In a league of their own

By this time of the year in the preIndian Premier League cricket era Ranji Trophy cricketers from Mumbai would have had their teeth into league cricket commitments in the United Kingdom where a platform to enhance skills and raise monetary stocks was on offerThe glitzy T20 tournament which world cricket dances to these days has in a way changed the dynamics of the cricket season However unbelievable it may sound the months of April and May heralded the offseason for competitive cricketers The Ranji Trophy would generally end in March at most April although one of the most thrilling of Ranji Trophy finalsmdashMumbai v Haryana in 1991mdashwas held in May For Ravi Shastri his county commitment to Glamorgan prevented him from being part of that particular seasonrsquos climax made famous by the Kapil Devled teamrsquos narrow win for a maiden Ranji triumphThere was a bit of glamour involved in cricketers flying out to England It lit a flame of ambition among the younger lot coming through the ranks as wellJatin Paranjape left Sairaj Bahutule and Paras Mhambrey indulge in some legpulling Picmidday archivesThe 1980s and 1990s saw a good number of Mumbai players in English leagues But it was not unprecedented Batting great Vijay Manjrekar the father of batsmanturnedcommentator Sanjay was a regular in the leagues and so was celebrated allrounder Vinoo Mankad and legspin titan Subhash GupteOne of the most fascinating stories concerning the great Mankad had a league cricket connection to it In February 1952 Mankad claimed 12 wickets to give India its firstever Test match triumphndashagainst the MCC England toured under the Marylebone Cricket Club banner till 197677 In two monthsrsquo time Vijay Hazarersquos Indian team were scheduled to tour England for a fourTest series Mankad wanted an assurance from the selectors that he would be taken on the tour because Haslingden Cricket Club offered him a contract which was worth pound1200 The BCCI couldnrsquot guarantee him a spot so Mankad went ahead and played for Haslingden He didnrsquot want to put club before country but couldnrsquot afford to be left in the lurch eithermdashmissing out on a league contract and not playing for India on tour The Indian team began the tour in disastrous fashion Haslingden was requested by the Indian team bosses to release Mankad The Lancashire club laid down three conditionspound100 pounds to be paid to Mankad pound200 to the club and a suitable professional be made available for the club in the absence of Mankad The allrounder arrived for the opening Test at Leeds but Haslingdenrsquos conditions were not met so Mankad could only watch as his India team lost by seven wickets A settlement was reached for the second Test at Lordrsquos a game which has gone down in cricket folklore as lsquoMankadrsquos Testrsquo Although the Indian team could not avoid defeat Mankad scored 72 and 184 while opening the innings apart from claiming 5196 in Englandrsquos first inningsIn November 1962 Mankad recommended Maharashtra and Baroda firstclass batsman Vijay Bhosale to a Lancashire League club called Darwen The prolific batsman who also played for Mumbai wore Darwen colours for two seasons in 1963 and 1964 Bhosale 86 who is currently in New Zealand recalled getting pound400 to pound500 for the season and a pound300 hike the following year Bhosalersquos consistency impressed the club authorities In his first year he fell short by 30 runs to become their highestscoring professional in a season The following year he surpassed West Indian professional Ken Richardsrsquos 848 record runs to go down as a remarkable heavy scorer in the clubrsquos history When not wielding his willow on the league greens Bhosale worked for Belgrave Wallpaper thereA newspaper clipping of Sameer Dighe kneeling second from right with his Ossett CC teammatesIn the late 1980s Mumbai Ranji Trophy batsman Zubin Bharucha arrived at Reigate Priory CC in Surrey to begin a decadelong playing association with the club ldquoI was introduced to the club through Parsee Cyclists a club in Mumbai teammates Firdaus Shroff and Rohinton Iranpur who was particularly keen I go and play in England It was very kind of Firdaus to make way for me to play at Reigate CC a very magnanimous decision by him at the time I never played for any other clubrdquo said Bharucha 54 who is now Rajasthan Royalsrsquos Director of High Performance It is here where he set things in motion for a successful coaching career ldquoWhile at Reigate Priory I got together with a group of fellow youngsters and started a firm which undertook odd jobs like painting and grasscutting A lot of the commercial work was done through the night and we had to finish before the mall opened the next morning It was all great fun and quite a diverse set of learnings for someone coming from Mumbai and not exposed to this way of liferdquo he addedAfter displaying his batting and quicksilver fielding skills for Reigate Bharucha was asked if he would be a sports teacher at a small prep school at Banstead a town near Reigate ldquoObviously it the job involved cricket and thatrsquos when my cricket coaching career kicked off I was 17 at the time and coaching 15yearoldsrdquo he revealedMeanwhile the club prospered from a team languishing at the bottom of the table in Division 2 to a premiership team flush with players who went on to play firstclass cricket including Jason Roy who played a good hand in Englandrsquos ODI World Cup triumph in 2019 Bharucha recommended legspinner Sairaj Bahutule to Reigate a club the former India legspinner played for a number of yearsJatin Paranjape at Thornhill right Alan Sippy with the kids he coached in the UK PicAlan Sippy CollectionApart from lessons learnt while playing in English conditions Bahutule developed as a person ldquoA lot of understanding of yourself takes place in those months spent in England The five months teach you get yourself organised because yoursquove got to do everything yourself You start being independentrdquo said Bahutule 51 who stayed away from parttime jobs because cricket had to be his focusParas Mhambrey the current India bowling coach recalled spending no less than eight seasons in England His days at Maidenhead Cricket Club near London were most memorable He also played in Huddersfield Yorkshire and spent a few nights working at a petrol pump Mhambrey revealed that money was an issue in the initial years but as onersquos performance and reputation grew the returns turned handsome The pressure of being the clubrsquos only professional can be daunting ldquoAs a pro you are expected to perform You had to perform for your next yearrsquos contract Other clubs would notice your performance and an offer could well come along Yoursquod never know which club would be looking for a pro for their next seasonrdquo said Mhambrey 51 who ended up making his Test debut in England in 1996With no restriction on the number of overs a bowler can bowl in limited overs cricket Mhambrey revealed there were occasions when he had to bowl a massive amount of overs ldquoYour skills were covered rhythm and workload too so going to England helped your game And then you returned to India in time fit and ready for our domestic seasonrdquo stressed Mhambrey who used to carry a pressure cooker and recipes to keep his Indian taste buds happyA 1963 newspaper clipping from Vijay Bhosalersquos collection right A recent photograph of Vijay BhosaleRaju Kulkarni the fast bowler who went out of the game in the season Mhambrey made his debut for Mumbai under Sanjay Manjrekar in 199293 also featured regularly on the English greens During the Indian monsoons Kulkarni who figured in Tests against Australia and Pakistan in 198687 was able to sort out chinks in his armour get physically fitter and play on tirelessly Some of his trips were funded by the house of Mafatlals the team he initially played for in the Times Shield before Tata Sports Club Kulkarnirsquos trips will be chiefly remembered for two incidents as relayed to this writer on middayrsquos Mumbai Cricket Podcast Kulkarni helped out in the India nets and watched the Indian team play in Scarborough on their 1986 tour of England A friend who was to drop captain Kapil Dev and his wife Romi to London offered to give Kulkarni a lift to his Yorkshire home After the twohour drive they took a break in Kulkarnirsquos accommodation Romi prepared some toast while Kapil helped make the tea As the cricket star got ready to enjoy his cuppa in walked Kulkarnirsquos room partner He couldnrsquot believe his eyes and ran off to tell everyone in the area that the India captain was drinking tea at his houseThe other incident is not as pleasant Kulkarni was playing in a mustwin league game in Scotland He gave a batsman some chin music and one delivery hit him on the head Kulkarni and his teammates went up to the batsman to check what damage he had suffered Soon they saw a woman sprinting towards them When she confronted Kulkarni he discovered that it was the injured batsmanrsquos wife ldquoShe tried to slap me and told me that she was watching me for a while and accused me of trying my best to injure her husband Someone stopped her from slapping merdquo said KulkarniA president of a cricket club who was keen on photography captured the event and supplied the footage to the BBCOne of Kulkarnirsquos English summers were spent with Shishir Hattangadi in a caravan Like his Tata Sports Club teammate Hattangadi too went on to captain Mumbai Apart from the pressure to perform weekend after weekend the stocky former opener remembered how packing up and leaving immediately after a game was not appreciated by the club bigwigs ldquoI was told that I must socialise with the members after the game and buy rounds of drinks for them Through this tradition I ended up gulping down several glasses of orange juicerdquo recalled Hattangadi who played for Forfarshire CC in the Scottish leagueWhen not displaying his tight technique Hattangadi did groundsman duty whenever the regular curator was on leave worked at the bar and coached kids ldquoOne of the challenges was to ward off any overconfidence while facing notsogreat bowling and respect the conditionsrdquo he saidHattangadirsquos Tata Sports Club teammate Alan Sippy wore Furness CC in the North Lancashire League He told us that he enjoyed every bit of it and never felt ldquolost or lonelyrdquoOn nonmatch days southpaw Sippy mowed lawns and delivered medical supplies to the local hospital Sameer Dighe the former India and Mumbai captain who led the city to their 19992000 Ranji Trophy triumph spent 16 years playing for different clubs in the Bradford Huddersfield and Central Yorkshire leagues in the 1990s For him Bradford was the toughest league but his ldquoeight to nine yearsrdquo for Ossett CC in Central Yorkshire were rewardingDighe expressed his interest in playing league cricket to Milind Rege the former Mumbai captain who had roped him in as a youngster for Tata Sports Club ldquoRege Sir was kind enough to have a word with Sunil Gavaskar Sir He spoke to someone in Yorkshire and I got a club to play for Irsquom also grateful to Rege Sir for the permission to play in the UK because I knew a lot of players from Chennai who were not allowed to play in England while being employedrdquo said Dighe who figured in the third and final Test of the historic 2001 Test series against Australia in ChennaiJatin Paranjape played oneday international cricket for India in 1998 He impressed the English with his sublime batting while playing in Yorkshire For him dealing with homesickness was ldquoa real challenge especially when the weather was cold and rainyrdquoLefthanded Paranjape batted for Thornhill CC in the Central Yorkshire League and Yorkshire Bank CC in the Bradford LeagueThough the IPL is a welcome avenue for Indian cricketrsquos domestic toilers to perform in cutting edge competition if these former players got a chance to do it all again they would There would be no hesitation to get on a plane arrive settle down for a club stint and depending on where they play either listen to some Scottish bagpipes or sing lsquoOh to be in Englandrsquo