shoulders with the greats,both during the game and after,when players would mingle with them on the cane chairs laid out on the outfield.

On the other hand,the men from the maidan — those in the cheapest East stand,mostly stuffed past capacity — recall the riot and arson in their enclosure when S Venkataraghavan was the victim of a dodgy decision against Australia in 1969. And they laugh their heads off recounting how they threw a banana skin on the outfield so that Everton Weekes,an electric fielder,might slip while sprinting to save a boundary.

Reasons to remember
The earliest ‘big cricket’ the Brabourne hosted was the Bombay Pentangular — an event that was moved there from the Bombay Gymkhana nearby. While Contractor,GS Ramchand,Polly Umrigar,Dilip Sardesai,Vinoo Mankad and Bapu Nadkarni were already heroes here by the time the first Test was hosted,players such as Walcott,Weekes,Kanhai,Miller,Hall,Dexter,Jardine,Compton,Cowdrey,Sutcliffe,Hanif,Mushtaq,Kardar,Ramadhin,Lindwall,Harvey,Barrington and Sobers became household names in India after outings at the Brabourne (In fact,the well-stocked CCI library documents the fact that while Donald Bradman didn’t make it here when the Aussies anchored on their way to England,his wife did).

Farokh Engineer,India’s flamboyant wicketkeeper,was part of the team that played the last Test at the Brabourne in 1973,and has reasons to remember the game — having scored a century,he returned to the pavilion and walked into a beaming JRD Tata. “He came down to the ground and hugged me. He was wearing a white safari-suit which was drenched with my sweat. After that he followed me to the dressing room and started helping me take off my pads! I was too embarrassed,” he says.

While Engineer calls Brabourne the finest stadium in the world,he is rather unflattering when talk moves to the Wankhede. “The Wankhede was built in quite a rush,maybe that is why there is a need for it to be renovated.” Incidentally,Engineer played only one Test at the Wankhede,where he bagged a pair.

The Brabourne has more recent memories as well — right from Jonty Rhodes taking a world-record five catches against the West Indies in the Hero Cup in 1993 to Australia lifting the Champions Trophy in 2006 — but it is invariably remembered for decades long gone when Test cricket was played at a leisurely pace with a rest day thrown in.

That’s probably the reason those stately society ladies on the porch overlooking the greens are smirking at the teen talk. Jumping the fence and delivering a peck on a player’s cheek will be a hard act to follow in these times of metal detectors and intimidating rifle-toting commandos on the boundary line.

Tests at Brabourne
Team P W L D
India 17 4 2 11
Australia 4 1 1 2
England 4 0 0 4
New Zealand 3 0 2 1
Pakistan 2 0 1 1
West Indies 4 1 0 3

Highest individual score
223 Vinoo Mankad vs New Zealand Dec 1955
Highest team score
West Indies 629/6d vs India Dec 1948
Best bowling (innings)
7/157 BS Chandrashekar vs WI Dec 1966
Best bowling (match)
11/235 BS Chandrashekar vs WI Dec 1966