What all do cricket memorabilia junkies collect? Bats, balls, stumps… the list is endless. And somewhere in between, figure cricket-themed stamps. I remembered I have a modest stamp collection when one was released to commemorate the 150th year of Bombay Gymkhana’s existence. The south Mumbai gymkhana hosted India’s first home Test match in December 1933.

Stamp collecting was a late entrant to what Barclays World of Cricket, a massive book encompassing all aspects of the game, called “the field of cricketana”. Marcus Williams in the cricket tome wrote: “A group of windswept Atlantic islands forming the then Portuguese colony of Cape Verde were the unlikely pioneers, followed by Pakistan with two separate issues later the same year [1962]. Since then, collectors’ needs have been satisfied — sometimes sated — by a steady output of stamps, postmarks and special envelopes commemorating cricketing events and personalities from the major Test-playing countries and from more exotic spots such as Western Samoa, New Caledonia and Christmas Island.”