Clayton Murzello: Mumbai 1980 is worth emulating

The congregation of India players and captains delighted spectators at Wankhede Stadium prior to the start of the BCCIrsquos golden jubilee Test match contested between India and England in 1980 Pic CourtesyPatrick Eagar Wisden Cricket MonthlyCan the cricket board or for that matter the Rajeev Shuklaled Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association put on a great show at Indiarsquos 500th Test match at Green Park Kanpur Unlikely Firstly I am not sure if there is full realisation of this milestone Secondly the BCCI does not have the machinery to come up with something to stay etched in minds of cricket followers mdash young middleaged and old Their Dream Team initiative on Faceshybshyoshyok caters to only one section of fansMany cricket lovers reckon the BCCIrsquos Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1980 were truly memorable As a kid of 12 I remember seeing a clutch of photographs in Sportsweek magazine on the celebrations held before the Test between India and England at the Wankhede StadiumNever before had so many India Test players gathered in such large numbers for one Test Thanks to BCCI inviting all Test players we got to see how the stars of yesteryear looked in their India blazersBack then unlike now all Test players were invited I will come to the one exception later in the piece Even Lall Singh who was part of the first Test team in 1932 made it from Malaysia where he had migrated The players formed a circle around the captains Bishan Singh Bedi and MAK Pataudi couldnrsquot make it on time and Sunil Gavaskar always aware of the gamersquos history went around collecting autographs By all accounts all captains were part of BCCIrsquos guest list Even heads of overseas cricket boards were invited Billy Griffith the then president of the Marylebone Cricket Club MCC presented BCCI a painting from a collection at Lordrsquos mdash the famous one of four kids tossing the bat in the air before a match Wonder if the BCCI preserved itTony Lewis the England captain who led the MCC in India during his winter of 197273 reported the 1980 Test for the Sunday Telegraph and was delighted to be introduced to the likes of Polly Umrigar Ramesh Divshyeshycha and Ghulam Ahmed who he watched as a kid in England ldquoIt occurred to me at lunchtime as all the old players mingled that rarely has such Indian talent been concentrated within a few yardsrdquo he wroteDicky Rutnagur the late Indian scribe who worked in the UK wrote ldquoThe scene was a beautiful sentimental journey into the past Memories of childhood adolescence and a long professional life in cricket journalism flitted past as the stars of yesteryear some feeble some silshyveshyrshyshyhaired waved to the standsrdquoCricket writer PN Sundaresan in Sportsweek reckoned the splendid preTest celebrations provided a challenge to the players ldquoTo switch over to the unemotional serious business of a Test match would not have been an easy one particularly for the members of the Indian teamrdquoHowever Gundappa Viswanath who led India in that Test told me yesterday that although the morning festivities of February 15 were unforgettable he was not overcome by emotion by the time he went out to toss with Mike Brearley The same Viswanath who was to make that Test sportingly significant by recalling Bob Taylor to the crease after the England wicketkeeper was given out has not been called to Kanpurrsquos celebration crease for todayrsquos Test The Board looks foolish when it gets reported that only post1970 capshytains are called with the exception of Chandu Borde The Pune man was not even a regular captain and he led in the 196768 Adelaide Test only because regular MAK Pataudi was down with a hamstring injuryI was stunned to hear that a past captain like Nari Contractor was not invited to Kanpur Didnrsquot any official realise that Contractor was part of GS Ramchandrsquos Indian team which beat Australia for the first time there in 195960 Bedi too has been ignored Is it because he has been at war with the establishment Or have the current cricket rulers forgotten he led India to three significant overseas Test match wins at Port of Spain Melbourne and Sydney in the 1970s Irsquod go with the former possibility because grudges cannot be ruled out when it comes to administrators and cricketers It happened in 1980 too when former stumper Budhi Kunderan who had criticised the BCCI a decade earlier was ldquodisillusioned and disappointedrdquo not to have received an invitation for the Golden Jubilee Test Not that he would have asked for an air ticket to fly in from Scotland where he settled down ldquoI did not imagine certain remarks made by me to an Indian journalist in 1970 on my retirement from firstclass cricket would have been held against me Irsquod have been proud and honoured to have been with all the other Indian Test cricketers in Bombayrdquo Kunderan was quoted as saying in the April 1980 issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly That said Mumbai 1980 had more hits than misses The same cannot be said of Kanpur 2016 Opportunity wasted What a shamemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom