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Guru with a difference
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Vijay Mohanraj, a former Ranji player combines the bio-mechanics of cricket with technology to coach budding cricketers
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Men in white Vijay Mohanraj (third from right) flanked by his idol Sunil Gavaskar and Mumbai mate Karsan Ghavri
Sometime in the seventies, Sunil Gavaskar, who was then leading Bombay in the Ranji Trophy, won the toss and asked his openers to pad up. Used to taking a strike along with the Little Master, or coming one down, Vijay Mohanraj put on his protective gear too.
To his utter amazement and that of his Mumbai mates, the rival southern side’s openers went out to the middle! Those were times when the match observer/referee didn’t accompany the captains to the toss. This unethical and unsporting act by the rivals had the Mumbai team charged up sufficiently to put in a stirring performance.
On another occasion at the Feroz Shah Kotla, a former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President from the port city was seen rooting for Delhi against his home side.
That was just the cue to fire up the Bombay squad, which came up with a rousing display.
Vijay saw Gavaskar from very close quarters, either partnering him in batting or watching him from behind the stumps, when the former kept wickets. Outside the game, they sat in adjoining or nearby cubicles while working for ACC and Nirlon. Much of his work ethic Vijay imbibed by watching the batting legend, who was always punctual and never left office early on the pretext of ‘practice.’
When in office, penning ‘Sunny Days,’ Gavaskar could be seen making notes on his autobiography, positioning the writing pad on his legs, under the desk, lest he be seen doing personal work !! The celebrity status never went to his head as exemplified at a Nirlon function, got up to felicitate him before his tour of Australia. One speaker urged him to shred Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lilee, the Aussie speed spearheads, responding to which Gavaskar hoped he’d get to see the ball! Initially a table tennis player for his school, St.Mary’s, living in the vicinity of the Brabourne and Wankhede stadia drew Vijay to cricket.
His climb was steady from the metro’s Giles and Harris shield tourneys for boys under 15 and 19 years, then on to the Cooch-Behar, Rohinton Baria, Vizzy and C.K. Nayudu trophy. He was coached at various times by Balgovind, Vasant Amladi, Bapu Nadkarni and Hemu Adhikari and mentored too by the legendary Ramakant Achrekar.
A fighting 32 on a treacherous track at Nagpur for Combined Universities against the Mike Brearley-led MCC attracted notice.
He followed that up with an unbeaten 76 at Indore for Bombay against the same team.
His Ranji debut against Hyderabad wasn’t a memorable one, but he more than made up for it with a century in the quarter-finals against Haryana that had Kapil Dev and Rajinder Goel, prompting comparisons to Ajit Wadekar.
Contemporaries and team-mates included Dilip Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, Ashok Mankad, Milind Rege, Bapu Nadkarni, Eknath Solkar and Karsan Ghavri. Mumbai cricket was extremely competitive, anything short of three figures rarely considered upto the mark and consigned to the record books. Cricketing travels had him sharing rooms with Kapil Dev, Sandeep Patil and Yograj Singh, now known more as Yuvraj’s father.
At the urging of Shivlal Yadav and M.V. Narasimha Rao, he moved to Hyderabad, where he figured in the side’s finest hour in 1986-87, contributing an invaluable and unbeaten 211 in the Ranji Trophy triumph over Delhi on their turf. An age limit of 30 years restricting players in the Duleep Trophy, interests outside cricket and a feeling he’d played enough, had him hanging up his boots in 1988.
While actively in cricket, he ran a coaching scheme and also a newspaper column, titled Point of View. After his playing days, he started a cricket consultancy having several famous former Ranji players on board. Initially it was laughed at for its half a dozen coaches for four students.
First of its kind, it soon gained acceptance, the likes of Bharath Reddy and Brijesh Patel evincing interest in his programme. Cricket management was Vijay’s goal and with that view he was one of eight applicants for the position of Indian team coach.
A Level III from the National Cricket Academy, on whose faculty he serves, his county experiences in the Bradford and Huddersfield leagues, his coaching stints with various teams had given him the wherewithal for such an assignment.
Combining the biomechanics of cricket, as espoused by Frank Tyson, with today’s technology, he seeks to add value to high profile teams in achieving new levels of performance.
A. JOSEPH ANTONY
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