Sunil Gavaskar did not don the flannels, but for two or three overs he played the role of an umpire. Dadar Union’s most famous cricketer along with his first India captain, Shivaji Park Gymkhana’s Ajit Wadekar and DU’s Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar and a lot more cricketers made the reunion match between old foes memorable at the Major Veer Dadkar Udyan at Matunga on Thursday.
Dadar Union won the 10-over match hands down, but Milind Rege, who sported the DU colours thought -- and rightly so considering the sentimental value of the match -- the bonding of the yesteryear players of both the teams was incredible. "It was brilliant; what nostaligia. Beer was flowing, Manjrekar and Paddy Shivalkar sang popopar numbers of the old days. There were around 500 spectators. And poor chap Dr. Pratap Raut was hammered by Dilip (Vengsarkar). It’s real was fun," said Rege.
The oldest among the lot was Chandu Patankar, 84; he presented the trophy to the winning DU captain Vasu Paranjape. Others present were Madhav Apte, 82, Karsan Ghavri and DU’s former left arm seamers Urmikant Modi, now an American resident and Jitendra Bhuta.
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Prakash Kelkar, Secretary, Shivaji Park Gymkhana, said that for fleeting moments the match appeared to be very serious with Suru Nayak bowling maiden overs. The two teams moved to the Matunga Gymkhana where Gavaskar made the luncheon interesting singing a cricket related song of the 1971 tour of the West Indies, tapping his fingers on the table.
Sanjay Manjrekar also related a story about the reason for his joining Dadar Union -- not his father’s team, Shivaji Park Gymkhana -- because Gavaskar and Vengsarkar played for Dadar Union and they were his role models then.
India’s former Test umpire Madhav Gothoskar of Shivaji Park Gymkhana made his presence felt, and another aspect that did not go unnoticed was the players getting ready for the match at 9. 15 a.m, when Vengsarkar had scheduled it at 10. 30 a.m. The match was played at Dadar Union’s pitch.
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