The city of Mumbai is blessed with ample of talent when it comes to cricket. Having won the Ranji Trophy for 40 times, Mumbai is known as the capital of cricket in the country. In this city where cricket is treated as a religion, there has been one holy place for all the Mumbai cricketers. Let it be a 10 year old boy who is novice in cricket or let it be someone like Sachin Tendulkar who has achieved an apogee in cricket, there is one common link between all of them and that is the Azad Maidan.
There isn’t a player who has played cricket with leather ball and hasn’t heard about or hasn’t played at Azad Maidan. In fact most of the cricketers who played for Mumbai and later on for India did actually start their careers at this very venue. But what is so special about Azad Maidan? There are so many other grounds where cricket is played in the city. The one very special thing about this ground is its huge size. It is bigger than the MCG! Currently as many as 22 cricket clubs use the facilities of this ground for practice and matches. Initially, the ground was connected with the Oval Maidan and the Cross maidan. Later it was separated from these two grounds due to construction of roads.
Azad Maidan has a glorious history of more than 100 years. The 1st test match which was played in India, was actually played at the Bombay Gymkhana which is adjacent to Azad Maidan. It has seen the rise of many talented cricketers. A player comes to play cricket at this venue since the time he starts playing in school cricket. The prestigious Harris Shield and Giles shield tournaments are played on this ground majority. Azad Maidan has seen the highest partnership of 664 runs between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli back in 1987. It was a world record then. Recently Prithwi Shaw scored 546 runs on 20th November 2013 which is again a record. This underlines the chronicle importance of ground in the development of cricketers. Azad Maidan is indeed the heart of cricket in Mumbai. Every cricketer who comes to play at Azad Maidan always looks at the floodlights of Wankhede Stadium and dreams to reach there someday.
With 22 clubs, managing a ground and keeping it in proper condition is quite a tedious job. The whole ground is divided into smaller grounds which belong to one of the 22 clubs with an imaginary boundary. The shape of these grounds varies a lot from club to club. While some of them have got big enough space, some clubs like Muslim United Cricket Club has very short boundary. In fact, they are so short that the boundary is almost at the same distance as that of the 30 yard circle on one side of the pitch. The importance is given to the square and outfield is ignored in most of the areas of Azad maidan. Due to this fielding in outfield becomes a major issue and player can suffer an injury. However, with the invent of modern cricket, the curators prepare pitches according to the demand of that format. For a T20 match, no grass is kept on wicket but for multiday matches they keep a good amount of grass to make the competition between bat & ball more even.
Due to imaginary boundaries, often batsman gets confused about exact position of the ground and the fielders from opposite teams. Sometimes pitches of two matches are very close which causes the injury to fielders as their position might be right next to the wickets of some another match.The MCA needs to take some measures to improves these things about the ground. Before 10 in morning and after 5 in the evening we can see a tennis ball cricket being played there. The ground is also a favorite place for the selectors to come and watch the matches. The unearthed stars of cricket are spotted here at first.
Recently, there has been a plan to develop a Metro route which includes Azad maidan too. The MMRDA has asked for the area which covers the cricket fields of 18 clubs when amalgamated. Recently MCA has asked MMRDA for a subsitutional place at BKC for giving them the required area of Azad maidan. This might look as a win-win situation for both MCA & MMRDA but the one who will suffer most are the cricketers who play at Azad maidan. Due to location, which is near from CST & Churchgate stations, the ground has been a favorite place for cricketers of all levels. MCA should look for the convenience of these players before deciding about the prospects of ground. After all the ground has a history of over 100 years and now it hasn’t just remained yet ground in the city. It will be good to see Azad maidan keeping its tradition going by nurturing more and more cricketers at its own premises.
The success of any tournament depends not only on the players and officials but also on the quality of organizers. Why do you think is the IPL more popular than any of the tournament across the globe? After all its almost the same bunch of players who play in all tournaments. It is certainly because of it’s organization. At any level of sports, the organization plays a key role in the success of tournament. Likewise, for more than 6 years now, One World of Sports has been writing the success stories in domestic sports circle.
Founded in 2007, One World of Sports covers many different sports and organizes various events for the corporate teams. They organize tournaments for Cricket, Soccer, Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton etc. One of its founders, Mr. Ashutosh who has played cricket for school, college and then for club, started organizing sports events. “Once you finish your school or college then you’re no longer associated with the sport unless you are playing it professionally. In our country it is difficult to go till the highest level due to immense competition. Hence most of the times the talent in you dies out. We are targeting such people who have a strong desire to play. So basically we organize tournaments for casual guys to give them a competitive environment,” said Ashutosh.
At One World of Sport, they always use creative ideas and do little modification in the game’s format. Talking about cricket, they organize T20s primarily along with other formats of the game. Sometimes instead of 20, they cut short each innings to 15 overs a side. In Soccer, they organize 3-a side matches. “Most of the times the corporate guys don’t have stamina to play for entire 90 minutes or even 45 minutes. So we do these changes so that they can enjoy the game. Also to make the game go faster we cut short it by reducing time or number of overs. Usually these guys have to go back to work on next day or so. Hence at times we finish each match in 1 and half hour so that the entire tournament can be completed in a given short time,” said Ashutosh.
The companies are getting lots of benefits by introducing sports for their employees. Talking about this aspect Ashutosh said, “The response of employees has been excellent. Every person has a desire to play and with such activities they get the chance to explore the sportsman hidden in them. These are the new ways to keep employees engage & make sure that they are happy. It helps to nurture the better understanding between companies and their employees. It’s a two way process where both gets the benefit. Unlike office culture, on field there is no hierarchy. Everyone is at same level and that basically promotes team work. Employees can work better due to such tournaments of sports.
Though One World of Sports is targeting corporate tournaments organization, recently they did manage Puneri Paltans team in a very famous Pro Kabaddi league. “That was completely new experience for us. That was an event which was organized on large scale. We learnt many new things about how the tournament is organized. In all it was a wonderful experience,” said Ashutosh. He thinks that sports industry is growing rapidly in our country and there is an opportunity for everyone who loves sports. “Basically you should have interest & alacrity to work in this field.”
According to him, his firm can achieve all this because of the people who work for One World of Sports. Their employees are pretty much smart, fun loving and most importantly enjoy the sports. “Most of us have played at various levels in different sports. So we have understanding of sport from player’s point f view. Our motto is to give them the best. We offer them best facilities, best infrastructure and best competition, “he explained. Currently they organize events in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. Taking the game to more and more cities of India is definitely one of their prospects.
When he started his career back in 1989, The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to “open” the Nehruvian economy, Usain Bolt, Schumacher, Roger Federer were the unheard names. Oh! Certainly I am not talking about Sachin Tendulkar, but an unsung individual from domestic circuit who stands for hours at a place and gives verdict on cricket field. Mr. Bali who is an umpire has an experience of more than 24 years and he is still going strong. “Over the years I have observed so many players from Delhi’s domestic cricket some of them like Virat Kohli have went on to play at the highest level” said Mr. Bali.
Recently he did umpiring in local tournament organized by Mr. Satyam. The tournament was played on knock out basis. It was a T20 game. Match was played between SRT XI and TCBN. TCBN made 131 batting first. Their captain Anuj Potdar and one more batsman played brilliantly hitting 8 fours and a six. With the target of 132 SRT XI openers were looking for a soild start. But none of their batsman could score big and ultimately they lost the match. “It was a good match and overall tournament is also going good. I am very happy with the organization, the ground and other facilities are also excellent. Still this tournament has few matches to be played before it comes down to two teams in final,” said Mr. Bali.
With his tremendous experience, Mr. Bali has seen more cricket than anyone else in Delhi’s domestic matches. He thinks that most of the corporate teams are alike only few of them play exceptionally well. One such team is Genpact. “Genpact team is really nice. They play good cricket.” He officiates in club cricket as well as in corporate cricket. But he likes club cricket more compared to corporate cricket. Mostly he has officiated in club cricket more as compared to corporate cricket.
“Club cricket is my forte. I think guys who play in club cricket have significant knowledge of cricket. Most of the corporate players don’t know the tactics of the game. They play only on Saturdays and Sundays. Many times they tend to argue about the decision given by the umpire,” said Mr.Bali.
He remembers one incident while he was officiating in a club match. “Once in a club cricket match I was standing as an umpire. The batsman who came to crease was Virender Sehwag himself! While he was batting on 30 odd runs, there was a close call of LBW. I made the verdict in bowler’s favor and Viru was given out LBW. Eventually his team lost the match. Such decisions are never easy especially when one of the best in the world is batting” said Mr. Bali.
Mr. Bali has given various umpiring exams organized by DDCA and BCCI. He told that how he was successful for so many years as an umpire. “There is a step by step procedure if you want to excel in any field. I gave some umpiring exams and officiated in as many matches as I can. The key is to have patience and to enjoy your work. For any youngster who wants to become a good umpire, it is necessary to follow these steps. First he should give umpiring exams and then he should look for gaining more and more experience” explained Mr. Bali. He added, “har match alag hota hai aur usse kuch naya sikhne ko milta hai”.
From Virender Sehwag to Unmukt Chand, Mr. Bali has seen a generation of cricketers from a close distance of 22 yards. “Once we see any player we get to know what quality he has and how far he can go. Apart from these players, I have seen so many of them who had that potential to go to the highest level” said Mr. Bali. He remembers officiating in one of the match where Virat Kohli was playing. “He was pretty nascent boy then. He came to bat and scored 170 in that game. After watching that I knock, I was sure that he will play for India someday. Currently there is a player named Abhishek Rajgopal who has potential to follow the footsteps of these greats” said Mr. Bali. For him every day is a new day and every match is different match. With his enthusiasm for cricket he looks ahead to keep learning new things about cricket while doing umpiring.
Usually when we think of an umpire, we tend to imagine an aged man with stern look on his face. But gone are those days, we have a very young umpire who is enjoying his duties in local cricket. Mr. Satnam is just 24 and he is having an 8 years of experience as an umpire. Obviously that means he started umpiring at 16. Coming from Navi Mumbai, Satnam used to do umpiring in some local tournaments. He used to get 200-300 Rs for that. During that time he got guidance of Kamat sir, Vijay Patil sir and other stalwarts. He did give an MCA umpiring exam and cleared it successfully. This is how it all began for Satnam. Though he is doing umpiring, he still plays for Mazgaon Cricket Club. He is currently playing a dual role as a cricketer and as an umpire in local cricket.
Satnam officiates in all kinds of tournaments including Tennis ball cricket, club cricket and corporate cricket. Satnam says that it helps him in umpiring as he is still plays cricket for a club. There has been always a disappointment on batsman’s face when umpire gives him out. Satnam has been on both sides as an umpire and as a cricketer. He thinks that umpiring is certainly more challenging than playing cricket on field. “As a player we often target umpires thinking the decision given was wrong. But when you are on other side, you get to know how difficult it is to stand as an umpire. In 95% of the cases decisions given by umpires are correct.” Said Satnam.
He has had one bad experience when a player challenged his decision and match was halted for about half an hour. It happened in 2013-14 season at Dadar Union ground. Satnam stood by his decision and resolved the issue quite well. This was regarding leather ball cricket. But things aren’t so simple when it comes to tennis ball cricket. That’s why he thinks that it is more difficult format to officiate in. He explained, “Many times you have matches where the winning prize is 3 Lakhs or 2 Lakhs. One decision of an umpire and entire match can take a U turn. Also tennis ball bounces more compared to leather ball.That creates problem while giving LBW decisions. Hence difficulty is more in tennis ball cricket.” Out of the three formats of cricket, Satnam likes Test cricket a lot. According to him, it gives more mental and physical strength. He likes to officiate in a multiday match.
Satnam has seen many players over the years. He recollects some of the best players he has seen. “There is a player called Rohan Tondulkar. He is from IES Raja Shivaji School. He was playing against us when I was in 10th. We scored 160 batting 1st and they were 56 for 6. Then he came in and took the match away from us. He was in under 14s category then. Now he plays for MCA under 19s. There is one more player coincidently named as Rohan, Rohan Mapankar. He is a batsman and he is extremely talented. I am sure he will play in IPL soon.” Said Satnam. He also rated Surya Kumar Yadav who plays for KKR as one of the best he has ever seen. Though he plays in club cricket, he thinks that corporate cricket is much better than the earlier one when it comes to umpiring.
Satnam revealed one interesting thing about umpires. Usually if a player is playing well then umpires tend to give him a chance when there is close call of LBW or caught behind. For an evidence he said, “There was one player who was playing really good. He is a managing director in his firm. He was 50+ in age. There was an appeal of LBW, it was a close call but I gave him not out.” When that player asked him about why he was given when it was such a close call then Stanam said the same thing to him and told him that he deserved a chance. When it comes to close calls, Satnam is open for the help of technology while giving decisions. According to him, it should be used wherever possible. Once a player was trying to fix a match in tennis cricket via Satnam who was umpire. But Satnam immediately told this to organizer and the appropriate action was taking with that player.
For anyone to become a good umpire it is necessary to have good observation and listening skills. Also an umpire should be cool headed and patient, this is what he thinks. He likes to officiate at D.Y.Patil Stadium, RCF ground and Matunga Gymkhana. He has also stood as an umpire for corporate matches at Wankhede stadium and Brabourne stadium. He also likes Sassaninan and fort Vijay wicket at Azad maidan. Staying at Kamothe, Stanam has travelled to various locations in and outside Mumbai for umpiring in local cricket. According to him there are few things that must be changed with respect to umpiring in local cricket. He said, “The payments of umpires should be increased. There have been lots of agents who try to collect money from umpires. Sometimes organizers don’t give lunch facilities to umpires. Also there are some organizers who tend to follow their own rules but according to me, rules made by MCA should be followed unanimously everywhere.”
In his career so far as an umpire, he has officiated in various tournaments like One world, corporate tournaments in Navi Mumbai , DCL tournament in D.Y. Patil etc. When asked about his favorite team he said, “There are few teams which play cricket in right spirit. Sometimes even some of my friends show the respect when I am standing as an umpire in their match. I like the team of New Bombay high school. Also I have seen students from vernacular medium who study in government school. They have deep respect towards this game. They don’t have all the facilities yet they are performing significantly well. Also one world’s team is extremely good.”
Satnam likes organizers of Media cup matches and corporate matches which take place in Navi Mumbai. There umpire gets good facilities as per Satnam’s opinion. At 24, a wide range of career options is available in front of him. He is not keen in continuing umpiring and said that he does it only as fun as he gets to learn new things from it.
Deferential Dinesh Mhatre Talks about umpiring –
A cricketer turned umpire-Dinesh Mhatre is a veteran umpire who officiates in Tennis Ball and Leather ball tournaments. While playing cricket back in his old days, Dinesh started umpiring as a part time profession. Having played cricket for Caliber Cricket club and 5-6 different cricket clubs, Dinesh has a good acumen as he stands to officiate. He started umpiring when he was just 16! Now he has an experience of more than 9 years as a full time umpire. In his 1st match as umpire, Dinesh got a valuable guidance from Mr.Prakash who was 2nd umpire during that match. Dinesh has had a glorious career so far as an umpire.
“In one of the match, when there was confusion whether the ball went beyond boundary or not, I did give a call in fielding side’s favor by not giving 4 runs. When there was a dispute between two teams, the fielding captain allowed conceding 4 runs to the opponents. It was a final over with 10 runs needed for victory and 2 wickets in hand. Fielding side took the remaining 2 wickets and won the match despite all the controversy. This was one very good experience” Said Dinesh.
Dinesh has a very unique technique to judge whether the given decision was correct or not. “Me sirf non striker batsman ko dekhta hu. Uska reaction batata hai ki decision sahi tha ya galat”. According to Dinesh, a cricketer knows well whether any decision was correct or not. Non- Striker is best seat in the ground to watch the cricket from. So it helps him to judge his own decisions. Dinesh has officiated in T20 and 45 overs format. He likes 45 overs format more over the T20s. When it comes to giving close decisions like LBW, Dinesh is in favor of batsman. “Unless I am 101% sure, I don’t give a batsman out. As a batsman you get only one chance and if a wrong decision is given then it can affect your career badly at times” He said.
He has had some bad experience about local cricketers as well. Match fixing and sledging which are two main issues in international cricket reflect in local cricket as well. Dinesh said, “Once in a tournament, a player sledged a fellow umpire of mine who was standing as leg umpire. As per rule if a player found doing any such misconduct then he can be banned from entire tournament. Using same rule I disqualified that player from rest of the tournament”. According to Dinesh, initially, umpires listen to the conversation. If they find anything abusive then they warn those players. If the same thing continues then the captain is given a warning about that player and the last stage is putting a ban straight away.
Recently during 2014 season he had a very shocking experience. He was going to officiate in one of the tournament’s final match. A day before that he got a call and he was invited for a meeting. There one of the team tried to bribe him by requesting him to give decisions their way. He simply returned home, called the organizer and arranged the new umpire for the match. Meanwhile he kept that team in dark about the fact that he will not stand as umpire in final. He went to ground next day for a final, sent his fellow umpire for toss and once toss was done, he returned back and that other umpire replaced him. “By doing this I ensured that they won’t get a chance to fix a match again” said Dinesh. Later when that team asked Dinesh about why he did that then Dinesh replied, “Cricket se me kabhi gaddari nhi karunga”.
Staying at Andheri, Dinesh travels a lot for umpiring. He has travelled to Pune, Palghar, Sawantwadi, Kudal , Alibaug and many such cities. According to Dinesh umpire must be strict and disciplined on field. He is in accord with the use of technology in the decision making process. It would help umpire to get accuracy in decisions. But he thinks that the condition of ground should be improved in local cricket. “Many times we have two wickets very close to each other. It can cause an injury.”Said Dinesh. Amongst all the umpires in the world, he likes Simon Taufel to the most.
Dinesh has a vast experience and has officiated in various tournaments like R.A.Bhaskar’s Cosmos Tournament and Scorpio cup, N.L.Ground’s goregaon boys cricket club’s tournament, All India Engineering tournament which takes place at Bhavan’s college, Venus cricket club’s tournament and many others. From different teams which he has seen, Sony entertainment team is his favorite. He accolade them when he said, “Their captain-Mr. Srinivasan handle’s the team very well. Their team management is extremely good and they have lots of discipline on field. So I like them.”Dinesh is certainly playing a key role in maintaining the integrity of the game and keeping it a gentleman’s game.
“How would you like it, if there was another MS Dhoni somewhere in the south, who runs his own business?” cracks Shan. The very ambitious young Shan started his cricketing career when he was 12 and fell in love with it instantly. He played his first match in Bhavans Vishyashram School when he was 12 and to everyone’s surprise was knocked up as a captain when he was 14.
“The uphill started from then and my luck hasn’t run out yet” says Shan. But a major part of his childhood he cherished with his bat and ball being from a family hailing cricket. His father was a former state cricket champ and he never failed to instill the passion to go up the ladder for Shan
The pride and twinkle never really left his face as he explain his cherished initial victories, when he debuted as a captain and brought laurels to his school team as they marched into a first ever a semi-finals in a state level tournament conducted by TNCA and did I mention his team became the 8Th best team in Chennai?
And he threaded upward when he won the first purple cap – the man of the match award when he was 13 and awarded the Best Cricketer of Bhavans Vishyashram in 2000. The passion burned as fire as the 6-footer never turned back and bagged a hatrick of 4/26 in his under-22 match and another match where he bagged 5 wickets with 63 runs on him, leaving every person in the crowd singing his name in the stadium and the most dearest moment where he batted and bowled as a veteran player, his first T20 match for his very own cricket club where he aced 46 runs (not out) bagging 3 wickets
He sits back and receives few calls from his clients and continues, “I run a translataion and voiceover agency now, called as SS Protela Business Solutions and I have come a long way since. My cricket has adhered me with perseverance and leadership skills, which cannot be learn in MBA. I still hold cricket to my heart and my motto is living life to the fullest, even if things don’t happen your way. I lived dreaming playing cricket for my bread and butter, however misfortunes somehow managed to seep in. I never bid a goodbye to cricket, rather passed on the bat to aspiring cricketers who wish to make it big, by coaching and mentoring young teens in my cricket club Gangulian XI.
Since he has gone a long way in his business, he has temporarily paused his dream project of running a cricket academy, but promises to mentor and mould many of his kind to make it to the crease.
The Mind-Body Connection of front foot drives is the sheer willingness and advancement Of The Mind that wants to go ahead and hit the ball which is about to pitch or is pitching at good length or is just short of good length.
Deciding when to step out of your crease (Stepping Out Is An Extension Of the Conventional Front Foot Drive) is the key when you are going for that kind Of a shot.
Practice:
A Batsman Must Consistently work on getting his front foot as close as Ppossible to the pitch of ball to keeping optimum balance to drive the ball cleanly and with crisp timing off front foot.”
The Mind-Body Connection Of Back Foot Drives Shows The Watchful, Sensible, Defensive approach of mind towards getting the ball close to body at an appropriate height and position to deal and then score runs of that delivery.
Mind arrests its impulse, aggression for a Delevery pitched some what short and mind Co-ordinates with body to let the ball come close to body rather than going towards the ball like in front foot drives case, It lets the body get behind the line of ball watchfully and then maintaining body balance, play a scoring or appropriate stroke .
Practices for Batsman:
Batsmen who want to succed at 1 St Class levels and higher levels ought to have very good back foot drives, glances, flicks of quickish , slightly short deliveries from fast bowlers as well as any delivery bowled by spinners which pitches short of good length should be definitely converted in run scoring opportunity of back foot .
The mind body connection for square cut is where mind’s razor sharp focus & enthusiasm is been facilitated with freedom of slap like expression of a delivery which is definitely short in length and providing enough room to a batsman to cut it , slap it for a nice aggressive stroke which very well may go for a boundary.
A batsman’s mind is sheer delighted to see a short , out side off delivery which he indeed finds a treat to be enjoyed & thus body is positioned in such a way that it simply gives direction to this delivery with horizontal swing of bat.
HOW TO PRACTICE: As Bowlers Keep bowling a line on off stump or just out side off stump so any delivery pitched slightly short out side off stump is excellent opportunity to score so batsman should play lots and lots of square cuts on various pitches to get correct footwork and to get used to pace and bounce of ball to be square cut effectively of both fast bowlers as well as spinners.
Subramanian D. is a BCCI certified Level A Coach and is associated with Achievers’ Cricket Academy, Chheda Nagar, Mumbai. He is the Head Coach of the academy.
The 32 year old has also successfully completed MCA Level O course in 2008. Subramanian has been an integral part of Achievers’ Cricket Academy, which was established in 2014. It is not just a cricket academy but a cricket clinic which not only provides cricket coaching but also educates the players about cricket. “Creating opportunities and guiding kids towards right direction is our motto. Players from our academy have been selected to represent various clubs and corporates. Also three players from the academy have made their way to the probables of Mumbai team in different age groups. Aayush Vijaydas and Aryan Agle (Mumbai U-12) and Faran Kazi (Mumbai U-19) are the players who have made the cut to Mumbai team.
Subramanian adds, “Coaching gives me a sense of bliss and it is wonderful to see players enjoy each and every coaching session of ours. We not only provide well maintained ground and wickets to the students but also stress on video analysis, which helps the players to see and learn from their mistakes. Apart from these, cement wickets for practice, fitness equipments, bowling machines and most importantly regular matches form the essence of our coaching”.
A right hand batsman and a wicket-keeper, Subramanian has represented Mumbai at the Ranji Trophy level in 2014 and is currently playing for D.Y.Patil team. It has been close to 10 years that he has represented D.Y.Patil.he has also achieved many milestones, like hitting more than 1000 runs in every season and hitting two consecutive centuries last year for his team in Kanga League A division against Parsi Gymkhana and National.
“Getting selected for Mumbai Ranji team was undoubtedly the highest point of my life”, reminisces Subramanian. at such a young age, Subramanian has played a pivotal role in developing the budding talent of Mumbai. Let’s hope he continues to serve this sport for a long, long time.
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