Leo made it memorable

Argentina’s football legend Lionel Messi greets fans during his GOAT Tour at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on December 14. Pic/AFP

The Messi visit, the Kolkata storm notwithstanding, will be the most talked about sporting appearance on our shores for a while. It was well publicised and provided an opportunity for the privileged to meet and greet him in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. Not all stories of their once-in-a-lifetime experiences have been heard through the media. Down the years we will hear what Sachin Tendulkar actually said to him at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Or, for that matter, what Ajay Devgn and son Yug as well as Tiger Shroff noticed about the Argentine great while sharing the stage with football royalty.

By the way, many of us wondered why the trio were part of the Sunday show. Reportedly, Shroff is the brand ambassador for the Maha Deva football initiative and Devgn apparently was present since he played football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in Maidaan. How many times we have seen celebs tell their interviewers, ‘Now this is something I have never revealed before.' Let's hope we hear more of their Messi experience. The same goes for the kids who got the chance to see him in the flesh at the Brabourne Stadium, as well as the fans who paid through their nose for a glimpse, for a smile. Not even 10 per cent of their Messi tales are told and heard, but they will trickle in as time goes by.

Earlier this year, Cyrus Broacha, whose podcasts are becoming as memorable and gripping as his no-longer-aired The Week That Wasn't television show, told me how he met his hero Viv Richards on the eve of the 1983-84 Mumbai Test, the fourth in the six-game series, at the Bombay Gymkhana. "Will you get a hundred tomorrow?," asked Broacha, to which Richards replied, "It's in HIS hands, maan." Richards did get his first and only hundred of the series and Broacha was at Wankhede to witness it. Additionally, he had the recent pleasure to tell Richards all about it when the great West Indian appeared on Cyrus Says, where they spoke about Sunil Gavaskar's greatness too.

Gavaskar had his first encounter with his hero Rohan Kanhai a good 12 years after watching him bat for the first time at the Brabourne Stadium. His admiration for the West Indian batting great began in the 1958-59 season. In 1970-71, Gavaskar got a closer look at his idol and watched him in full flow in the opening Test itself. Gavaskar revealed in his second book, Idols, that at the end of Kanhai's 158 not out in that Kingston Test, he went up to him and said, "Well played." After thanking Gavaskar, the Guyanese right-hander asked him his name. When Gavaskar revealed who he was and specified his role in the batting order, Kanhai remarked, "Well, I wouldn't want to be an opening batsman ever. Thank God I'm not an opening batsman. All these crazy fellows trying to knock your head off." Gavaskar idolised Kanhai to such an extent that he named his son after him.

Australian fast bowling great Dennis Lillee was another player whom young cricketers idolised. One of those young admirers was Australia spearhead-turned-commentator Brett Lee, who made an impactful Test debut against Sachin Tendulkar's India at Melbourne in 1999. Lee happened to get selected for a Lillee-conducted clinic for young Sydney fast bowlers in his youth. He broke a stump that impressed Lillee, but the legend warned the young gun that with a mixed action like his (part side-on and part front-on) he would break down. Hence, Lee's first of several meetings with his idol was a mixed bag.

Reading about how charming Messi was while he met children at the CCI on Sunday reminded me of Fred Trueman being touched to bits when he visited a home that housed disabled children in Killinghall in the north of Yorkshire during the mid-1950s. The purpose of the great English fast bowler's visit was to deliver a large amount of sweets that he had won in a bet with the illustrious Maurice Leyland - to claim six wickets in an innings and score a half-century. In his book Ball of Fire, Trueman wrote about his experience at the care centre: "It was an experience that will live with me for the rest of my life. I nipped about, offering the humbugs to those poor children, when I came across a little lad who was encased in a thing resembling a clothes-horse made of tubular steel. If he wanted to move, he had to grip one side and make it open to push one leg along, then grip the other to bring the second leg along. He walked to me. I said, ‘How are you, son?' and he replied, ‘I'm all right, Mr Trueman.' Then I asked him if he was doing well, and he said, ‘Yes, I'll win the London to Brighton road race next year.' That was too much for me. I filled right up. I couldn't stay any longer. The matron understood, told me she knew exactly how I felt and I left swearing that if I did anything for charity then it would be for children. If that little lad is still alive I should like him to know that what he said to me on that wet afternoon more than 20 years ago has raised thousands of pounds for unfortunate and deprived children."

Messi may have not interacted with children belonging to the above category, but he must have touched some lives in Mumbai and made December14, 2025 simply memorable.

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.