When the prep was peppy!

The Mumbai cricket teamrsquos preparation for BCCIrun 202425 domestic tournaments began on a damp note with the Ranji Trophy champions failing to progress to the Buchi Babu tournament semifinals in Coimbatore last weekTamil Nadu Cricket Association TNCA XI beat Mumbai by 286 runs in what must have been an extremely satisfying win over a Mumbai side that had three India batsmenmdashcaptain Sarfaraz Khan Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer Incidentally Tamil Nadu were outwitted by Mumbai in last seasonrsquos Ranji Trophy semifinalThe Buchi Babu tournament has served as good preparation for Mumbai teams in another era and the participation of Sarfaraz Khan amp Co reminded one of the Mumbai influence in this tournament during the 1980sChandrakant Pandit who has been such a successful domestic cricket coach never tires of remembering how Mafatlal Sports Club captain Ashok Mankad made him skipper of the team in the early 1980s despite him still being in his teens The decision to make Pandit captain was taken on a train journey to Chennai for the Buchi Babu during which the late Mankad expressed the need to relieve himself of the captaincy and choose young Pandit as his successor A shocked Pandit spent the night in his train cabin wondering how he would cope with his responsibility even as he was trying to forge a successful firstclass career for MumbaiOn reaching Chennai Pandit sought an appointment with the exiting skipper to ask what if he had to take some decisions like moving Eknath Solkar from short leg to short extra cover or asking Mankad to leave the slip cordon for another position Mankad assured Pandit that he could take whatever decisions he needed to take and he was always there to show him the wayThe Mafatlal team were packed with domestic pros like exTest men Solkar Brijesh Patel Parthasarathy Sharma Dhiraj Parsanna and Mankad himselfThere was no shortage of stars in the Nirlon team who made a mark in the Buchi Babu tournament Probably the first taste of highly competitive cricket the 1983 World Cupwinning team indulged in was the Buchi Babu tournament in August before Kapil Devrsquos side played host to Pakistan and West Indies in a nineTest home season of 198384The Nirlon team which shared the trophy with State Bank of India because the bankmen ended up with 2576 in response to Nirlonrsquos 340 included World Cuppers Sunil Gavaskar Sandeep Patil Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Ravi Shastri apart from Karsan GhavriAnil Joshi who kept wickets for Nirlon in this edition remembered how Sandhu bamboozled the TNCA Presidentrsquos XI batsmen with his swinging deliveries during an effort which yielded five wickets in an inningsSandhu told me on Tuesday how a delivery from him injured State Bankrsquos Gundappa Vishwanath A concerned Sandhu ran down to check if his 198283 Pakistan tour colleague was fine and apologised profusely Vishwanath assured him that he hadnrsquot dealt with the delivery well and hence the injury Sandhu hasnrsquot stopped apologising to genial VishwanathGulu Ezekiel the cricket writer and historian wrote in The Indian Express that Vishwanath started his innings with two fluent drives but the crowdrsquos disappointment ldquowas most acute when Sandhu got one to rise venomously off the seam from a good length to strike Vishy under the left eye Vishwanath collapsed on the pitch in pain and was taken to hospital for preliminary Xrays Fortunately a big bruise was the only extent of the injuryrdquoThe following year Patil led Nirlon to another shared title triumph again with State Bank who had Yashpal Sharma and Ashok Malhotra batting for them Nirlon piled up 4879 declared Gavaskar 124 and State Bankrsquos 3594 included centuries by the two Test batsmen from north IndiaNever short of a prank Patil announced to the media that his team would present Gavaskar with a car in the evening of the final He didnrsquot go back on his promise but it was a miniature car ldquoSunil couldnrsquot stop laughing when I opened the small box and took out a Dinky car which our local manager Bhupathi got from a toy shoprdquo Patil told me on WednesdayAfter two successive shared triumphs it was time for some solelyowned silverware Patil ensured that in 1985 The September 1023 event coincided with the Indian teamrsquos tour to Sri LankaIn the final against TNCA XI Nirlon restricted their opponents to 244 and then amassed 436 which included a 148 by Sanjay Manjrekar who according to Partab Ramchandrsquos report in Sportsworld magazine batted for six and a half hours Nirlon could well have missed making their third straight final had Patil not called correctly when the toss decided which team will go through when rain came down with Nirlon struggling at 3738 in reply to Hyderabadrsquos 416Mumbai went on to claim Ranji Trophy honours in two 198384 and 198485 of the three mentioned Buchi Babu tournamentsHopefully the current city team will buckle up tightly in their remaining practice games and put themselves in a good position to claim Ranji Trophy title No 43middayrsquos 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