Clayton Murzello Column: His name is Anthony Fernandes!

While a section of the cityrsquos cricket fraternity are glum over prolific Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer and inform pacer Shardul Thakurrsquos nonselection in the Indian team for the limited overs series in Australia this cannot be viewed as a blatant case of selectorial injustice These young men are too good to be off the selectorsrsquo radarTalking of injustice and indifferent selection some cricketers with serious ability missed out on Indiarsquos 196768 tour of Australia Budhi Kunderan Hanumant Singh Nari Contractor Vijay Bhosale and as I discovered only the other day a 22yearold pace bowler from Baroda mdash Anthony Longinus Fernandes mdash was in the reckoning too Fernandes passed away last Saturday at the age of 70An undated image of the late Anthony Fernandes right disturbing a batsmanrsquos furniture Fernandes represented Baroda West Zone and ACC in firstclass cricket during the 1960s and 1970s Pic courtesy Fernandesrsquo Personal CollectionKunderan was snubbed for some unknown reason and grapevine has it that the selectors used Hanumant Singhrsquos Guinea Worm disease as an excuse for not picking him Former India captain Nari Contractorrsquos exclusion was not only because the selectors feared another injury like the one he had sustained in the West Indies in 1962 There was more to it Vijay Bhosale a heavy scorer of domestic runs too fancied a chance in MAK Pataudirsquos touring team while ML Jaisimha who scored a Test century on arrival in Brisbane made it there only as replacement for an injured Bhagwat ChandrasekharThe late Anthony Fernandes right with Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar Pic courtesy Fernandes familys personal collectionBack to Anthony Fernandes lsquoTonyrsquo to his friends and teammates His brother Leslie who also played for Baroda vaguely remembered Fernandes being a probable for the 1967 tour of England as well Leslie said his brother may have been called for a camp and then discovered he was not in the team Not getting a chance to wear India colours left Fernandes gutted The newcomers who went in his place in 1967 didnrsquot set the Thames or the Yarra on fireFernandes played for the Associated Cement Company ACC on the interoffice circuit and was a fine teammate to big names like Polly Umrigar Bapu Nadkarni Ramakant Desai Dilip Sardesai Sunil Gavaskar and Karsan Ghavri in the Times Shield and MoinudDowla then a firstclass tournamentGhavri cannot forget the three years he spent sharing a flat with Fernandes at Byculla in Central Mumbai during their ACC days in the early 1970s ldquoTony was a gem of a person apart from being a very good fast bowler We may have been flatmates and teammates but when we clashed in firstclass cricket he was as aggressive as they come He would stare at youldquoWe were always together playing cricket for ACC and Parsi Cyclists We also played TT and billiards After work we used to walk to VT station for our train journey to Byculla Often he would mention his disappointment over missing the 196768 tour of Australia In fact he got a chance to visit Australia when he got a club contract in Tasmania in 197374 He would have gone for another season but couldnrsquot manage to get leave from officerdquoTasmanian cricket in those days when they were not a Sheffield Shieldplaying side was happy to have him playing and coaching a club team called Burnie Fernandes along with Pakistan batsman Sadiq Mohammad and England cricketer Jack Simmons was considered prime importTasmania cricket historian Rick Smith recalled Fernandesrsquo short stint ldquoI remember Tony when he came to Burnie He coached only in 197374 when he played 12 matches and scored 161 runs at 15 and took 27 wickets at 11rdquoFernandes went on to take 100 wickets in firstclass cricket in a career spanning 196263 to 197374 He was the leader of the famous Baroda pace trio which included Narayan Satham and Cecil Williams and the one performance by Fernandes that Mumbai cricketers will remember most is Fernandes 454 and Satham 674 dismissing the Ranji Trophy kings for 129 in Baroda on January 22 1972 In response Baroda were bowled out for 42 and Sardesairsquos Mumbai team ended up winning by 284 runsldquoI learnt so much about bowling from Fernandes an outstanding outswing bowler He was a great partner to me and deserved to play for Indiardquo said SathamA few years ago Fernandes was diagnosed with cancer and hopes of him staging a comeback were slim Only recently he found a telephone number of an old friend from his ACC days They chatted and Fernandes ended the conversation indicating that he would not be alive for longAt hospital the other day he told his son Sheldon that he was tired and wanted to get home He was brought home on Friday and breathed his last the very next day at Byculla after spending some time with his grandchildren To Sheldon and his family he lives on through the wonderful memories of his good straighttalking nature trophies a misplaced bail which went a long way towards the boundary after clean bowling a batsman photographs and a packet of newspaper clippings Two of those clippings had headlines that read lsquoBattler Tonyrsquo and lsquoAnthony delays the endrsquo The words aptly summed up the latter part of his lifemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom