Yoga the secret of Mumbai's Ranji triumph
Ashok Mankad, affectionately known as `Kaka' by all his peers and juniors, looks to have aged beyond his 54 years
Sankhya Krishnan
18-Jun-2000
Ashok Mankad, affectionately known as `Kaka' by all his peers and
juniors, looks to have aged beyond his 54 years. The balding pate, the
lines on his face and the measure of circumspection in his stride all
indicate that his physical strength has waned considerably. But the
cheerful Mumbaikar is still mentally agile as ever as an encounter on
the sidelines of the two day coaching seminar at the MRF House in
Chennai showed.
Having taken over as Mumbai coach last season only to face up to the
shattering blow of his wards failing to qualify for the Super League,
Mankad showed the stern stuff he's made of by marshalling his
resources with shrewdness to a trophy triumph this time round. "The
present team is much stronger than the one I captained in the '70's",
he said. According to Mankad, the attitude of players who missed
selection to the Indian team was responsible for the failure last
season.
Mankad said that his role was to channel the energies of the players
for the good of the team. "The talent and hard work was all there.
What I did was to introduce a change of focus whereby the boys were
made to direct their attention towards performing for the state rather
than worrying over Indian selection". Mankad also disclosed that "the
application of yoga had helped the team to unify ourselves in thought,
to think collectively towards a particular objective which was not to
win but to put in our best effort. The result became the consequence
of the effort".
Mankad, who played 22 Test matches from 1969-1978, also briefly went
down the corridors of history to pull out a few memories from his
playing career. The first three matches of the 1969-70 series against
Australia undoubtedly comprised his finest moments in Test cricket.
Although he never reached the three figure mark at Test level, Mankad
said that his innings of 97 in the third Test of that series at Delhi
was special because it contributed to an Indian victory. But he
considered his knock of 74 in the first Test on his home turf of the
Wankhede to be more technically satisfying.
However it was in the Ranji Trophy that Mankad brought home the bacon
on umpteen occasions for Mumbai. He still remembers with pride the 265
(407 balls, 28 fours) he struck against Delhi in the Ranji final of
1980-81 in some ten hours of batting that helped trounce the visitors
by an innings and 46 runs. "My most memorable innings", he said, "and
also my highest score in first class cricket".
Mankad also reminisced about the most exciting game he ever played,
again picked out from the annals of the Ranji Trophy. "It was the
quarter final against Hyderabad. They were a strong side with Jai,
Pataudi, Abid, Jayantilal, Govindaraj and all our best players were
away on tour. Hyderabad took a first innings lead but we finally won
outright. It was a first class game". To fill in the gaps in Mankad's
cryptic testimony, the game in question was in the 1975-76 season,
with Mankad himself stroking a classy 136 as captain and Mumbai
winning by 70 runs with about an hour and a half to spare.
In conclusion, he reflected upon his legendary father, Vinoo. "He was
my coach in my formative years. He didn't focus on matters of
technique but just taught me to enjoy the game and play it without
pressure". Indeed the Mankad family has produced three generations of
gifted sportsmen for on the same day that `Kaka' was talking to me,
his son Harsh had reached the final of an ITF satellite tennis
tournament in Bangalore.