by Bhaskar Ramchandran, B. Tech, Mech E, H2
When I was a young boy (around 12), we used to play cricket in our building compound. The plot had one rectangular structure at the back and two squarish buildings in front. There was a passage between the two front buildings which served as our “pitch”
We used to play with tennis balls hence no protective gear was used. We were required to play down the line straight as otherwise the ball would hit one of the houses and many a time the resident of the house would confiscate the ball and game would wind up.
There was only one batting end. At the end of the over, we used to cross over so that the other guy would get to bat. Sometimes we had only one bat and we used to leave it at the batsman end while taking a run.
During festival time like Ganesh Chaturthi, Navaratri and Diwali, we used to have serious matches. Building 1&2 versus 3. I was a pretty good batsman amongst the boys there. Many of us tried to impress the girls watching us play from their balconies. I hit many sixers which used to land on Vincent Road (now called Ambedkar Road I suppose) along which trams used to run.
When I turned 15, we shifted to Chembur where there was a proper maidan to play. Here I started wicketkeeping and Farook Engineer was my idol. My father encouraged me to play as much as possible. He had taken me to witness a test match between India and England at Brabourne Stadium. More than the match, I enjoyed the cutlet at Purohit!
He also made me play badminton and I had witnessed a match between Han Jian and some Indonesian. Han Jian won the second game from 1-13 down. Those days a game was 15 points. I could never afford to play indoor badminton till I joined IIT
At IIT, cricket was not a very popular sport. but still I played for hostel 2 where Suzy (Himanshu Shah) was a good player. In one of the matches the ball, off Suzy’s bowling, took off the batsman’s raised bat and flew high towards third man boundary where I was fielding. I just blindly stuck my right hand out and the ball wouldn’t leave my hand!
In Telco (Tata Motors), there was a proper cricketing set up just outside the factory. I played quite regularly and played inter industry tournaments for a few years. I remember a couple of good innings during the inter-divisional tournament when I used to play for the Manufacturing division.
Since I was keenly interested in sports when I reached senior managerial level, I was appointed as Tata Motors Sports Committee chairman. We used to have regular cricket matches between the Pune plant staff and Mumbai marketing. These matches were played on common holidays like Republic Day, May 1st Labor Day and Independence Day, mostly at Pune but sometimes in Mumbai.
On one such occasion I took a hat trick with slow right arm spin. Rajeev Dubey, President of passenger car business was one of the victims. After the match, during the beer session, he told me, “I was waiting and waiting for your ball to arrive. It took so long that I fell asleep and got bowled.”
I treasure that hat trick ball as a memento!
During my tenure as the chairman of the sports committee, Milind Gunjal (former Maharashtra Ranji captain) was the Sports officer. We used to have an annual sports day wherein some well-known personalities used to grace the occasion as guest of honour. Dhanraj Pillay, Dilip Vengsarkar, Prakash Padukone were some of the prominent people. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 