Among the audience at the 'The Lions of Mumbai Cricket' function organised by MIG Cricket Club on Saturday evening to honour the city's cricketing stalwarts
Former Mumbai cricketer Rusi Cooper at MIG CC on Saturday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Among the audience at the 'The Lions of Mumbai Cricket' function organised by MIG Cricket Club on Saturday evening to honour the city's cricketing stalwarts, was a special veteran who made it to Bandra East from his South Mumbai residence despite being 95 — Rusi Cooper.
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After former Mumbai captains Milind Rege, Lalchand Rajput and Abhishek Nayar ended their eye-opening discussion on city cricket (Rege called for all Mumbai cricketers to be given voting rights; Rajput felt the current T20 mindset has not done city cricket much good while Nayar wanted players to be given an opportunity to train during monsoons in other cities), compere Devendra Prabhudesai went down to Cooper, the oldest ex-player at the function and asked him to recall the 1944-45 Ranji Trophy final between Bombay and Holkar.
The middle order batsman, who also played for Middlesex, stunned the gathering by naming Bombay's batting order in that final and also correctly recalled details of the match which Bombay clinched by 374 runs. He also remembered how CS Nayudu, the brother of opposing captain CK, bowling more than 150 overs of leg-spin.
"This was an iconic game. It was a match played in pre-independence India, the second World War was on and the Brabourne Stadium didn't have a vacant seat in any of the six days. The match was played in the heat of March 1945. I can still remember the batting order of our team. We batted first with KC Ibrahim and Madhav Mantri opening the innings, Rusi Modi, Vijay Merchant (captain), I came in fifth, then came Dattu Phadkar, Uday Merchant, JB Khot, Baloo Palwankar, KK Tarapore and Madan Raiji."
Cooper received wholesome applause. Also in the Holkar ranks was Denis Compton, the England batting great whom Cooper played with in the Middlesex team during the 1950 season.
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