Vijaypat Singhania’s love for cricket shaped a golden era of corporate teams

Vijaypat Singhania. File pic

Industrialist Vijaypat Singhania, who passed away in Mumbai on Saturday at 87 and was cremated the next day, was a massive cricket fan, former India all-rounder Karsan Ghavri said.

Ghavri, now 75, recalled how in the 1970s Singhania, then head of the Raymond Group, put together a formidable side under the leadership of Mansur Ali Khan ‘Tiger' Pataudi, who was nearing the end of his first-class career. Thanks largely to Singhania's equation with Pataudi, JK Sports Club quickly became a part of Mumbai's competitive inter-office cricket circuit.

The team had serious firepower. Alongside Pataudi were names like Salim Durrani, Hemant Kanitkar and the Amarnath brothers, Mohinder Amarnath and Surinder Amarnath. "Singhania Sir was very keen on cricket. He was involved in matches. [If we won], celebrations would happen the same night at a Marine Drive hotel," Ghavri said. He had joined JK Sports after a stint with Associated Cement Companies (ACC) and before moving to Nirlon Sports Club.

Karsan Ghavri, former Team India all-rounder

JK Sports Club finished runners-up to hosts Hyderabad XI in the 1975-76 Moin-ud-Dowlah Cup and according to their spinner Suresh Shastri, the former Rajasthan Ranji Trophy player, the team were flown down in a chartered flight with Singhania as pilot.

But for all its promise, the team didn't last long. Ghavri remembered: "We were playing ACC in the Times Shield at Cross Maidan. One of our Test players didn't turn up in the morning for the start of the game. Tiger thought he [Test player] was stuck in traffic and still put him in the XI. We batted first, but he hadn't come even by lunch. In fact, he didn't come at all," Ghavri said.

The next day, we're sitting in the tent [Singhania included] and see a newspaper headline saying he had scored a hundred somewhere else. Our opponents didn't allow a substitute, so we had to field with 10 players." That did not go down well with Singhania. "He was livid. That same evening, he told Tiger the team would not play cricket anymore. He said there was no point spending so much money if players wouldn't even turn up," Ghavri added.

Even so, Ghavri said the side held its own against some of the biggest corporate teams of the time. Ghavri underlined that though JK was a new team, thrown in to compete with experienced sides like Tatas, ACC, and Mafatlal, they gave a good account of themselves. "It was tough, but we competed well, especially against a team like Mafatlal, who played with 13 players - 11 cricketers and two umpires," he signed off.