When a cricket writer met the don of Bombay

Rex Clementine in Bombay

During Sri Lanka’s first Test tour of India in 1982, not following protocol when the team met former Indian President Zail Singh created quite a stir. Apparently, Board President Gamini Dissanayake was very angry. Some say that the players weren’t aware who Zail Singh was while others say they were too jaded after a long flight.

The post of Indian President is a five year term. Zahil Singh was President from 1982 to 1987. He had succeeded Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. There is a joke that for Zahil Singh’s inauguration when the photographers asked, ‘Mr. President are you ready,’ Zail Singh had replied, ‘I’m not Reddy. I’m Zahil Singh.’

Security is tight in Bombay the day before Sri Lanka’s game against India. The reason being the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde is expected to be here. He is not coming here to interact with either of the teams. He is here for the unveiling of a statue of Sachin Tendulkar at the Wankhede Stadium.

Tendulkar began his Test career as a 16-year-old and it stretched for 24 long years. His batting exploits are well documented although his captaincy wasn’t spectacular. Some of Sri Lanka’s cricket highlights came when he was leading the Indian team.

During the famous 952 six declared game at RPS, Tendulkar graciously declared, ‘I haven’t seen Don Bradman, but I have seen Sanath Jayasuriya.’

The same year during the Asia Cup final, when Sri Lanka chased down India’s target with plenty to spare, Ravi Shastri at the post-match presentation asks Tendulkar what is a safe total against Sri Lanka. Tendulkar wonders around and declares, ‘Maybe 1000’.

Time was when India feared Sri Lanka like the plague. Many of their bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatesh Prasad suffered at the hands of Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva.

India in fact had not beaten Sri Lanka in a World Cup fixture until 1999.

You can only reminisce about those glory days and desperately hope that good times will come back. The locals keep asking what ails Sri Lankan cricket. Someone who is really worried for Sri Lankan cricket is G. Viswanath, who has made many visits to Sri Lanka as the chief cricket correspondent of English daily The Hindu.

Many Sri Lankan players are Viswanath’s friends, and he keeps in touch with them regularly.

Viswanath is a curious reporter. Although he writes on sports alone, he keeps himself busy exploring other interesting subjects happening in the city.

Born and bred in Bombay, once in 1982 he had gone to meet Varadarajan Mudaliar, a powerful mob boss. He was adored by the locals, but the law enforcement was after him.

Viswanath had visited the underworld kingpin around lunch time. So Varadarajan requests him to come with him to feed his dogs. As they are feeding the dogs, one of his accomplices turns up to inform that two cops had come to see him. Varadarajan then tells his confidante, ‘I will feed these dogs. You go and feed those dogs.’ Apparently a reference to cops who had come to collect bribes.

There is a movie made on the life of Varadarajan Mudaliyar titled ‘Nayagan’.  Leading Indian actor Kamal Hasan plays the role of Varadarajan in the film directed by Mani Ratnam, and it goes onto win several national awards.

To this date, Varadarajan is adored in Bombay by a certain section of the public for he looked after their interests. It’s hard to think that someone who was born and raised in south India will go onto become the leading don of India’s financial capital. And to this date, ‘Nayagan’ remains the best movie of Kamal Hasan.

As for Viswanath, he is still very active writing some fine stories on cricket. If you get to know him, he will kill you with his love. However, you need to make sure that you don’t go on unscheduled trips like the visit to Varadarajan.

The press box in Bombay is named after Bal Thackeray, a local politician and a right-wing Hindu nationalist. He had nothing to do with cricket and that’s why you keep telling the locals that the Bombay press box should be named after Viswanath and not after a politician.

For the World Cup, the Indian board had provided each cricket ground a donation to refurbish facilities at venues. Bombay looks fabulous but the problem with Indian grounds is that they don’t maintain these facilities. That’s where Sri Lanka is far ahead of India as our grounds are very well maintained.

For each match that the grounds host during the World Cup, the ICC gives US$ 700,000. So, if a venue hosts five games, they are walking away with a cool US$ 3.5 million.