Whatever happened to the young talent of Mumbai?
Mumbai's junior cricket has not been at its best recently
Waleed Hussain
13-Dec-2000
Mumbai's junior cricket has not been at its best recently. The last
two seasons have witnessed the U-19 teams failing to make a mark in
the West Zone Cooch Behar Trophy. There are multiple causes for the
decline. One main reason has been due to the influx of the population
in the city and the migration of the middle class sector to the
distant suburbs of Mumbai pertaining to the high cost of living in the
city.
Initially, a majority of Mumbai's cricketers came and still emerge
from the middle class and lower middle class families. The maidans
have produced phenomenal cricketers in the past. The early 50's and
60's had several players emerging from the Gymkahana's and the Azad
maidan. Even earlier, greats like Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare all
emerged from the maidans. The 80's witnessed a transformation in the
breeding ground from the Azad maidan to Shivaji Park. Sandeep Patil,
Pravin Amre and Salil Ankola came up from the park.
The efforts of Ramakant Achrekar were handsomely rewarded when Sachin
Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli broke into the Mumbai side and soon after
made their mark for the country. All eyes were on Shivaji Park,
youngsters were seen flocking towards this ground for coaching and net
sessions. The advantage here was that most of the area in and around
Dadar was inhabited by middle class and lower middle class families
who worked in the mills near the Parel area. After Achrekar was unable
to coach, due to ill health, there was a lull in the efforts of the
boys.
The workers who lived around Dadar and Parel were transferred and some
who left their jobs had to shift to further suburbs and outskirts of
Mumbai, places like Dombivili, Kalyan and Karjat due to high cost of
living in the city. The boys who flocked the park grounds were no
longer around. Cricket and net sessions were no longer a part of their
daily routine. The new schedule for them was a lot of travelling,
attending schools and an enormous amount of homework and elaborate
tutions. All this left practically no time for cricket.
A lot of aspiring and promising cricketers were abruptly shut out from
something they enjoyed so much. Even if they reduced the tutions, to
make time for nets and coaching, it meant a lot of travelling. Imagine
the state of a pre teenage kid who has to travel from Kalyan to Dadar
with a kit bag that is almost three feet long in a train (an ordeal
even for adults at peak hours) twice a day. With this kind of
hardships that a lad had to encounter, a stage had to come about when
he lost hope and did not have the energy to pursue this exercise on a
daily basis. The boys either dropped out completely from cricket or
restricted themselves to the building compounds and bylanes, playing
with a soft ball. Neither the MCA nor the coaches are in a position to
do anything in this regard. The upshot is that junior cricket is in a
sad state as the once formidable U-19 and U-16 teams find themselves
pinned against the wall. This season, the Gujarat team defeated the
Mumbai U-19 side, something highly unimaginable for any Mumbai cricket
fan.
The junior cricket level has always provided the bench strength for
Mumbai Ranji teams. Tendulkar sprang to fame with his outstanding
display in the U-15 team. Pravin Amre dominated at the U-19 level to
claim a place in the Mumbai side. Ajit Agarkar had a very successful
tour of Sri Lanka for the U-19 team. Mumbai needs its bench to be
strong and furthermore, they need more boys from the junior level to
make the most of the chances that come there way. There is no doubting
the talent of the present lot, only the application is lacking. The
Mumbai cricket fan is currently praying that another boy in the Sachin
mould comes along and gets Mumbai back to its prime spot at the junior
level.