Mid-Day Anniversary Special: Karsan Ghavri recollects the time he first visited Mumbai to pursue his cricketing career

Karsan Ghavri, Cricketer

Former India all-rounder Rajkot-born Karsan Ghavri, 74, like so many shifted base from Rajkot to Mumbai, arriving in the city of dreams more than half a century ago. Kadubhai as he is known, recalled how he made friends for life during his first job at the Associated Cement Companies (ACC) office and his wicket cricket ways in Mumbai.
    
The left-arm all-rounder Ghavri was already playing for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy when he was offered to join ACC and play for Mumbai in first-class cricket. Ghavri, who had represented Saurashtra against the then Bombay team at Mumbai in 1969-70 and at Junagadh in 1970-71 was he said, “told by Polly Umrigar and our Saurashtra skipper [KS] Indrajitsinhji, who both were working at ACC, that playing for ACC and Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy would help me boost my cricketing career.” 

Play was one thing, stay, quite another in Mumbai. Ghavri said, “When I came to Mumbai in 1971, I was 19 and used to stay at different places like in chawls at Sion, Matunga, Thane. I had long and difficult commutes into town for matches and practice. Then, my friend at ACC [Mumbai wicketkeeper-batsman] the late Kiran Ashar, who had helped me a lot, told me to stay at his father’s Dadar workplace which was a factory, with attached office. 

The only condition there was to leave this ‘office’ before 7 am daily before the office manager came in!  I used to reach the work space that became my home in the evenings, making room by shifting tables and chairs! Then, I got a room in a building where for a monthly rent of R50,” Ghavri explained.

Ghavri, who finished his first-class career with 452 scalps and 4,500 runs in 159 matches, recalled his earlier days at ACC office. “I remember every day at the ACC office. We used to work half-day and then had our cricket practice at different places.” Ghavri laughed as he recalled, “My love affair with good clothes and dress sense developed with my friends. The all-rounder recounted a ‘colourful’ anecdote.  “One day Kiran [Ashar] and I encountered our ACC seniors in the lift.  I wore a yellow shirt and colourful pants, earning strange looks from them. Our senior, upon learning who I was from Kiran, told him to tell me to avoid colourful attire and dress sober in corporate wear at work. I made two sets of clothes in appropriate colours!

“I have also stayed at the Garware Club within Wankhede Stadium thanks to the Bombay Cricket Association (BCA) president SK Wankhede and Secretary SV Kadam,” Ghavri added.  Several other jobs followed, including change of address. Meanwhile, Ghavri, who shifted his base from Mumbai to Rajkot a few months ago, as his 92-year-old mother Savita expressed her wish to stay there, just a couple of months later both returned to Mumbai. The cricketer concluded, “Recently, I shifted back to Rajkot with my mother on her wishes. She had a medical emergency and it was so difficult getting emergency medical care.

“When she completely recovered, we decided to come back to Mumbai and I will never leave Mumbai till my last breath,” Ghavri signed off. That’s called staying at the Mumbai crease.

1971
The year Karsan Ghavri arrived in Mumbai