A good time to remember Marshall

Vithal ‘Marshall’ Patil at the Wankhede Stadium in 1995. PIC/MID-DAY ARCHIVES

With the Kanga League atmosphere prevailing in Mumbai cricket, it is a good time to remember Dadar Union Sporting Club's departed stalwart Vithal ‘Marshall' Patil.

Marshall (a nickname given to him by Test great Polly Umrigar) holds the record for the most career wickets in the premier division - 759. He once spoke to me at length about his Kanga League journey. It all began in 1951, when he played for Brothers CC. "A senior player there used to take hours to return from lunch and I remember another chatting up his girlfriend on the boundary line. I then decided that this is not the club for me and joined Dadar Union in 1952, even though I knew I would have to sit out most of the games," Marshall said.

His wait for a place in the XI was shorter than he anticipated. A game against CCI at Brabourne Stadium was not expected to start on time due to heavy rain at Dadar. Some players did not turn up at the Churchgate venue and Marshall got his chance. It kicked off an amazing run with the club that lasted until the early 1980s, when the medium-pacer quit playing.

"Patil Sir was a very disciplined bowler. People spoke about his swing but I didn't see much of that. His partner Urmikant Mody was a big swinger of the ball. With due respect, I didn't have too many difficulties facing Marshall. But he bowled a nagging line and length. My father enjoyed batting against him more than me and he still holds the record for the highest wickets in the league. He was also our selector," Sandeep Patil told me on Tuesday.

At King George school, Marshall had played only with a tennis ball. The leather ball came into his life only after he joined Ruia College. He was picked for two Ranji Trophy games (in 1956-57 and 1957-58) but was dropped by the Mumbai think-tank. It left him "shocked."

The Kanga League, however, became Marshall's domain. He foxed many a top batsman during Dadar Union's title triumphs. One of his most cherished performances was 8-20 in the 1960s against Parsi Cyclists, who had Test players such as Polly Umrigar, Nari Contractor, and Rusi Surti, besides other big names in Mumbai cricket like Mehli and Behram Irani.

His finest hour came on July 19, 1981, when he went past Behram Irani's Kanga League wickets tally of 743 at the age of 54. He claimed four of the five Khar Gymkhana wickets to fall as the suburban side chased a small target at Matunga after Dadar Union had been bowled out for 62. A late start prevented a result.

The record was his. But Marshall's contribution to Mumbai cricket went far beyond his wickets. He guided cricketers during and after his playing days at Dadar Union. And in Sunny Days, Sunil Gavaskar captured his contribution to cricket in glowing terms.

"Morning and evening he would bowl to aspiring young cricketers, find the chinks in their armour and guide them accordingly. In later years, his bowling lost its sting because the nip off the wicket was gone and the batsmen had enough time to change their strokes. However, his length never wavered. If there is one man who has taken a great deal of interest in my cricket and encouraged me at every step it is Marshall. Often he would drop in at our house late after dinner and say, ‘Sunny, century tomorrow.' I think he had more confidence in my cricketing ability than I had myself," wrote Gavaskar in his bestselling 1976 autobiography.

As coach of Podar College, Marshall provided several collegians with an opportunity to play for Dadar Union. Among them was left-arm spinner Salil Shah, who was told one day at the Podar nets that he would be playing for the club. "Dadar Union's regular left-arm spinner Ghulam Shaikh passed away at a young age and I was asked by Patil Sir to join Dadar Union. It was merely a nice feeling then, in the early 1980s, but it turned awesome when I actually played for them," Shah told me earlier this week. Dadar Unionites Dilip Vengsarkar and Manjrekar, too, were his students.

Among Marshall's Podar students who played for other clubs were future Mumbai captains Ravi Shastri and Shishir Hattangadi. His dedication as supervisor of the BCA summer camps was reflected in his travels to distant suburbs to ensure that the camps were run smoothly. It was another example of a man who never seemed to tire of giving to Mumbai cricket.

Marshall gave the best years of his life to the game before passing away in 2014. And a lot of those years, particularly the monsoon months, were spent either bowling in the Kanga League or guiding Dadar Union. There were wickets, records, and a couple of Ranji Trophy appearances. But perhaps his greatest contribution was the generation of cricketers he encouraged and pushed towards the game.
It is as if Dadar Union's motto - Union is Strength - was scripted for men like Vithal ‘Marshall' Patil.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.