Another ball game

He has greyed with years, but has the same brazenness about him. As if he will swerve back the fringe of hair on his forehead and twitch his ring finger to throw the spin of those good old cricketing days. But former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi is more than happy to put all that behind him. So to say. Now it8217;s either Mont Blanc or Felicitous, the lifestyle store at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Once a businessman, always a businessman!

quot;The only difference is that earlier it was more of cricket and less of business, now it8217;s the other way round. I own up to it,quot; concedes Doshi whose story is more about fiery aspiration, faith in oneself and plenty of forbearance than anything else. No place for rags here. It8217;s an out-and-out riches to riches narrative. quot;For the record, I was born in Rajkot, a spirited town in Gujarat, but never spent much time there. It was Calcutta where I spent impressionable years of my life,quot; he recalls, talking about the city where he learnt his cricketing lessons, the hard way. quot;It was awell-disposed city of social and sporting clubs. Those were its golden days, in early Fifties, when I was in my teens, looking at the world with my nose pressed against the glass.quot;

quot;All that is history now. Today, it8217;s either six to eight matches a year at Lords against Cambridge or Oxford, briefly catching up with live matches or Felicitous,quot; avers Doshi, who in 1991, when tempted to write about his cricketing days, penned down Spin Punch. Plans for another book? quot;I have poured my heart out in one. I have nothing more to say. For, it was always a game for me for which I got remunerated.quot;