An infamous season alright!

The silverware cabinet at the Mumbai Cricket Association office will not be opened to welcome a replica of the 202223 Ranji TrophyThe Mumbai senior team have missed out on Indian cricketrsquos national championship honours yet again This season the cut is deeper because Ajinkya Rahanersquos side didnrsquot make the knockout rounds which is a rarityUnderstandably a part of the cityrsquos cricketing fraternity is in shock and one can imagine what the skipper and players are enduring in the aftermath of a highly forgettable Ranji season The last Ranji Trophy triumph in 201516 seems so far awayDoubtless they ought to have given a better account of themselves Clearly they lacked the consistency to go the distance and challenge their hungrier rivals Wins over Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad were followed by a loss to Saurashtra a draw against Tamil Nadu a victory over Assam a crushing defeat in Delhi and last weekrsquos draw against MaharashtraThe defeat to Delhi was a deadly blow an outright loss inflicted by a team not expected to dominate MumbaiBefore the first ball was bowled at the Kotla Rahanersquos team had three wins against a winless opponentAlso Read City cricket loses some swingA sizeable total in the first innings is pivotal but Mumbai could only manage 293 out of which Sarfaraz Khan smashed 125 With two Test players in the XI Ajinkya Rahane and Prithvi Shaw they could have done better to gain ascendancy Delhi piled it on through the efforts of Vaibhav Rawal 114 and skipper Himmat Singh 85 to total 369 before another storm kicked in Sarfarazmdashwho several pundits believed should have been part of the India squad for the first two Tests against Australiamdashgot a duck and fifties from the blade of Rahane and Tanush Kotian were not enough to give Delhi a big target to chase As it turned out Delhi won easily evoking mentions of their last outright triumph over Mumbai mdash 43 seasons ago in the 197980 Ranji Trophy final at the same venueSandeep Patil who only recently aspired to head the Mumbai Cricket Association was out of town when Rahanersquos team failed to beat Maharashtra outright the draw meant Mumbairsquos Ranji Trophy campaign was well and truly overPatil called to check on the result like he often does After delivering the news of Mumbairsquos fate I offered to send him the match details He politely turned down my offer and I could sense the disappointment in his voice while he said soPatil is one of the few Mumbai Test players who has experienced a Ranji Trophy lsquoknock outrsquo of this nature He was in the side when the Milind Regeled Mumbai team didnrsquot qualify in 197778 For many years this stayed the lone case of Mumbainot advancingIt must be stressed that when Mumbai slipped badly in that 197778 season they were without their Test men Sunil Gavaskar Ashok Mankad Dilip Vengsarkar and Karsan Ghavri were all in Australia on India dutyAccomplished writer Sunder Rajan minced no words in his analysis published in Cricket Quarterly magazine He blamed the players as well as administrators for the infamous season but also wrote ldquoLooking back one is inclined to believe that the unseen hand of fate did play a role in Bombayrsquos misfortunesrdquoRege who was on my Mumbai Cricket podcast last August was glad to set the record straight He did stress that more than a dayrsquos play was lost to November rain in the seasonopening fixture against Saurashtra at Mumbai The following month their game against Baroda at Moti Bagh Stadium was marred by crowd disturbances Rege also recalled how Mumbairsquos appeal for a replay was turned down by the BCCI then headed by M ChinnaswamyLike Rege current captain Rahane may have good grounds to bring up factors that were beyond his control Promising and inform batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal was too unwell to be part of the team against Delhi he missed the match against Assam as well And what bigger blow could Mumbai have copped before their doordie last league game against Maharashtra than run machine Sarfaraz being ruled out due to temperatureRahane made no excuses in his postmatch interaction with the media and indicated that the players must show more commitment to the team causeThe season witnessed an extraordinary piece of exclusion and selection Suved Parkar smashed 252 against Uttarakhand on debut in last seasonrsquos quarterfinal He scored a half century in the final against MP Guess when he played his first Ranji game of this season In the vital final league game against MaharashtraThere are bright spots in an otherwise depressing season for Mumbai Top of the list would have to be Sarfarazrsquos scores Shams Mulani that tireless leftarm spinner has enjoyed another fine season Mumbai cricket is replete with stories of courage and a deserving new entrant to the bravery book is Kotian An injury to his right hand while fielding against Maharashtra needed six stitches and he batted with extreme discomfort to score 93 in Mumbairsquos first inningsFirst innings centurion Prasad Pawar has something to look back at with satisfaction as well One wonders why he wasnrsquot sent out while Mumbai attempted to chaseThe Ranji Trophy is the holy grail for Mumbai cricket The failure to make the knockouts is considered blasphemous And although this situation is not unprecedented everyone involved with Mumbai cricket has to accept responsibilityBetter pluck next timemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper