Auckland: In the drawing room of a house in Royal Oak's Manukau suburb here, Mumbai cricket is often passionately discussed. And the common inference is that it is spiraling downwards. Former Railways first-class; Mumbai under-17 and under-19 all-rounder Sangram Bhosale has been living in New Zealand for over a decade now.


Sangram Bhosale is standing third from left in this Mumbai under-17 team photograph shot at Baroda in 1987.Paras Mhambrey is to Bhosale's left. Sitting (left to right) are: Deepraj Kerkar, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Rao (manager), Mayur Kadrekar, Hemu Dalvi (coach), Jatin Paranjape and Vinod Kambli. Sairaj Bahutule is kneeling (extreme right). Pic Courtesy: The Making of a Cricketer by Ajit Tendulkar 

Sangram (42) moved here after the Railways decided to derail his cricket career. In the opinion of several pundits, his father Vijay too got a poor deal and could not go beyond playing for Baroda, Maharashtra and Mumbai. Vijay (77) left for Mumbai a few days before Saturday's India vs Zimbabwe World Cup match at Eden Park and will be back in Auckland soon.