Whatever happened to the young talent of Mumbai?

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.