The Hindu : Sport : Irani Cup: a peek into its glorious past

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Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Irani Cup: a peek into its glorious past

G. Viswanath

Padmakar Shivalkar, with 51 wickets, tops the leading bowlers list

Rest of India has won it 19 times, four more than Mumbai
Gundappa Viswanath (1,001 runs) leads the run-scorers’ list

Mumbai: A large batch of India’s young cricketers from the Rest of India and Mumbai teams will join the select ‘Irani Cup Club’ when the 45th Irani Cup, the BCCI’s season opening match, starts at Rajkot’s Madhavrao Scindia Stadium on Saturday.

The Irani Cup Club has 403 members with Mumbai’s Ashok Mankad leading a long and distinguished list with 13 appearances followed by Sunil Gavaskar (12), Ajit Wadekar (11), Padmakar Shivalkar (10). Gundappa Viswanath, Eknath Solkar, Dileep Vengsarkar (9 each) and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, W.V. Raman, Dileep Sardesai, S. Madan Lal and S. Venkatraghavan (8 each) follow in that order.

Mumbai’s dominance

The dominance of Bombay (now Mumbai) in the Ranji Trophy has been instrumental in its players taking the top three positions. But their and the presence of other stalwarts is a reflection of the importance of the five-day competition long before the International Cricket Council’s packed Future Tour Programme came into being.

The good old cricketers regarded the Irani Cup as a step away from the India cap. It was in the Irani Cup at Nagpur in 1975 that Vengsarkar, the present chairman of the selection committee, made a massive impact (110 against Madan Lal, Prasanna and Bedi) before being picked for the tours of New Zealand and West Indies.

Sixteen players from the two teams, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwary, Arjun Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra , V. Yomahesh (all Rest of India) and Iqbal Abdulla, Sahil Kukreja, Hiken Shah, Rajesh Verma, Dhaval Kulkarni, Omkar Gurav, Prashant Naik, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Vikrant Yeligati (all Mumbai) have not figured in the Irani Cup.

In elite company

On Saturday Muzumdar, who in the last season steered Mumbai to wins in the Ranji Trophy, Premier Cup and the All Star Series Deodhar Trophy, is all set to lead his team in the Irani Cup for the first time. Moreover, Muzumdar, who played his first Irani Cup in 1994-95, and opening batsman Wasim Jaffer will join a select band who have made seven appearances in the Irani Cup.

Muzumdar and Jaffer will join Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath, Arun Lal, Abdul Ismail, Kapil Dev, V.V.S. Laxman, Maninder Singh, Sanjay Manjrekar and Milind Rege. Those who have figured in the Irani Cup on six occasions are: Sourav Ganguly, Syed Kirmani, Kirti Azad, Budhi Kunderan, Paras Mhambrey, Nayan Mongia, Sudhir Naik, Ramnath Parkar, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Erapalli Prasanna, Ravi Shastri and Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The cup has been named after Zal Irani, treasurer of the BCCI from 1928 to 1946 and from 1948 to 1962, a record 32 years. Subsequently he was also the BCCI President for three years from 1966-67 to 1968-69. The Irani Cup began in 1959-60 and was not held for two years in 1961 and 1962.

Winning the competition six times since the 1999-00 season, Rest of India has taken its tally to 19, four more than Mumbai’s 15. Mumbai last won the Cup 10 seasons ago. Karnataka (4), Delhi and Railways (2), Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Haryana (1) also figure in the winner’s scroll.

Those who have scored over 500 runs are: Gundappa Viswanath - 1001, Vengsarkar - 779, Mankad - 766, Gavaskar - 733, Wadekar - 717, Laxman - 659, Ravi Shastri - 609, Raman - 578 and Pravin Amre - 503.

Those who have captured over 20 wickets are: Shivalkar 51, Chandrasekhar 40, Venkatraghavan, Maninder Singh and Sairaj Bahutule 34 each, Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble 28 each, Murali Kartik and Shastri 27 each, Prasanna 25, Bapoo Nadkarni and Abdul Ismail 21 each.

Nayan Mongia holds the wicketkeeper’s record for dismissals with 23 catches and two stumpings, while in the non-wicketkeeper category Wadekar (14), Laxman (13), Solkar and Muzumdar (12 each), M. Kartick (11) and Arun Lal (10) turned out to be competent fielders.

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