Sunny’s bash is not just cricket

Good fortune is often taken for granted This struck me as I made my way back home after witnessing yet another congregation of Mumbai cricket stalwarts at cricket legend Sunil Gavaskarrsquos annual gettogether last SundayThe party area of Harish Thawanirsquos Indus Club was flush with household names in Mumbai cricket across generations many from that lot going on serving Indian cricket wellI gathered between the 2025 and 2026 gettogethers only one of Gavaskarrsquos teammates had passed on mdash Jitendra Bhuta There was a spate of deaths before the August 2025 party and all those teammates were honoured appropriately mdash Padmakar Shivalkar Milind Rege Dilip Doshi Vijay Karkhanis Ehsan Hakim and Abdul Ismail in 2025Anil Joshi who continues to help Gavaskar immensely in organising this annual affair welcomed guests with a warm smile Among the early checkins was Sandeep Patil who had no qualms in being first in first outRavi Shastri was a SMG party attendee this time not very long after he hosted an evening to celebrate his recent Wankhede Stadium stand honour He met friends and headed to the bar area in search of his old mate only to discover that Patil had already left the building Everyone who knows Patilrsquos penchant to turn in early wasnrsquot surprised Shastri then chatted a bit with exPodar Mumbai and Tata teammate Shishir Hattangadi and a host of others under the dim lightsOn Centre Court as it were there was Dr Chandrakant Patankar at 95 Indiarsquos oldest Test cricketer soaking in the cricketheavy atmosphere Normally in that space hersquod have Nari Contractor and Chandu Borde for company but the 90plus former India captains couldnrsquot make it However just like in 2024 the 2025 edition of the party was at MCABKC Club there was CG Joshi the 94yearold Rajasthan player who came from Pune And one couldnrsquot miss Khalid AH Ansari whose association with Gavaskar dates back to 1971 and beyond sports journalism The senior gang also included fraternityfavourite Prakash Kelkar 82 exTest player Ajit Pai 81 exMumbai player Vilas Godbole 84 his brother Suryakant 78 Shankar More 84 and Daya Dudwadkar 88 among others like Subhash Patne 80 the Dadar Union and Rajasthan SC bowler who played for Maharashtra and is a horticulturistAmong the Bombay University players in and around the Gavaskar era were Kiran Adhikari Dr Vishwas Raut and Prakash Naik nicknamed Dougie after Australian great Doug Walters Talking of nicknames there was Kolhapurbased Avadhoot lsquoAlamrsquo Zarapkar in attendance Zarapkar caught up with Sachin Tendulkar briefly He had played for Jolly Cricketers for whom Tendulkarrsquos brother Ajit played too Zarapkar had also encountered the master batsman in his early years in club cricket when the offspinner represented Sunder CC Zarapkar started getting called Alam in cricket circles because he resembled a character called Alam played by Raza Murad in the 1973 hit movie Namak HaramBollywoodrsquos connection with cricket and vice versa was brought home yet again with the entry of Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff the surprise elements of the party I was told And one day later Gavaskar revealed in a video that Nana Patekar had cooked the mutton curry that was dished out in the dining area Till that point I was merely curious about the lsquoNanarsquos Special Muttonrsquo dish tagIn the midst of all this I realised that there were enough players in the room to make up a Nirlon alumni group picture Shastri trooped out of the bar area to join in and they all played true sports A little later I overheard Raju Parulkar who missed being in the Nirlon group picture narrating how Sandeep Patil had a blue with a Nirlon HR head and taught him a lesson Talking of Nirlon whose team that included several India players was disbanded in the late 1980s the companyrsquos cricket torchbearer Rahul Sagar should be complimented for his efforts in getting Nirlon back in the senior division of the Times Shield They lost the final to Bank of Baroda recently Come to think of it there could have been an across eras Tatas team group picture with Shastri Raju Kulkarni Kiran More Hattangadi Vijay Mohan Raj Ajit Agarkar Jatin Paranjape Ravi Thakkar and Hemant Kenkre And Mafatlal Sports Club too since Mahesh Sampat Kiran Adhikari Ghulam Parkar Zulfiqar Parkar Chandrakant Pandit and Raju Kulkarni were around But back to the party lounge At one table sat Trilok and Kailash Anand of Sanspariels Greenlands SG Gavaskar who was wearing a SG Trsquoshirt for the evening ensured the Anands were well looked after just like the bat giants look after young cricketers with equipment all over IndiaGavaskar played a gracious host from start to end and one noticed how he was around when childhood friend Dilip Nabar said goodbye for the night As usual it was a night to remember and an apt time to savour onersquos good fortunemiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper