‘Playing at CCI made me a good captain’

The dressing-room at the CCI was such that the members could walk right in at any time. In that last Test,there was a lot of grass on the wicket on the first day and almost all the members advised me to field first if I won the toss. When I saw the pitch,it was bereft of any moisture and I decided to bat. The members made me well aware of their displeasure when I returned to the dressing-room and called me a “stupid captain”. At the end of the day,India were 370 for the loss of three wickets and the members decided to stay away from the dressing-room.

I always scored heavily at CCI,especially in domestic cricket,and my highest was a triple hundred against Karnataka. But there was one game against Rajasthan that I will never forget. Mumbai and Rajasthan met each other very often in the Ranji finals during that period and we had beaten them seven out of seven times. When they arrived for that match,they wanted to win by hook or by crook. One of the CCI members was considered to be a panvati (jinx) for the team that saw him first. So the Rajasthan captain made sure he was waiting for us outside the dressing-room on the first day of the match. Fortunately for us,their team arrived much before us and crossed paths with the unlucky mascot first. We ended up scoring over 600 runs in our first innings,and I got a 250.

I have always believed that playing at the CCI early in my career made me a good captain. The crowd there was very knowledgeable and there would always be a lot of advice on offer. It was at the CCI that I learnt how to take advice from others.

Wadekar made his Test debut at the CCI against the West Indies in 1966 and went on to play three more Tests there,including the last one at the ground,where he captained India