Quite a bit of Kanga rue here

The relenting of heavy rain afforded an opportunity for the Mumbai Cricket Association to call play in this yearrsquos Dr HD Kanga Cricket League on August 15 The scheduling of Independence Day games has been an old initiative which fortunately is still carried out unlike other Kanga normsBy those norms I mean each club from the premier division to the G division being busy on Sundays Now for some reason all clubs donrsquot play games every SundayAware of the departure from the old scheduling it still felt sad to see no cricket being played at the Marine Drive clubs namely the Police Gymkhana PJ Hindu Gymkhana Islam Gymkhana Parsee Gymkhana while I was being driven into town on a pleasant Sunday morning last week There was no scheduled game for the Cricket Club of India as well and the Shivaji Park was not exactly heavily decorated with cricketers dressed in their whitesWhile infrastructure work has made less plots available in Azad Maidan there is talk that there are a lot of venuespitches that are not being used for the Kanga LeagueThe MCA may have logistical reasons for having clubs play on alternate Sundays but it doesnrsquot speak well of this cityrsquos cricketing ethos If itrsquos a scheduled Sunday and the authorities have not cancelled games the previous evening then Mumbai cricket witnessed the full congregationI wonder how a club cricketer would feel about having to stay home while players in another group of divisions are parading their skills And whatrsquos the guarantee that the weather will permit him to be part of next Sundayrsquos actionTwentyone Augusts ago I interviewed Sachin Tendulkar on his association with the Kanga League and he gave me the impression that he wasnrsquot a very happy young cricketer at the conclusion of a Kanga League match be it whether his team had raced away to a win or had slugged it out for a draw ldquoI remember feeling frustrated for six days after the match because I wanted to go back and play againrdquoTendulkar represented John Bright CC in 1986 Sassanian CC the following year and Cricket Club of India from 1988 ldquoThe Kanga League taught me how to play with soft hands and play late On a damp wicket you had to wait and play the drive or flick using the pace rather than hitting it hardrdquo Tendulkar said in that same interactionThe month of July has proved to be a bad month for the Kanga League and action starting in August comes as no surprise However 50 years ago in 1974 action began on July 21 after the first two rounds were washed out Four Mumbai members of the Indian team that had toured England landed on Thursday and were part of the League on Sunday July 21mdashSunil Gavaskar Dadar Union Ashok Mankad Jolly Cricketers Eknath Solkar PJ Hindu Gymkhana and Sudhir Naik National CCThe 1974 tour had ended in a 03 defeat for Ajit Wadekarrsquos menWadekarrsquos Shivaji Park Gymkhana in clashed with sister club Shivaji Park Youngsters but there is nothing to state that he played that gameSolkarrsquos PJ Hindu Gymkhana lost to Parsi Cyclists at Azad Maidan Mankad didnrsquot score too many but Jolly Cricketers managed to beat promoted side Maharashtra Young at Parsee GymkhanaNational CC with Naik in the team began their 1974 campaign on a winning note beating Cricket Club of India at Cross MaidanAt Matunga Dadar Union drew with neighbours New Hind SC who ended the game with 1267 after Dadar Union put up 1875 declared Gavaskar was the top scorer across all premier division games with 71 retired that dayHe put on 90 runs with his 197273 India and Mumbai opening partner Ramnath ParkarDadar Union went on to retain the lsquoArsquo division title beating teams like Shivaji Park Gymkhana Shivaji Park Youngsters Jolly Cricketers CCI and Parsi CyclistsThe famed Dadar Union v Shivaji Park Gymkhana game was a onesided affair with Dadar Union bowling out the hosts for just 32 and reaching the target with eight wickets to spare The hero for the victors was medium pacer VS Patil who claimed 823Among the several reports I pulled out for this edition of the Kanga League I discovered a certain DB Vengsarkar scoring 52 while Dadar Union attempted to chase down PJ Hindu Gymkhanarsquos 2104 and ending up with 1334 on September 8 This was Vengsarkarrsquos first year for Dadar Union in the enduring league He didnrsquot play the Kanga League for any other club since then playing local cricket till the early 1990sIt tells us something about how the Kanga League used to be the days when cricketers got associated with one club unless they were offered playing membership at a big club for a couple of seasons And of course playing on alternate Sundays like it is today was unthinkable and out of the questionmiddayrsquos 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