Surendra Bhave- EKLAVYA!

एकलव्यं  हि  साण्गुष्ठम्षक्ता  देव दानवाः।

स राक्षसोरगाः पार्थ विजेतुं युधि कर्हिचित्।।

Meaning- Krishna tells Arjuna that if Eklavya hadn't lost his thumb, then he would have been invincible.

Maharashtra is one of the only two states which fields three teams in our premier domestic tournament which is the Ranji Trophy. The state is brimming with talent. But there is a gigantic gulf between the number of players being awarded with the Indian cap from Mumbai than Vidarbha/Maharashtra. The selectors of the 80s and 90s were only interested in players who could score in the crunch games and were trophy hunters. Maharashtra didn't win a major tournament in those two decades. Hrishikesh Kanitkar made it to the team because he was just too good to be ignored, but players like Sugwekar, Salgaonkar etc were sidelined. Abhijit Kale had to resort to unfair means to get the Indian cap. The spotlight today is on a player whose exclusion from the Indian team is baffling. We are talking about Surendra Sriram Bhave.

Bhave was born in Pune on 30th March 1966 and made his debut for Maharashtra in the 19866-87 season. He wasn't a regular member till 1988-89 when he took the tournament by storm by scoring 730 runs at an average of 91.25. Out of his four tons that season, the best was 274 which he scored against a formidable Dilip Vengsarkar led Mumbai. He was Mumbai's worst nemesis all his career. Mumbai and Maharashtra shared a vehement rivalry during the 90s, when Bhave captained the Maharashtra side. Bhave's critics always called him a "flat track bully", to which he jokingly replied that it had to be someone from the Mumbai team who started this campaign.

Bhave was setting the domestic scene ablaze in the late 80s and early 90s. India had just lost Srikkanth and Gavaskar who hung their boots and Bhave being an opener should have been the ideal candidate for the Indian cap, but it never materialized. What is even more perplexing is that Sidhu who was our first choice opener in the 90s always struggled for a settled partner.

Bhave scored seven double hundreds in his career, out of which three were scored in the year 1992. Such was his consistency that it wasn't until 1997-98 that he ended a season with an average under 50 and he never scored less than 800 runs from 1992-93 to 1996-97. His best performance 292 came against south zone when he was playing for west zone in the Duleep trophy in 1994. His vigil lasted 739 minutes. Apart from Mumbai, he fancied playing against Saurashtra and plundered them for 1471 runs at 91.93 including seven hundreds.

The closest he came to getting the Indian cap was when he represented India A in the SAARC quadrangular series in 1992-93. He scored 81 against the Sri Lankans and India reached the finals. Unfortunately, the series was called off courtesy a riot in Dhaka.

After calling it a day, Bhave opted for coaching and also served as a selector. Kedar Jadhav is his protege. Ask him about Kedar and he will just not stop talking.

After retirement, Bhave once said in an interview that he made a little promise to himself that he wouldn't be a "bitter former cricketer". He chased the Indian cap madly, there was no doubt about it, but he wasn't bitter about it.

If there was hue and cry about Amol Mazumdar who averaged 48+, then why not about a player who averaged 58+?

Mahi ab nahi maarega!

Since 2015/16, I was ardently waiting for this day, but when I heard the news of Dhoni's retirement, I felt lachrymose. Yes, I am no more a Dhoni fan, but there was a time when I was a Dhoni fanatic. The fans are perhaps the most treacherous beings on this planet. We go gaga when a person is at the top and we are the first to abandon them when they fall. Hitherto, there haven't been a sportsperson who was at the top of his/her game throughout his/her career and Mahi was no different, but his purple patch was longer than many players's whole career.

Nevertheless, Dhoni was, is and will always will be one of the biggest pillars of India's glorious cricket history. I still remember the days, when all our wicket keepers used to do was keep wickets and score paltry 20-30 runs and we were content with that. We used to dream about having someone like Gilchrist and we never thought in our wildest dreams that we will get someone who is arguably better than Gilchrist. If you ask me, I feel Dhoni is better than Gilly.

If we go down the memory lane, there are umpteen number of instances of daredevilry of Mahi. But the clincher has to be the 2011 world cup winning six, which was something dreams are made of- winning the world cup via a six, this has happened just once and Dhoni did it. You will find every ICC trophy in Mahi's cabinet and that speaks volumes about the calibre of the man. He was a phenom, a once in a generation player, but his virtue which I am a fan of is his "tight-lipped-ness". I am a fidgety person. I am always on tender hooks, but being calm for 19 goddamn years, unresponsive to all the mud slinging and still performing unperturbed is a stuff of LEGENDS. There are only two people who are blessed with this virtue- Mahi and Sachin.

I know I have not been an ideal fan, but thank you Mahi. Thank you for everything, especially for Rohit Sharma, Ashwin and Jadeja. We are forever indebted to you. May you live long and prosper!!

"Gardaa udaa diyalah marde". "Jeeya Jwaan". (Bhojpuri)

Palwankar Baloo- Karna of Indian cricket!

KARNA!

सूतो वा सूतपुत्रो वा यो वा को वा भवाम्यहम्।

दैवायत्तं कुले जन्म मदायत्तं तु पौरुषम्॥

Translation- Whether I am a weaver or his son, whoever or whatever I am, the birth in this family was given by my Daiva or fate. But the prowess and power I have accomplished are by my own self.

Few days back, I saw a lachrymose Michael Holding reciting a passionate account of how his parents faced racism, when he was growing up. I was moved by what Holding said. It made me look into Indian cricket history, if we had anything remotely germane to the bias which the black people used to face in the past. In India, we have casteism which is not far from racism.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I stumbled upon the story of Palwankar Baloo. There is no better way to put this, so he was the first Dalit to play cricket. He was born into the Chambhar caste in Dharwad(this place is famous for its "pede", a sweet), Bombay presidency on 19th March, 1876. His father was a sepoy in the 112th infantry regiment of the British Indian army.

Baloo used to be a pitch curator for the Parsees in Pune. Occasionally, he used to bowl to J. G. Greig, an english batsman of the British Poona gymkhana. He used to bowl left arm orthodox spin. In 1896, he moved to Bombay and started playing for Parmanandas Jivandas Hindu gymkhana. He was a part of "Maharaja of Patiala's" Indian team which toured England in 1911. The tour was a disaster, but Baloo was the stand out performer.

During his playing days, he faced a lot of biases. During the lunch breaks or tea, he wasn't allowed to enter the dressing room. He was served his meal/snacks outside via a dalit attendant, in disposable plates.

He moved on from cricket and in 1910s became pals with Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar. He was a devout Gandhian and was strictly against dalits converting to other religions. His friendship with Ambedkar ceased when the latter converted to Buddhism. He contested against Ambedkar twice and lost the elections by a small margin. He died in 1955.

When I was going through his story, I couldn't help but compare Baloo's life with the mythological character KARNA, the invincible warrior who didn't get what he deserved.