Walk into Dadar's Marine Sports, one of only three sports bookstores in the world, for a fascinating insight into sporting encounters, on and off field
Walk into Dadar's Marine Sports, one of only three sports bookstores in the world, for a fascinating insight into sporting encounters, on and off field
"That was the turnaround. Sunil (Gavaskar) was responsible in getting me into this business," reminisces Theo Braganza, owner of Marine Sports on how he plunged into his passion. Way back in the 1970s, Sunil was a regular face at the store. He would drop by on Sundays too. He brought along Vengsarkar and other Mumbai Ranji players. "An engineer then, I assisted dad (Bruno), but wasn't totally involved. I observed how Sunil studied our books to read the opposition. He requested for an Australian annual before a tour, but it was out of stock. I went all out to re-order it, despite dad's opposition. Acquiring a small consignment isn't smart business sense. Sunil was mighty pleased. He excelled on that tour, bringing glory to the game and the country for decades."
Taking fresh guard
In 1946, Bruno Braganza established a sports goods business at Dhobi Talao, Marine Lines, naming it Marine Sports. An ardent reader of sport books, he imported 12 copies of a rule book on athletics, he gifted one copy to Y.A. Gole, President of the Athletics Federation, Bombay Presidency. Word spread and soon he was importing rule books for football and cricket. An honest businessman, he didn't gel with the cut throat competition in the sports good industry. Around the 1950s, the Braganzas lost the store. This was also when they moved to Dadar. Bruno dabbled in a department store, and finally began distributing sports books, from his residence, eventually to the present address on Gokhale Road. "Dad would travel across India, set up stalls during athletic, chess and Ranji tourneys. Mail orders and distribution were our USP from the '60su00a0 to the '80s. These decades witnessed the highest readership. Five thousand copies would fly off shelves; nowadays printing 1,000 copies accounts to a huge number. Television and the Internet hastened the slide. Interest levels and hype is higher now but it fades pretty soon," Theo laments.
Old and new
Greats like Vasant Raiji and Russi Mody and this era's cricketers, from Manjrekar, Tendulkar to Agarkar kept coming back. During the VHS age, friends in the UK and Australia would tape matches for them.
A sizeable amount of literature (books and CDs) is devoted to coaching manuals and rule books in disciplines ranging from handball to stick fighting. He has an interesting footnote that sports authorities should consider -- "sports books and manuals should be available in the regional language; it helps create interest levels early on."
Did you know?u00a0
In the 1960s, when Bal Thackeray was a cartoonist at Marmik, he approached Bruno Braganza at his residence to distribute a souvenir -- a collection of his cartoons based on the India-England series at Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium. Priced between 4 and 8 annas, it flew off the racks.
Braganza's picks
1) A 1904 edition of a Water Polo Manual in Bombay, in Gujarati!
2) Laws of Cricket. The Marine Sports story began with these books
Marine Sports, 63A, Gokhale Road (North), Dadar (West). Call: 24321047
Three fascinating treasures
Rule books are Marine Sports' forte
Manual on Water Polo in Mumbai
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