The finale: SRT200….a view from the President’s box
Written on November 17th, 2013
Last morning I got up with a mild headache……..the result of some reckless overindulgence with a Glenlivet 18 year old. It was just that the night before my closest buddy Shailu and I were catching up at my place after many months. Among many other things, we were reminiscing over our cricket playing days with Sachin. These matches were during our school days, thereafter the gap became insurmountable. Not that most of the other 1.2 billion Indians were discussing anything other than Sachin but having played with and against him took our chat well past midnight. We also debated on various matters – why did he not retire after the World Cup 2011, why with so much Tamasha, why against a weak side like the West Indies and what will he do post retirement. All these are not a part of this story. This story is of possibly one of the most memorable days of my life – being present at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s President’s Box on the last day of SRT 200 and oh lest I forget – watching a cricket Test match between India and West Indies.
Shailu and I headed to the Wankhede stadium in a Meru cab which promptly arrived at my home at 8 in the morning and rather surprisingly had a very polite driver who said a “Namaste” and to top that wished us “Good morning” as well. Perhaps being aware of our destination and the significance of the day must have made the cabby turn a new leaf albeit for a day. We were keen to reach well before the start of the game and as planned we entered the air conditioned box at 8:50 am where we were perhaps among the first few who had gathered. In fact we walked into the box along with Anjali, Sara and Arjun who seemed quite restless. I overheard Arjun telling his security guard to take him to where all the ball boys had gathered rather than give him any special status. I was impressed by this gesture and hope he retains this humility in the coming years. Once in the box we first identified a couple of good seats for us and then went over to supervise a sumptuous breakfast spread of eggs to order, fresh fruits, cakes, pongal, sabudana wada and a lot more . Must thank the BCCI President N Srinivasan who must have ordered Pawar to ensure that the pongal got the pride of place on the buffet table. I relish pongal!
Post a quick brekker, since there were still very few people around, we went over to Sachin’s mother and Ajit Tendulkar and introduced ourselves. Coincidentally, Sachin’s mother had consulted on different occasions with our fathers who are both doctors. She promptly recalled the same or at least we believed she did. Ajit recognized us from our names that we had played against his brother and also remembered a key match that we had played against Sachin; this was incidentally our last school game against Sachin where he had scored a double hundred. We wished them both well and went to our seats. By then with 15 minutes to go for the start of play, the box was getting busier with people trickling in fast – people of a mix typical of what Mumbai nowadays is all about. The dominant group were politicians not just from the city but from far and beyond, local corporators, so called officials of various cricket clubs & gymkhanas in this city who sadly control the state of cricketing affairs and a lone film star in Chiranjeevi surrounded by his 12 “yes men” in various local and international attires.
I was dreading that the day would turn out to be ordinary, watching along with this pathetic bunch without doubt the weakest West Indian team to play in India. But pleasantly and not surprisingly there were many ex Mumbai and India cricketers present as well. One among them was Mr. Umesh Kulkarni – my coach in 1984 when I represented Bombay Under -15. For those of you who don’t know him – Mr. Kulkarni (not related to Raju Kulkarni or Nilesh Kulkarni) played 4 test matches for India in the late sixties and is famous for dismissing the legendary Aussie opener Bill Lawry on the first ball he bowled to him in the 2nd innings of his debut Test match at the Adelaide Oval. I was thrilled to meet him and as he sat next to me, we chatted. It was heartening to hear that he is still involved with the game as a coach and mentor to physically disabled cricketers organizing annual tournaments along the same format as the Ranji Trophy. For the last many years, he along with Ajit Wadekar has been organizing this 4 month long tournament where 700 odd physically disabled sportsmen play cricket. Now they plan to take this concept global. Truly amazing!
So clearly my day had kicked off well but I did not know that there would be many more such pleasant encounters during the next few hours. Next I met Dilip Doshi – one of India’s much respected left arm spinner, who had he been born in a different era would have gone on to play a 100 Test Matches for India. Unfortunately, he got to play only after Bedi had long gone and by then he was 32 years old. Nonetheless most of you will recall the potent bowling combination he made with Kapil Dev between 1979 & 1983. However I know Dilip as a successful entrepreneur and a gem of a human being. I discovered this during my stint with Montblanc while he was representing the brand in India. For 5 years between 2007 and 2012, I used to meet him twice every year – once during the watch show in Geneva and the other occasion was the Montblanc global marketing meet. I found chatting with him a refreshing experience. And I got my quota of refreshment that morning. Fortunately for me and Shailu, he spent the bulk of the day seated next to us in the company of various ex cricketers and his friends. One such gentleman happened to be Raghuram Rajan – the present RBI Governor. When Dilip introduced me to him, I promptly thanked Mr. Rajan for all the hard work he is putting in to get our economy back on track. Adding that perhaps he is the only person working within the Government. During our chat, he came across as a very nice & humble person and who luckily for me is a Villeroy & Boch aficionado.
As the wickets started tumbling to some very ordinary stroke play, I could see that Clive Lloyd and Brian Lara who were seated a couple of rows in front were getting visibly uncomfortable and perhaps would have either wanted to hide under their seat or get on to the playing field to give their players and our bowlers a lesson in saving a Test Match. In spite of seeing Lara’s embarrassment, I managed to get his autograph on the specially printed match ticket which has Sachin’s photograph. Something that I will be proudly putting up on my “legend’s wall” at home.
While we were enjoying these lovely moments, we also encountered some truly bizarre and uncivilized behaviour by the other lot – many small time politicians and their cronies were getting their photographs clicked next to and with Anjali, Sara, Lara, Lloyd and the rest. Posing with them as if they were dumb statues and paid for Museum exhibits. And then there was another bunch that paid their respects and did their bit with Sharad Pawar, Raj Thackeray and Ajit “dada” Pawar. Here I noticed our Chief Minister Mr. Prithviraj Chauhan with his demeanor and dressing sense exhibit the difference between the ruthless & unethical politicians and a technocrat politician. The star entertainer of the morning was a 3 feet 4 inches politician who seemed to have been from some small town in Maharashtra. He had a fixed grin on his face that remained unchanged throughout the day. He was wearing a white safari suit and was decked in a rose gold watch, 5 gold rings, a gold rimmed aviator and a gold plated Montblanc pen. Ah and also a saffron tikka on his forehead. He was jumping from one personality to another like a confused child lost in a toy store or rather at the Madame Tussauds – standing next to them in various poses irrespective of the fact whether the other person was obliging him or not. It was disgusting! Many more like him performed similar stunts during the morning but let me not waste our time on this breed.
The match finally ended at 11:45 am and then emotions got the better of me. As I saw Sachin walk back to the pavilion for one last time surrounded by his teammates – I got a bit teary eyed. I may have critised a different facet of his life in my earlier blog, but this was an emotional moment. He had served the game tirelessly. It just got a bit more for me as he spoke and went around doing the lap of honour.
Finally it was all over and we moved towards the lunch buffet spread which looked as inviting as the breakfast spread – Khowsuey, neer dosa, khandwi, sushi, mangalorean fish curry, dahi wada, chicken masala, cauliflower schezwan and some veg stuff – a spread as disparate as the crowd in the President’s box. Dessert consisted of a brownie, moong halwa and a fruit custard. Looking at the overflowing plates of many people, I reckon one will soon hear from Pawar how he is taking care of malnourishment amongst grown adults within MCA.
When we thought that it was time to get going, in walked Sachin in his whites into the box along with his wife and kids. He wanted to meet his mum, his family and in laws. He somehow managed to do that before the VIPs swarmed him pushing, jostling and shouting at one another to get him in the same frame as them or their wife and kid. Shailu and I waited patiently near the exit and as he walked past us, we realized that we had witnessed not just a historic day but a day which threw open many faces of human behaviour and conduct. And to think of how Sachin had masterfully managed them all over the last 24 years!!