When the prep was peppy!

The Nirlon Sports Club team that won the 1985 edition of the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai. Sitting from left: Suresh Shetty, Jignesh Sanghani, Subhash Khirsagar, Anil Joshi, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sanjay Mudkavi. Standing from left: Suresh Shastri, Avadhoot Zarapkar, Kiran Ashar, Hemant Waingankar (manager), Sandeep Patil (captain), Balu Alaganan (TNCA administrator), Suru Nayak, Rahul Mankad, Avinash Karnik and Sanjay Jaywant. Pic/late KIRAN ASHAR’S PERSONAL COLLECTION

The Mumbai cricket team's preparation for BCCI-run 2024-25 domestic tournaments began on a damp note, with the Ranji Trophy champions failing to progress to the Buchi Babu tournament semi-finals in Coimbatore last week.

Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) XI beat Mumbai by 286 runs in what must have been an extremely satisfying win over a Mumbai side that had three India batsmen - captain Sarfaraz Khan, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu were outwitted by Mumbai in last season's Ranji Trophy semi-final.

The Buchi Babu tournament has served as good preparation for Mumbai teams in another era and the participation of Sarfaraz Khan & Co reminded one of the Mumbai influence in this tournament during the 1980s.

Chandrakant Pandit, who has been such a successful domestic cricket coach, never tires of remembering how Mafatlal Sports Club captain Ashok Mankad made him skipper of the team in the early 1980s, despite him still being in his teens. The decision to make Pandit captain was taken on a train journey to Chennai for the Buchi Babu, during which the late Mankad expressed the need to relieve himself of the captaincy and choose young Pandit as his successor. A shocked Pandit spent the night in his train cabin wondering how he would cope with his responsibility, even as he was trying to forge a successful first-class career for Mumbai.

On reaching Chennai, Pandit sought an appointment with the exiting skipper to ask what if he had to take some decisions like moving Eknath Solkar from short leg to short extra cover or asking Mankad to leave the slip cordon for another position. Mankad assured Pandit that he could take whatever decisions he needed to take and he was always there to show him the way.

The Mafatlal team were packed with domestic pros like ex-Test men Solkar, Brijesh Patel, Parthasarathy Sharma, Dhiraj Parsanna and Mankad himself.

There was no shortage of stars in the Nirlon team who made a mark in the Buchi Babu tournament. Probably, the first taste of highly competitive cricket the 1983 World Cup-winning team indulged in was the Buchi Babu tournament in August, before Kapil Dev's side played host to Pakistan and West Indies in a nine-Test home season of 1983-84.

The Nirlon team which shared the trophy with State Bank of India (because the bankmen ended up with 257-6 in response to Nirlon's 340) included World Cuppers Sunil Gavaskar, Sandeep Patil, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Ravi Shastri apart from Karsan Ghavri.

Anil Joshi, who kept wickets for Nirlon in this edition, remembered how Sandhu bamboozled the TNCA President's XI batsmen with his swinging deliveries during an effort which yielded five wickets in an innings.

Sandhu told me on Tuesday how a delivery from him injured State Bank's Gundappa Vishwanath. A concerned Sandhu ran down to check if his 1982-83 Pakistan tour colleague was fine and apologised profusely. Vishwanath assured him that he hadn't dealt with the delivery well and hence the injury. Sandhu hasn't stopped apologising to genial Vishwanath.

Gulu Ezekiel, the cricket writer and historian, wrote in The Indian Express that Vishwanath started his innings with two fluent drives, but the crowd's disappointment, "was most acute when Sandhu got one to rise venomously off the seam from a good length to strike Vishy under the left eye. Vishwanath collapsed on the pitch in pain and was taken to hospital for preliminary X-rays. Fortunately, a big bruise was the only extent of the injury."

The following year, Patil led Nirlon to another shared title triumph again with State Bank, who had Yashpal Sharma and Ashok Malhotra batting for them. Nirlon piled up 487-9 declared (Gavaskar 124) and State Bank's 359-4 included centuries by the two Test batsmen from north India.

Never short of a prank, Patil announced to the media that his team would present Gavaskar with a car in the evening of the final. He didn't go back on his promise, but it was a miniature car! "Sunil couldn't stop laughing when I opened the small box and took out a Dinky car, which our local manager Bhupathi got from a toy shop," Patil told me on Wednesday.

After two successive shared triumphs, it was time for some solely-owned silverware. Patil ensured that in 1985. The September 10-23 event coincided with the Indian team's tour to Sri Lanka.

In the final against TNCA XI, Nirlon restricted their opponents to 244 and then amassed 436 which included a 148 by Sanjay Manjrekar, who according to Partab Ramchand's report in Sportsworld magazine, batted for six and a half hours. Nirlon could well have missed making their third straight final had Patil not called correctly when the toss decided which team will go through when rain came down with Nirlon struggling at 373-8 in reply to Hyderabad's 416.

Mumbai went on to claim Ranji Trophy honours in two (1983-84 and 1984-85) of the three mentioned Buchi Babu tournaments.

Hopefully, the current city team will buckle up tightly in their remaining practice games and put themselves in a good position to claim Ranji Trophy title No. 43.

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.