Clayton Murzello: Life on the other side of the fence

Sports journalists R Sriman (left), Eddie Fernandes, ATP Sarathy and Sunder Rajan (right) with a cricket kit bag during a JK Bose Trophy tournament in the 1970s

It's a busy time for sports journalists all over the land. Not only because Indian cricket's big home season involving 13 Tests and four visiting teams is close at hand, but also near is the 39th edition of the Sports Journalists' Federation of India's (SJFI) national convention to be held in Bhubaneswar. Over the next few days, pen pushers will be on the other side of the fence - on the playing field rather than reporting on sporting endeavours.

The most popular tournament in this annual festival for sports journalists is the JK Bose Trophy, now a Twenty20 tournament, initiated in honour of the late Press Trust of India journalist in the 1970s.

Veteran journalist GK Menon remembers being part of a team from Mumbai hosted by former West Bengal CM Siddhartha Shankar Ray in 1973. "Things started moving from there. We then decided to have an annual tournament for our fraternity so that journalists could meet," said Menon.

Makarand Waingankar, a freelance journalist and cricket consultant, who was a member of that Mumbai team to Kolkata, recalled a match organised by Ray: "We thought it would be a friendly game but our opposition included some big names in Bengal cricket like Ray himself, who had played some level of cricket, Dilip Doshi (who went on to play for India), Sambaran Banerjee, Subroto Guha and Pankaj Roy. We couldn't handle the pace and Roy (at 45) took a hundred off us with ease. The fast bowlers were told not to hold back the pace so that the journalists would realise how difficult it to was to play cricket."

Menon, who played club cricket for Shivaji Park Gymkhana in his younger days, provided an example of how seriously the Calcuttans took their sport: "The day before Bengal were to face Mumbai in a JK Bose final at Chandigarh, their senior player Shyam Sunder Ghosh, a highly skilled swing bowler and unplayable to many batsmen, barred his players from venturing out in the fear of them losing focus. In the process, they missed out on an opportunity to visit the Bhakra Nangal dam." And one player who defied his curfew orders on match eve was promptly dropped. Ghosh even banned alcohol before an ‘important' match.

Seshadri Ramaswamy, a veteran currently working for PTI in Mumbai, recalled one of the many great spells by Ghosh: "We (West Zone) were bowled out for 120 odd by East at the Eden Gardens with Ghosh claiming eight wickets. I remained unbeaten. At a dinner party that night, the South Zone guys (all distinguished cricket writers) lectured us on how we should have batted to negate Ghosh. The following day, Ghosh dismissed them for 56 with Rajan Bala scoring an unbeaten 40."

On another occasion, Ghosh terrorised Mumbai with a flurry of wickets, which prompted late sports writer ATP Sarathy to exclaim, "Shyamda (Ghosh), at least give us some time to put on our pads!"

The Mumbai team were serious about their cricket at times. On one of the train journeys to Kolkata, their captain decided to put an extended halt at one of the stations to good use. Out he went with bat and ball, to give his team fielding practice on the platform. This attracted the attention of monkeys and caused a veteran scribe to remark: "For the first time, monkeys watched monkeys indulge in sporting activity."

In the 1981 edition, the Mumbai team's ‘think-tank' decided to leave out a Parsi scribe in a match at Delhi. As soon as he learnt he was not included in the XI, he took his kit bag and returned to Mumbai by the next available flight. To sit out and watch an oldie play was too much for him. The now-retired journalist is still proud to be, in his own words, "Cricket's first ever tour walkout." Yes, a good 15 years before Navjot Singh Sidhu's famous return from England in 1996.

On another occasion, one knowledgeable cricket correspondent from the south of India constantly challenged GK Menon to get him out. On match day, he went out to open the innings and inadvertently tapped the ball twice. An appeal from the Mumbai team for hitting the ball twice was upheld by the umpire. The livid batsman was all set to walk back to the pavilion before Menon asked Kore if he could withdraw his appeal. The batsman returned to his crease.

One can't ignore the performances and passion displayed by the late Pradeep Vijayakar when one talks about Mumbai journalists' sporting forays. Vijayakar was an all-rounder. If he thought he stood a chance to dislodge an adhesive batsman, he would abandon his wicketkeeping gloves and bowl leg-spin. And his batting was good enough to be rated as a mainstay in the order. He competed well in other disciplines too and this should come as no surprise because Vijayakar had the distinction of covering every sport in his journalistic career. ‘Paddy' loved the field!

As JK Bose defending champions, West Zone, led by Devendra Pandey, have an extra challenge on hand. A significant sense of humour will be displayed too because many journalists will get an opportunity to laugh at themselves.

I can assure you, though, it's not all fun and games. Be it cricket, penalty kicks or table tennis, the competitive edge will not be missing in a fraternity often accused by practitioners of sport to be found wanting in practical knowledge.

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com