Make CK’s hall picture perfect

I really look forward to such functions which provide us the best opportunity to meet and interact with cricketers cricket lovers and friends from the media under one roofrdquo Prof Ratnakar Shetty one of the most popular cricket administrators said to me while we sipped our coffee at the Cricket Club of Indiarsquos CK Nayudu Banquet Hall on TuesdayWe were there to witness the release of former Indian cricket team manager Amrit Mathurrsquos book Pitchside at the hands of Sunil GavaskarWatching Gavaskar yet again on the dais of this hall made me wonder how he feels each time he arrives at the club Itrsquos a venue which he visited for a match way back in 1958 when the touring West Indies team played against CCIThe batting great also made his debut for Bombay at the Brabourne Stadiummdashin the Irani Cup game in November 1967 Gavaskar played for CCI for a couple of years in the early 1970s The Nirlon team which he was part of in the 1970s and 1980s also practised at the CCIThere is no doubt Gavaskar loves the venue He mentioned how it does not have restrictions like at Lordrsquos which he referred to as the home of English cricket only indicating how wrong it would be to call it the home of world cricket Itrsquos certainly not and Gavaskar is right in his assessment The International Cricket Council is not headquartered there anymore and if something is called home it should welcome its guests with open arms something that Lordrsquos cannot be credited for doing very oftenYet there are a lot of things the authorities at Lordrsquos do that other venues donrsquot If the London ground reeks of history itrsquos not only because of the efforts of the past bosses of the ground They keep coming up with new things You can see it at the back of the stands where cricket greats are honoured by way of posters and signageEven if the Cricket Club of India cannot be called the home of Indian cricket since international cricket games held there are few and far between the last Test held there was in 2009 the last ODI in 2018 and the only T20I in 2007 it is still a prominent cricket houseTo be fair they have a lot of photo frames in their pavilion They have Pollyrsquos Bar in honour of PR Umrigar who served Indian cricket in several capacities after the curtains came down on his 19481962 Test career The reference library named after late statistician Anandji Dossa is a treasure trove of informationThey even have a gate named after Raj Singh Dungarpur their late president whose contribution to the CCI and Indian cricket is immeasurable Mathur was moved to say that he couldnrsquot help thinking about the late towering figure each time he is at the club A lot of us feel the same tooMathur has this to say about Raj Singh in his book ldquoCricket wasnrsquot just in his blood it was Raj Bhairsquos life In Mumbai he lived at the CCI which was home and office He took great pride in making it an institution that celebrated Indian cricket and even now one canrsquot walk in there without feeling his imposing presencerdquoRaj Singh took great pride in being at the CK Nayudu Hall Only once did he refrain from entering itmdashat a gettogether organised for Mumbai Ranji Trophy players Raj Singh was obviously invited but when I asked him why he wasnrsquot around he said he didnrsquot want to be amongst a gathering which had members of Bombay teams that beat his firstclass team Rajasthan in seven Ranji Trophy finalsThe CK Nayudu Banquet Hall is posher than in earlier years But once again I couldnrsquot spot the Nayudu painting behind the backdrop for the book release function Itrsquos good to hear that it is back but it should be repositioned so that the audience can see it What is not reinstalled are several photo frames of some great Indian personalities who were recipients of the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award instituted when Raj Singh was a powerful force in the BCCI From a media point of view Irsquom particularly disappointed not to see KN Prabhursquos frame again The great cricket writer claimed the lifetime honour in 1997There were also paintings of MAK Pataudi Sunil Gavaskar Kapil Dev Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul DravidCCIrsquos contribution to cricket is immense Their helping hand is not restricted to established players but also players coming up the ranks And theyrsquove given even schoolboys a chance to play their big games there In contrast the display of cricketing greats in the hall may appear trivial But reinstalling them will make our Tuesdaylike visits more specialmiddayrsquos 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 paper