Clayton Murzello: Cricketers who were in good books

A few days after his 1009 Pranav was to play a club match an event that would attract massive media attention And while a sense of expectancy filled the air news trickled in on Saturday that Pranav would not play the game His upcoming prelims were cited as a reason ill health too For the time being the 15yearold managed to escape from a heavy cloud of expectations Come to think of it a good or poor show in that club match would never have had a soothing affect on him with his SSC examinations close at handNothing gets more basic than matriculation and Pranavrsquos guardians at home and on the cricket field did well to keep him away from that gamePranav Dhanawade a 15yearold high school student who broke a cricketing record after amassing an unbeaten 1009 in a Bhandari Cup interschool match at Kalyan on January 6 File picWhile Indian cricket is replete with stories about heroics education was always given its due importance Letrsquos go back to the Gavaskar era The batting iconrsquos childhood friend Milind Rege recalled how they were both made to appear for their prelims just before their final degree examinations at St Xavierrsquos College in the late 1960s ldquoAfter 45 days of nonstop cricket for the Rohinton Baria interuniversity competition we were given three days to prepare for subjects like Economics Statistics History and English Sunil and I spent three days and three nights with our books and on the fourth day we were made to give our exams on a long meeting table in a hall with Sunil and I at either end and Fr Emil DrsquoCruz supervising us Fr DrsquoCruz did not tell us how many marks we got but the message was sent out lsquoYou canrsquot go scotfree You have got to studyrsquo And this helped usrdquo said Rege who also recalled how Gavaskarrsquos mother refused to let them go on an India schoolboys cricket tour because their examinations were around the cornerA few years ago Ravi Shastrirsquos mother told me how firm she was when it came to the allrounder getting his degree never mind the fact that he was an India player Shastri was summoned to New Zealand in 1981 when regular leftarm spinner Dilip Doshi was injured and while he was on tour playing for the country she submitted her sonrsquos forms for him to appear for the BCom examinations on his returnSanjay Manjrekar is eternally grateful to Lalita Paranjape the wife of Vasu a mentor to several Mumbai cricketers for arranging tuitions while Manjrekarrsquos focus was fully on cricket during his college years He remembered the lsquoSanjayIhavelinedupthreetuitionsforyoursquo telephonic conversation as if it was yesterday She got the best professors to lsquocoachrsquo cricketbusy Manjrekar who admitted ldquoHad Mrs Paranjape not taken complete control I donrsquot know how successful I would have been in achieving that educational qualification BCom so full credit to herrdquoIn 1976 Dilip Vengsarkar appeared for his final year BCom examinations and left for Delhi that evening to play the next day for Bombay against the Rest of India in the Irani Trophy With no proper practice he scored 90 as Gavaskarrsquos opening partner and stayed unbeaten on 13 in the second innings to help Bombay win by 10 wickets Mission accomplished on both the education and cricket frontDilip Sardesai who graduated from Wilson College in Mumbai was coerced according to his wife Nandini into doing his MA at Siddharth College by the institutionrsquos cricketing torchbearer VB Prabhudesai so that he could play for Siddharth Nandini a professor also recalled cricketers over the years coming to her for academic guidanceChandrakant Patankar played just one Test for India in 195556 but he is one of the few cricketers with a doctorate In 1985 Patankar did his PhD at the age of 55 in Materials Management something he was most interested in while working for Laxmi Vishnu Mills Nearly 30 years after completing his MSc Patankar had no problems spending hours with books again Although his tenure in the textile industry ended a few years after his Phd he has no regrets for doing it Patankars accomplishment pleased his father no end He was the one who led him to the road of his doctorate and he lived for 100 years Talking about fathers former offspinning great Erapalli Prasannas father was very keen that his son completes his engineering According to the tweaker in his book One More Over Prasanna Sr was reluctant to send his son for the 196162 tour of the West Indies because he would lose a year in his engineering course Prasanna went and 20 days after he returned from the Caribbean his father passed away He wrote ldquoMy fathers death was a great shock to me and I decided then and there that my studies would come first and cricket afterwards I had to complete my courserdquoPrasanna dedicated his 1977 autobiography published by Rupa amp Co with the words ldquoDedicated to MY FATHER who gave first priority to education and helped me to become both an Engineer and a Test Cricketerrdquomiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom