First Person

Now, Patil wants the Masters Tour (veterans cricket) to take a definite shape. “We don’t need money to play. The love for the game keeps us going. You get a chance to meet and interact with guys you had played with or against 10, 12 years back. We may not get the attention we used to in our `playing days’ but it is not bad either. It is nice to know that people still remember us,” the dashing Patil, who is the president of the Senior Cricketers Association of India, tells you in his characteristic soft-spoken tone.

Try taking him into past (his glory days) and he simply shrugs. “Those were different times. It seems as if it were only yesterday that we won the World Cup (’83). No words can explain whatever went through our minds that day. It was an out-of-the-world experience,” he says. And how does he rate the six fours he hit off a Bob Willis over (129 not out, Old Trafford, ’82), or his breathtaking assault on the Aussie quicks, led by Dennis Lillee and Co (174, Adelaide ’80-81). “Nothing was planned, it just happened. As for the record of six fours in an over, I came to know it later. The Adelaide innings was of course after the blow I suffered in the previous Test (Sydney, where Lennie Pascoe felled him with a bouncer). I was nervous but once I started playing my strokes, I got confidence. I enjoyed batting on those wickets as the bounce and pace suited my style of batting”.

With his easy-going approach, Patil never enjoyed the selectors’ consistent nod. He was in and out of the Indian team on a number of occasions. He had a miserable time in Pakistan in ’82-83 (as did all). That was the time when Imran Khan was bowling like hell (he captured 40 wickets in the series) and after a decent start, Patil’s shoulder injury and domestic problems led to a disastrous later half. Subsequently, he was dropped from the ’83 West Indies tour. “I didn’t know what to do. It was a horrible time and I got this offer (movie). I took it very seriously and enjoyed every moment of that with my co-stars. But it had to be a one-off case as cricket was always going to be my priority,” Patil recollects.

Sandeep Patil was one player who, unfortunately, was dropped from the side when he was playing his best cricket. The incident (dropped after playing an `irresponsible stroke’ alongwith Kapil Dev in the Delhi Test against England in ’84-85) still rankles him, but he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. He also cannot forget how he played the ’83 Nagpur Test against Pakistan. “I had been dropped from the team after the Jalandhar Test and was sipping tea on the morning of the Test. Around nine, Ashok Mankad (manager of Indian team) called me up from Nagpur and asked whether I would like to play the Test. The cup almost fell off my hands! The Test was about to start and here I was in Mumbai. He then said he was serious and Kapil (the then captain) had a gameplan and wanted me to play. I went to the travel agent for an air ticket (evening flight) and on my way back, at traffic signals people were staring me in my fiat. They had heard on TV that I was playing the match and they were shocked to see me inMumbai”.

“When I entered my lane, I saw a line of cars around my home. Somebody told me that the state Chief Minister had arranged for a special air craft to fly me to Nagpur and I picked up whatever stuff I could. I reached Nagpur around four in the afternoon and asked Kapil whether I should pad up (India were batting). He asked me to relax. It was a very big drama,” he says.