Mumbai Ranji players have a memorable reunion

A heady brew of past and present Ranji players was assembled from Mumbai's bottomless pool of talent at a remarkable dinner organised by Chhatrapalsinh Jadeja of Pratap Trust at the CK Nayadu Hall of the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai on Tuesday night. Cricketing reunions of old mates are a rare affair in India. One such bash in recent memory was the reunion of the victorious 1971 touring sides to the West Indies and England on the 20th anniversary of that season at Mumbai in 1991.

But this occasion was different since it brought together players from different eras. How much more gratifying it would have been if some of these players could have been seen together on the cricketing field! An all time Mumbai XI selected from all the players present would surely have taken on all comers.

Rubbing shoulders at the gathering were a virtual who's who of Ranji Trophy players who represented Mumbai from 80-year-old Vasant Raiji to Sachin Tendulkar and his colleagues in the current Mumbai side. Raiji was, besides his considerable cricketing ability, also an eminent scholar of the game who authored a biography of Ranjitsinhji in the sixties.

There were a few conspicuos absentees like Eknath Solkar and Dilip Sardesai but this was more than made up by the array of legends in the Mumbai stable who made their presence felt. From the 1950s generation there were Polly Umrigar, `Buck' Divecha, Madhav Mantri, Naren Tamhane and Chandu Patankar. The 60s and 70s generation was represented by Ajit Wadekar, Hoshi Amroliwala, Sunil Gavaskar and Padmakar Shivalkar. And of course the present crop of players, who have the awesome task of carrying forward the legacy that their illustrious predecessors bestowed upon them.