Remembering Ranji winning Captains ! - the MCA way !!

 

The FB page of ‘Mumbai Cricket Association’ (MCA) had this prominently featured : “remembering an icon of Mumbai cricket, an opening batsman and wicket keeper who captained us to 3 Ranji Trophy titles“.  Incidentally Sunil Gavaskar in his biography Sunny Days makes a specific mention of this former Cricketer, guess who?  - facilities at recently inaugurated gym there !!

Ranji Trophy is their Cup.  Mumbai (Bombay) has won the tournament the most times with 42 wins including 15 back-to-back wins from 1958–59 to 1972–73.  Tamil Nadu has won it twice !  - can you name the Captain on both the occasions and think of few players who played in those games ?

The  man MK Mantri - Madhavi Krishnaji Mantri  [1.9.1921 – 23.5.14)  played in four Test matches between 1951 and 1955. Born in Nasik, Maharashtra, he was a right-handed opening batsman and specialist wicket-keeper who played for Mumbai. He captained Mumbai to victory in three Ranji Trophy finals: 1951–52, 1955–56 and 1956–57. He captained Associated Cement Company to victory in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in 1962–63.

Mantri played his first Test against England in India in 1951–52 and toured England with the Indian team in 1952 (playing two Tests), and Pakistan in 1954–55 (one Test). His highest score was 200 for Mumbai in their victory over Maharashtra in a semi-final of the Ranji Trophy in 1948–49. It was the highest of nine centuries in a match in which 2376 runs were scored, which is still a record in first-class cricket.

He was among the four victims (others being Pankaj Roy, Dattajirao Gaekwad and Vijay Manjrekar) in India's miserable 0–4 start in the second innings of the Headingley Test of 1952 with Fred Trueman playing havoc.  Yes in the 2^nd innings, India was reeling at 0-4 !!

Until his death, he lived in Hindu Colony, Dadar, Mumbai, and was the oldest living Indian Test cricketer.  He was a national selector from 1964 to 1968 and the Mumbai Cricket Association president from 1988 to 1992. He was also manager of the Indian team on the England tour of 1990, and served as BCCI treasurer between 1990 and 1992.

There is this interesting trivia collated from Web :  Factually after the 5^th test in Delhi in 1961, after war between the Nations, there was no Cricket until Bishan Bedi’s team toured Pakistan in 1978.  Yet there was a tour of Indians who played there !!   Not a Test tour but one by a corporate team led by the late Madhav Mantri in 1961 that included at least five other Test players. The tour itself was born out of a series of coincidences, as Mantri explained in a book brought out by ACC Limited, where he was employed for 30-odd years. "In 1961, ACC's manager in Pakistan, an Englishman named Banks, wrote to our MD, suggesting that we send over a cricket team to Pakistan and use the money accumulated to fund the visit.  Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni, Ramakant Desai, Rusi Modi, Dilip Sardesai, among others spent a month in Pakistan playing matches against teams comprising Test players, at their Test centres - Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, and even Dhaka, right across India in what was then East Pakistan.  

In his autobiography, "Sunny Days",   Sunil Gavaskar wrote  that he was exchanged with a fisherman's baby at birth. It was his uncle (MK Mantri) who spotted that the child was not Sunil as he had a birthmark near his ear. "Perhaps, I would have grown up to be an obscure fisherman, toiling somewhere along the west coast," Gavaskar wrote.

MCA has time and feels the need to honour its ex-stars !!  -  Tamil Nadu, then playing as Madras won Ranji Trophy for the 1^st time in 1954-55.  They beat Holkar by 46 runs in the finals.  RB Alagannan was the Captain, Dl Chakravarthy (wk)- rest being S Balakrishna, M Suryanarayanan, AG Kripal Singh, CD Gopinath, MK Balakrishnan, J Ramakrishnan, BC Alva, AK Sarangapani & MK Murugesh.

Decades later Tamil Nadu clinched Ranji Trophy on 30^th Mar 1988 winning 1987/88 season beating Railways by an innings and 144 runs.  S Vasudevan was the Captain, D Girish (wk) – others – VB Chandrasekhar, UR Radhakrishnan, PC  Prakash, M Senthilnathan, V Sivaramakrishnan, Robin Singh, L Sivaramakrishnan, B Arun, M Venkatramana.  In the 2^nd innings Captain S Vasudevan, the left arm spinners had figures of 37-12-59-7. 

Now give an honest answer on how many TN Crickets fans know S VAsudevan ?

With regards- S Sampathkumar

4.9.2024.