It’s 1983 once more!

The Mumbai Cricket Associationrsquos recent decision to suspend the remainder of this yearrsquos Dr HD Kanga Cricket League as the weather could only allow three rounds to be held took me back to 1983 For a while mdashbefore 2006 2010 and 2011 suffered the same fate the year 1983 stood out as the only time since the leaguersquos inception that teams were not promoted or demoted as only four rounds were possible due to a heavy monsoonThis situation caused mixed feelings Some outfits felt that they were on a roll to go all the way and win and another set of teams across all seven divisions heaved a sigh of relief after ducking the axe of relegation For those club cricket followers who go by the latest fixture book there is no mention of what happened in 1983 while earlier fixture books had a long dash against the year on the page displaying the list of championsIt was a special year of course with India winning the World Cup by beating the allconquering West Indies at Lordrsquos on June 25 and it was hoped that some of the Mumbaibased World Cup stars would turn up for their clubs But it was not to be probably due to other commitments but also because the India v Pakistan home Test series was set to begin in September Ravi Shastri though turned up for Cricket Club of Indiarsquos CCI match against Young Maharashtra on August 28 He scored 38 in his sidersquos total of 1588 declared with teammate Ghulam Parkar scoring the only halfcentury in the lsquoArsquo divisionThe opening round game was drawn with Young Maharashtra ending up with 844The first round of matches kicked off after seven washouts Like it used to happen so very often in the 1980s Dadar Union stood out with their performances They clashed with archrivals Shivaji Park Gymkhana at Shivaji Park first up a game exRailways wicketkeeper batsman Shrikant Kharge has vivid memories of ldquoIt was the year I made it to the Mumbai probables I got three catches in the game scored around 12 coming into bat at No8 and the best thing is that we beat Gymkhanardquo Kharge told me on TuesdayHe also remembered all his teammates rushing to him after he took his first catch ldquoThey all came and congratulated me and one of the first people to wish me many more catches as a Dadar Union rsquokeeper was lsquoMajorrsquo Suresh Tigdi who was at second sliprdquoDadar Union were restricted to 72 with pacer Nirmal Mhatre claiming three and offspinner Sudhir Gadgil bagging a fifer conceding only 10 runs In response Shivaji Park Gymkhana were bowled out for 58 thanks to Ramesh Rajde and Vikram Dutt who bagged five apiece The previous season Dutt made it to Kanga League history section by claiming all 10 wickets in an innings against Rajasthan SCChandrakant Pandit who had represented Cricket Club of India CCI the previous year was roped in to lead Shivaji Park Youngsters while Suru Nayak the India allrounder moved to CCI after a long stint with Rajasthan Talking of big names Jolly Cricketers the 1980 premier division champions were led by former India pacer Subroto Guha His team included exIndia allrounder Yajurvindra Singh former Rajasthan pace bowler Kailash Gattani and of course Madhav Apte the Test man who was always ready to play the Kanga LeagueSeptember 2 was the second day when play was possible in the 1983 league but morning showers ruined action at Shivaji Park Matunga and Cross Maidan Avinash Karnik the former Mumbai Ranji Trophy batsman scored 35 just like in the first game as Dadar Union drew with hosts CCI Promoted side Parsi Cyclists drew with Shivaji Park Youngsters while Jolly Cricketers were involved in an exciting draw against hosts Khar GymkhanaAnother gap due to the Mumbai rains was witnessed before teams hoped for better conditions on September 25 But after a week full of sunshine there were Saturday showers which made conditions tough the following day Dadar Union claimed three points as they beat Rajasthan SC who were bowled out for a mere 39 Their star was leftarm spinner Salil Shah who claimed 410 and followed it up with 628 At the Brabourne Stadium CCI needed eight off the last over to beat Shivaji Park Youngsters but failed in their victory bid While Dadar Union led with seven points Cross Maidan clubs Karnatak SA and MB Union were catching up with six each Hosts Karnatak beat Young Maharashtra who were troubled by Austin Coutinho 434 Suresh Shetty 36 and Vasudev Tumbe 33 helped Karnatak surpass Young Maharashtrarsquos 75 with four wickets to spare At the nearby MB Union pitch Rajdeep Sardesai stayed unbeaten with 66 to help beat promoted team Parsee CyclistsThe last Sunday of the league was October 2 It would have been unfair to declare a champion after only four games other sides arrived for games throughout the tournament and not a ball was bowled but Karnatak took pride in the fact that they beat holders Dadar Union Karnatakrsquos pacers Suresh Shetty 533 and Coutinho 525 shot out Dadar Union for 81 and the hosts reached their first innings victory target through Shettyrsquos punitive blade that reaped 41 unbeaten runs Shetty was well supported by future captain Mangesh Adatrao who scored 20 Karnatak ended the tournament with nine points two more than Dadar UnionAnother person whorsquod recall 1983 with a smile would have been Leander Dias He claimed 447 for National CC in a draw game against a formidable Shivaji Park Gymkhana Dias passed away last week at the age of 65 Although better known for his insurancerelated work with Oriental Insurance Dias was an able pace bowler Like the best years of the Kanga League he too will be missed by the Mumbaicricket fraternitymiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperMayank Shekharrsquos MS Word will be back next week