Another edition of the IPL cricket tournament has just begun so this is an appropriate time to recall one of the most important tournaments of the past – the Moin ud Dowla Gold Cup – which used to feature some of the biggest names in world cricket after it began in Hyderabad in 1931.
Many of the legendary names of cricket have crossed swords in this tournament.
They include Sir Jack Hobbs (who still holds the world record for the maximum runs in first class cricket - 61,760 runs with 199 centuries), his fellow England opener Herbert Sutcliffe, India’s C.K. Nayudu, Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Merchant (whose first class batting average of 71.64 is second only to Don Bradman), West Indies’ Learie Constantine and India’s opening bowlers Amar Singh and Mohammad Nissar. The latter was among the world’s fastest bowlers then.
The Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagaram (Vizzy) managed to rope in big names of international cricket and Hobbs and Sutcliffe (England’s Test openers) opened for his team which won the inaugural tournament. C.K. Nayudu scored a century and took seven wickets for the rival team.
In 1931-32, Freelooters XI - formed by Vizzy - chalked up one of the biggest victories on record when it beat Aligarh Muslim University by 432 runs in the final. For Freelooters in the first innings Vijay Merchant scored 157 and in the second innings Solabji Colah chipped in with 109 to guide the team to a huge win.
In 1934-35 the Maharaja of Patiala who was Vizzy’s rival in cricket matters, decided to form a team called The Retrievers which clashed with Freelooters in the final. Thanks to a century by Lala Amarnath and Mohammad Nissar’s eight wickets, Retrievers emerged victorious.
That match was important for Learie Constantine who reached 3500 runs and 300 wickets in first class cricket. Constantine, one of the leading West Indian players of those days, went on to serve as Trinidad's High Commissioner to UK and was knighted in 1962.
In the 1970s Ajit Wadekar, Bishen Bedi, Eknath Solkar, Abid Ali, M.L. Jaisimha, Sri Lankans Roy Dias, Duleep Mendis and Rohan Kanhai from West Indies and others took part. SBI won the trophy seven times. U Foam, Mafatlal and VST Colts also fielded players of national and international repute.
The tournament was considered to be the opener of the Indian cricket season but gradually it lost its sheen due to many reasons. But Hyderabad cricket fans hope that the days of glory will return.
