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Journalism of Courage
Mumbai8217;s Ranji Trophy selector Sanjay Patil, 46, just about avoided a serious medical complication recently. His team was five wickets down for no runs against Baroda in the semi-finals, and seemed more like a bunch from Popatwadi.
Patil began to sweat, he felt distinctly uncomfortable. He could almost hear the taunts from the members8217; gallery at the Wankhede Stadium, where former players talk about the days of 15 straight Ranji titles, of Marathi having once been the common language in the Indian dressing room and sum it all up with a dismissive 8216;look at these guys today8217;.
8220;I got sweaty and had a serious chest pain. I was in two minds on whether to visit a hospital. But I just closed my eyes and lay on the bed. After a while, I had a glass of water and didn8217;t speak to anybody for an hour,8221; says Patil.
Patil, of course, was cheerfully recollecting the trauma of someone who survived to tell the tale. Of Mumbai8217;s amazing Ranji Trophy journey this time, back from the brink after the first three games, relegation just another disaster away8212;that 0/5 in the second innings and the 63-run win now a vital ingredient in the spicy story of Mumbai8217;s class of 2007 and their 37th Ranji title.
Just one small miss and Mumbai8217;s cricket pundits would have been talking now of commercial interests eating open spaces in South Mumbai, political encroachment of Shivaji Park, middle-class shift towards academics and the dying club culture. But Mumbai8217;s 133-run win over Bengal in the final last month has changed everything.
University champions, national under-19 title holders, about four permanent faces in the national side, four representing India Colts, all coming in a season when the BCCI headquarters was shifted to a sprawling modern building next to the Wankhede stadium. And the Mumbai Cricket Association MCA and BCCI president Sharad Pawar all set to move into his second office in plush Dubai8212;as ICC president.
However, as Mumbai coach Praveen Amre puts it, 8220;Without a Ranji title, it would all be meaningless.8221;
So, after seven Ranji titles in the last 14 years and three in the last five, why was this one special? For two reasons: it comes after last season8217;s mini-exodus of Mumbai8217;s coach and captain to Maharashtra, and it was about, as Amre says, 8220;youngsters realising the importance of the Mumbai cap and playing as a team8221;.
The coach recalls the scene after his team8217;s loss to Hyderabad earlier in the season, which meant just one shove away from the lower Plate division. 8220;After defeating us, the Hyderabad team celebrated as if they had won the title. I gathered the youngsters in the team and told them to understand the reputation that Mumbai enjoys. Our rivals understood what it was to beat Mumbai and I felt it was high time our guys understood the same,8221; says the coach, who was virtually banking on greenhorns to deliver in the absence of big stars.
In fact, selector Patil points to a newspaper cutting he has preserved in which Aussie great Steve Waugh speaks about his dream of playing against Mumbai and defeating them. And it was this feeling that sparked something special in Mumbai8217;s brat pack 8212; Rohit Sharma, Sahil Kukreja, Abhishek Nair and Hiken Shah see box 8212; who played a big role in the team reaching the final before the big boys, Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan, took over.
It was the kind of fightback that had even past masters in the members8217; stands impressed. Ajit Wadekar, Mumbai8217;s most successful Ranji captain ever with four titles, has seen a few collapses in his time and connects to the present. 8220;I remember coming in at No 8 and rescuing the team once with a century, and so did Sharad Diwadkar. It is nice to hear of youngsters like Hiken Shah, Rohit and Nair rising to the occasion when the team needed them,8221; he says.
Another great, Dilip Sardesai, who holds the record of representing Mumbai for the longest duration, sensed that familiar Mumbai spirit when he dropped in to watch a game this season. 8220;I never thought that from zero points after three matches they8217;d win the Ranji Trophy. They8217;ve shown tremendous spirit, the typical Mumbai spirit. But it has undoubtedly been a team effort, and that8217;s the most gratifying thing,8221; he says.
While the present bunch8217;s 8216;steely resolve8217; is not new to Mumbai, former Ranji captain and present selector Milind Rege adds that the players8217; profile has seen a sea change over the years. Unlike in the past, Sharma, Nair and Kukreja and several other youngsters aren8217;t from 8220;the town8221;, as South Mumbai is often referred to.
Rege highlights the shift of the middle class8212;Mumbai cricket8217;s traditional assembly line8212;to the suburbs with their improving infrastructure. 8220;Someone like Sharma has a first-class ground just next to his home in Kandivili. Also, the development of the Bandra Kurla complex has helped the youngsters,8221; he says. And this is where the Pawar factor has been felt. 8220;The Bandra Kurla complex has come up because of him and these small things make a difference,8221; says Patil.
In other words, the challenge of lugging the kit bag on the 8216;fast local8217; to Churchgate has gone and so is the romance of surviving on vada-pav during the long journey. But then, the results have vindicated that shift.
On another track, former Test opener and Ranji winning captain Sudhir Naik talks about the highly competitive local league and the number of match days that current players get. 8220;They play about 40 matches besides the Ranji games and there is no practice like match practice,8221; he says. No wonder, the local sports pages are filled with schoolboys scoring 300 runs and even a 15-year-old hitting six sixes in an over8212; if not in the famous Kanga League that was washed out this season, then in the Talim, Times, Giles, Harris and various other tournaments.
But wasn8217;t that the case earlier too? 8220;There have been players before who have scored heavily in Ranji games but this time we picked players who had the right temperament to click at the pertinent time. Players who rose to the occasion were picked and that8217;s the reason you see vital contributions in crucial games by youngsters,8221; says Patil, who says that he watched about 90 games in three months. Rege adds that they 8220;backed the players even when the chips were down8221;.
FINALLY, to that one big factor that gave Mumbai the final push8212;the overwhelming influence of Sachin Tendulkar. When the man who has a stand named after him at Wankhede entered the dressing room for the final, after the South Africa tour, the impact was instant.
Says 20-year-old Sharma, tipped to be the next big Mumbai batsman: 8220;I was troubled by Sourav Ganguly8217;s late swing in the first innings, so before going for the second innings I sat next to Tendulkar and asked about it. He gave me a very elementary piece of advice. Stand outside the batting crease when facing him to curb the swing early. To tell you the truth, it helped immensely.8221; Sharma ended up being the top scorer in Mumbai8217;s second innings.
In the long run, Tendulkar8217;s small tip about taking one step forward might prove more vital for Mumbai than his first innings hundred in the final. Because, in the years to come, Tendulkar might shift to the members8217; gallery above the dressing room, leaving Sharma to play mentor to another greenhorn, sitting next him. And Mumbai cricket will continue to shine.
