The unveiling of Raj Singh Dungarpur's portrait at the CCI yesterday is a classic case of too little, too late
The unveiling of Raj Singh Dungarpur's portrait at the CCI yesterday is a classic case of too little, too lateDungarpur passed away about six months ago and it is only now that the club has thought it fit to perpetuate his memory with what, to my mind, is a token gesture.
On the one hand, full marks to CCI executive committee members, who have sunk their differences and, despite the pathological hatred for Dungarpur among some club heavyweights, honoured a luminary, whose services to the club and, more importantly, to Indian cricket, are legendary.
That said, I cannot but help feel that this is a half-hearted recognition of the colossal services of the late president of the CCI, which is what it is today in terms of functioning and prestige in India and abroad only because of Raj Singh Dungarpur.
I wish Dungarpur's antagonists, who are in an overwhelming minority, would have the spunk to stand up and be counted.
I would be the first to respect them and espouse their cause if they were to convince me that the majority of the club's membership is opposed to the honour being bestowed on the past president because of malfeasance and other unsubstantiated charges.
These are allegations which remain unproven and, despite which, ousted president Dungarpur staged an overwhelming comeback. Surely the CCI membership is not as asinine as we are made to believe!
Sachin's suggestion
At the condolence meeting for Raj Singh at the Brabourne Stadium soon after his death, Sachin Tendulkar made the eminently far-sighted suggestion that the Club's front gate be named after the deceased president, in manner akin to the Grace Gate at Lord's, named after WG Grace, the game's illustrious 'father'.
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Sachin Tendulkar stands besides a portrait of late Cricket Club of India president Raj Singh Dungarpur at the CCI yesterday. Pic/Shadab Khan |
At that meeting, I had suggested in my capacity as honorary and life member, that the CCI should build a Dungarpur cricket museum along the lines of the one at Lord's, a project which was very dear to Raj Singh.
It would have been the first of its kind in India and befitting a club, which was the original home of Indian
cricket.
Whereas the portrait unveiled by Tendulkar yesterday is certainly worthy of display alongside those of the club's eminent founding fathers, the gesture is woefully trivial considering Raj Singh's enormous contribution to the Club.
Only a 'tragic' (to borrow an expression from former Australian PM John Howard) cricket visionary like Raj, with his passion for the game and his initiative and resourcefulness, could have realised the dream of setting up India's first cricket museum.
The notorious India crab mentality is now too well-known to bear repetition, but I would love to see a solitary hand go up from a worthy salt of the nation offering to even contemplate what Raj dared dream of.
Given its admirable resources -- indubitably the result of prudent business management -- the CCI should have no difficulty in implementing Tendulkar's proposal of erecting an impressive front gate (in place of the present ugly one) and deservedly naming it after Dungarpur.
This will certainly be more in keeping with the late president's worldwide stature and contribution to the Club in terms of image-building and improvement of amenities rather than a mere portrait inside its premises, which, in any event, are already overflowing with portraits at the entrance and elsewhere.
Herculean efforts
If members of the CCI now have the privilege -- denied to millions of dedicated Mumbai cricket lovers -- of being able to once again savour matches in the luxuriant comforts their world-famous stadium provides them, it is largely because of the Herculean efforts of Raj Singh, who lived to see the Champions Trophy played there in 2006.
Having witnessed cricket the world over, I can confidently say that cricketu00a0 at the alluring Brabourne Stadium is an experience without parallel.
If the club's members are now reliving the experience of a glorious bygone era it is through default because of the current renovation of the Wankhede Stadium, which has assumed the mantle of Test venue and state headquarters only because of the misconceived high-handedness of previous CCI czars.
The continuing tenuous relationship between the CCI and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Ambani group, owners of the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, does not bode well for the 77-year-old sporting institution.
While mending its fences with the MCA, BCCI and the franchisees, the CCI should spare no effort towards ensuring that IPL 3 is not the last hurrah in its continuing endeavour to host big cricket.
The Club's task becomes all the more formidable now that the spanking-new DY Patil stadium is also advancing justifiable claims to host big matches.
This situation confers upon Mumbai and its satellite, Navi Mumbai, the unique (if not dubious) distinction of having three stadiums available for cricket.
If London can have two Test venues -- Lord's and Oval -- and Johannesburg two as well, at Wanderers and Centurion, there is no reason why Mumbai should not rotate its international matches -- Tests, ODIs, Twenty20s and IPL masalas -- between the three venues.
Beautiful Brabourne
In this scheme of things, surely the beautiful world-renowned Brabourne deserves its fair share.
For that to happen, the powers-that-be at the CCI will have to dig deep into their innermost resources of statesman-like wisdom, tact and persuasion.
I would like to believe my friend and CCI president Sevanti Parekh, and his esteemed committee, will be up to it.
As the cliched expression goes: Time will tell.
I wish them the very best in their onerous responsibility in the interest of Mumbai and, most importantly, Indianu00a0 cricket.
