Vengsarkar, Manjrekar and Co give novel Pro-Am tournament a splash of colour

Tendulkar is a class act as a table tennis player. As Sanjay Manjrekar said: “Sachin is a great competitor, whatever be the opposition.”

Nostalgia was the flavour of the evening with the mind switching to rewind mode. Memories of the pristine past came flooding as the likes of Niraj Bajaj and Vilas Menon gave glimpses of their glorious youth.

“Vilas (Menon) was one of the heroes in the days when I began my cricket,” said Balwinder Singh Sandhu, of the flamboyant, fuzzy-haired maverick.

The former India No 1 and the 1976 Asian TT Championship bronze medallist –trim, youthful and seemingly frozen in time — now taps TT talent and petro-dollars in Dubai.

Bajaj, older and heavier, showed fleeting glimpses of the touch which won him the National singles title. His post-playing career graph is equally impressive: Managing Director of Mukund Iron and Steel.

Arun Kumar was another who looked a heavyweight in more ways than one. Retracing his steps back to India after a 15-year domicile in the United States, the former Asian junior champion is now Managing Director of Fed Ex, the US post and courier giant.

Then there was Atul Parikh, a dangerous floater in his playing days, now a highly successful diamond merchant. Parikh, like Menon, has remained fat-free and well-preserved despite the advancing years.

“We play badminton regularly at the Bombay Gymkhana,” said Parikh’s wife Vyoma, a leading National player in her days.

Predictably, there was much banter among the players. Sandhu’s obsession with coaching found Vengsarkar saying: “I hope my elbow (position) is right.” The technical point was with reference to TT and not cricket!

The former India seamer caught the eye with his TT proficency while teaming up with Pune-based Sujay Ghorpade.

Clinching the final honours was Sanjay Manjrekar, in tandem with Menon. Manjrekar, ever the perfectionist, approached the matches with a sense of seriousness. It was a game he had played often in his younger days.

“I was told by my seniors that TT improves the reflexes, so I used to play it in my building,” said the man who generated much vocal support from a sizable crowd.

The celeb table tennis was conceived and executed by Menon to “promote TT” — the game, like so many other sports in a world constantly changing priorities, dying a slow death.

As Vengsarkar recalled: “I remember the time when I saw these guys play to packed halls. They enjoyed such huge fan following.”

The pro-am final was a Podar College Old Boys’ affair. Menon and Manjrekar teaming up to beat fellow-almuni Vengsarkar and S Ramaswamy — an active veteran of 23 Nationals.

Others who added colour to the occasion were Sandeep Patil, Chandrakant Pandit, Pravin Amre, Nilesh Kulkarni, Suhas Kulkarni and former National champion S Sriram. Basketball legend Abbas Moontasir put in an appearance and substituted for the injured Salil Ankola in one of the matches.