Quite a bit of Kanga rue here

A Payyade Sports Club batsman looks back to see if a PJ Hindu Gymkhana fielder has held on to his snick at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana, Marine Drive, during the 2023 edition of the Dr HD Kanga League Cricket. Pic/Ashish Raje

The relenting of heavy rain afforded an opportunity for the Mumbai Cricket Association to call play in this year's Dr HD Kanga Cricket League on August 15. The scheduling of Independence Day games has been an old initiative which fortunately is still carried out unlike other Kanga norms.

By those norms I mean, each club from the premier division to the G division being busy on Sundays. Now, for some reason, all clubs don't play games every Sunday.

Aware of the departure from the old scheduling it still felt sad to see no cricket being played at the Marine Drive clubs namely the Police Gymkhana, PJ Hindu Gymkhana, Islam Gymkhana, Parsee Gymkhana while I was being driven into town on a pleasant Sunday morning last week. There was no scheduled game for the Cricket Club of India as well and the Shivaji Park was not exactly heavily decorated with cricketers dressed in their whites.

While infrastructure work has made less plots available in Azad Maidan, there is talk that there are a lot of venues/pitches that are not being used for the Kanga League.

The MCA may have logistical reasons for having clubs play on alternate Sundays, but it doesn't speak well of this city's cricketing ethos. If it's a scheduled Sunday and the authorities have not cancelled games the previous evening, then Mumbai cricket witnessed the full congregation.

I wonder how a club cricketer would feel about having to stay home while players in another group of divisions are parading their skills. And what's the guarantee that the weather will permit him to be part of next Sunday's action?

Twenty-one Augusts ago, I interviewed Sachin Tendulkar on his association with the Kanga League and he gave me the impression that he wasn't a very happy young cricketer at the conclusion of a Kanga League match be it whether his team had raced away to a win or had slugged it out for a draw. "I remember feeling frustrated for six days after the match because I wanted to go back and play again."

Tendulkar represented John Bright CC in 1986, Sassanian CC the following year and Cricket Club of India from 1988. "The Kanga League taught me how to play with soft hands and play late. On a damp wicket you had to wait and play the drive or flick, using the pace rather than hitting it hard," Tendulkar said in that same interaction.

The month of July has proved to be a bad month for the Kanga League and action starting in August comes as no surprise. However, 50 years ago in 1974, action began on July 21 after the first two rounds were washed out. Four Mumbai members of the Indian team that had toured England, landed on Thursday and were part of the League on Sunday (July 21) - Sunil Gavaskar (Dadar Union), Ashok Mankad (Jolly Cricketers), Eknath Solkar (PJ Hindu Gymkhana) and Sudhir Naik (National CC).

The 1974 tour had ended in a 0-3 defeat for Ajit Wadekar's men.

Wadekar's Shivaji Park Gymkhana in clashed with sister club Shivaji Park Youngsters but there is nothing to state that he played that game.

Solkar's PJ Hindu Gymkhana lost to Parsi Cyclists at Azad Maidan. Mankad didn't score too many, but Jolly Cricketers managed to beat promoted side Maharashtra Young at Parsee Gymkhana.

National CC with Naik in the team began their 1974 campaign on a winning note, beating Cricket Club of India at Cross Maidan.

At Matunga, Dadar Union drew with neighbours New Hind SC, who ended the game with 126-7 after Dadar Union put up 187-5 declared. Gavaskar was the top scorer across all premier division games with 71 retired that day.

He put on 90 runs with his 1972-73 India and Mumbai opening partner Ramnath Parkar.

Dadar Union went on to retain the ‘A' division title beating teams like Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Shivaji Park Youngsters, Jolly Cricketers, CCI and Parsi Cyclists.

The famed Dadar Union v Shivaji Park Gymkhana game was a one-sided affair with Dadar Union bowling out the hosts for just 32 and reaching the target with eight wickets to spare. The hero for the victors was medium pacer VS Patil who claimed 8-23.

Among the several reports I pulled out for this edition of the Kanga League I discovered a certain DB Vengsarkar scoring 52 while Dadar Union attempted to chase down PJ Hindu Gymkhana's 210-4 and ending up with 133-4 on September 8. This was Vengsarkar's first year for Dadar Union in the enduring league. He didn't play the Kanga League for any other club since then; playing local cricket till the early 1990s.

It tells us something about how the Kanga League used to be, the days when cricketers got associated with one club unless they were offered playing membership at a big club for a couple of seasons. And of course, playing on alternate Sundays like it is today, was unthinkable and out of the question.

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
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.