Bombay and Cricket

[The Outsider]

Two things which have always fascinated and appealed to me. Love Bombay and love Cricket. The way the two come together in the city is simply amazing. I have been to Bombay only on a few occasions and never stayed for more than a week at stretch, but love the city, its passion, its feel and throb to bits. The way the ethos of the city translates into cricket can be a research topic for sociologists, but for anyone who has followed the Bombay Ranji team even fleetingly, the connections cannot be missed. The perfect combination of raw passion and professionalism is what defines Bombay and Bombay cricket. Their cricket team has defeated the Australian side within 3 days, something incomprehensible for all international teams. Guys like Sameer Dighe have stood up in the cauldrons of Chennai in a decider not only scoring the runs but playing mental games with someone like Steve Waugh urging him to bring on Collin Miller for one more over and then proceeding to thrash him for 7 runs off the over. Players like Powar and Agarkar keep on clawing and fighting their way into national contention despite their limited talents and continuous setbacks. A visit to the raw maidans of Bombay where all the budding cricketing action goes on is an education. Despite the fact that on many occasions a player is not sure which cricket ball belongs to which cricket match, they get yelled at for the misjudgement and whats more take it sportingly. Having played on similar maidans in UP, I can safely say that you can always put up a sheepish face and get away with the errors. Not in Bombay. That is hardcore cricket and hardcore professionalism. Here is hoping the culture remains intact.:two_thumbs_up:

[Cricketics]

have been to bombay a lot.. have lot of relatives over there.. watched many matches @ warnkehede too.. but i never played @ wankhede, the way i got to pay @ Delhi's kotla.. agree, the city has given birth to lot of great cricketers.. I used to go to my maasi's house over there.. and over there i had made lot of friends.. used to play cricket along with them whenever i used to visit there.... and that frankie and the neelkanth hotel...

[Lurker]

I like the history more than anything else when it comes to Mumbai cricket. It has richest history amongst any Indian team and a Mumbai All time XI might make for as good a team as an Indian all time XI.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[The Outsider]

BB, never got to observe the Bangalore cricket culture up close during my stay there (believe it or not, I was more or less off cricket for that one year). The point I was trying to get across was not pertaining the Tendulkars, Dravids, Viswanaths, and Gavaskars, but of the average Narayan Shinde, who would show a real fight. Compare how Sunil Joshi played in the Chennai test against Pakistan with Dighe in the Chennai test against Australia for example in very similar situations.

[Mr. Wicket]

shwetabh, the real difference is that the Bombay cricket culture goes right to the very roots. Kanga League, Harris/Times shield, even the off-season office competitions that attract a lot of players from elsewhere in the country. No other side in the country - heck, no other place in the world - has such a cricket culture, where that combination of passion, dedication, professionalism and sheer grit and balls are instilled in even kids aged 12 and 13 playing school cricket on wet pitches in the monsoons. Nice timing for this thread btw. I'm presently writing up a preview of sorts for the Bombay Ranji season.

[Ram]

There is something about cricket in Bombay, that sets it apart from cricket in other parts of India. Bombay is a happening place as far cricket is concerned,even otherwise.

[Lurker]

Yes Karnataka has a very rich cricket heritage as well. For a couple of decades the Ranji trophy contest was essentially a Karnataka - Mumbai affair anyway. Mumbai had good batsmen and Karnataka good bowlers. That said today Mumbai is hardly a cricket bastion. It is all history now. In that sense Karnataka is still holding onto its legacy.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest BossBhai]

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[Cricketics]

Well if you are talking about avg players then I put forward Brijesh PAtel and Roger Binny. Joshi himself is one of the gutsiest players around .... his 90 odd in our 1st evger test against BD helped save us from an embarrasing situation ... ALso there is our Venky Baba ...... who single handedly won us a Match against the old enemy Pak in England circa 1999 and who can forget his wicket of Aamir Sohail in "THAT" match circa 1996.

and that hand of 181 @ kolkata test and that 233 and unbeaten 72 @ adelaide from none other then THE WALL

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Lurker]

Here are some of the top class bowlers who have played for Karnataka, a veritable whos-who of Indian first class. Chandrashekhar Raghuram Bhatt Prasanna Kumble Srinath Roger Binny Sunil Joshi and many part timers like Dodda Ganesh etc. An all-time Karnataka XI will have the best bowling attach in India, period.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[The Outsider]

Point is not about cricketing records and successes. The top rung of cricketers will come through any system. It's the second/third rung cricketers of Bombay who are a notch above their peers from other places in pressure situations. Even a useless left armer like Kulkarni did his job of bottling up one end against the Aussies.

[Lurker]

^^ I suppose its the whole cultural thing. Just as Mumbai has had batsman, bangalore has had bowlers. And just as Maharastra team would essentially mean a Mumbai team, a Karnataka team meant a B'lore team. I do think historically Karnataka has been dealt hard blow, specially when it comes to oppertunity for a batsman. A quick name that comes to mind is Brijesh Patel. He did have as good a record as any in Domestic cricket but was not given as much oppertunity as he should have. Specially true in limited overs cricket. His style of batting was just perfect for it, wonder what happened.

[Mr. Wicket]

Point is not about cricketing records and successes. The top rung of cricketers will come through any system. It's the second/third rung cricketers of Bombay who are a notch above their peers from other places in pressure situations. Even a useless left armer like Kulkarni did his job of bottling up one end against the Aussies.

Very true. Karnataka and Bombay have both produced greats at the highest level - Merchant, Tendulkar, Hazare, Manjrekar (Vijay), Gavaskar, Kumble, Chandra, Dravid, Vishy, etc. Go a couple of rungs lower to the good/very good, and Bombay is set aside from just about every other team. Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Powar, Dighe, Jaffer, Muzumdar (very unlucky to never get an int'l go), Kuruvilla etc. BTW - remember the Karachi/Mumbai game that took place not too long ago in Karachi? Five players made their f/c debuts for Bombay. We still dominated Karachi through the game, with two tonning up. That's a testament to the sheer talent and mental strength there. There are very few teams I can think of who will be able to send in five debutants, and see so many immediately click like that in foreign conditions for their first match against very good opposition. Says a bit also about the depth of talent in the city. (And the fact that you had someone like Ajinkya Rahane slamming tons for India U19 for a long time before that - he'd have walked into any state team, but had to wait a long time to debut as he was playing for Bombay).

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest BossBhai]

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[Lurker]

The issue of 2nd rung players is again a matter of history. It was true in 80s and early 90s when Mumbai could bear the loss of a Lachand Rajput or a Chandrakant Pundit who could choose to play for Assam, West Bengal etc. Not so much today. Today if every team decided to play its strength there is no reason to think that Mumbai would overrun say even Gujrat(with Zaheer/Pathan bowling in tandem) let alone take on Bangalore/Karnataka with Dravid/Kumble