Vinod Kambli : Stardom that slipped away

An afternoon of Cricket nostalgia

It is late in the year 1992; I am fresh out of college and have joined a company in Pune. The seniors in the company were looking for players to play for the team in the local corporate league.

Many of the team members are in their late thirties and some in their 40’s. The team could do with a few young people to keep the team fresh. I volunteer to play, get into the selection trials, and get selected. We had weekend practice sessions and also midweek routines for the team. It was probably what made me go for it.

But then this is not a story about me; it is how a morning of cricket practice gave me a memory that never fades.

On a chilly December morning, the team decided to have a practice session. It was at the Poona Club Ground, one that had a pride of place in the city. We practiced for a few hours on some nets outside of the main pitch. As we finished and decided to get home, we realized that the main ground had a match being played. Some of us wandered over to have a look.

One of our guys walked over to the man changing the plates and got a few more details. We were told that it was a Ranji Trophy encounter between Maharashtra and Mumbai. Yes, it was the days when Bombay was not yet Mumbai. It was the fourth day, and Bombay were playing their second inning and were resuming at 107 for 2 as that scruffy black scoreboard with white letters on plates declared.

We were still loitering along the ropes, undecided of what to do with the morning. Someone got a few cups of tea, and we stood there as the overnight batsmen walked out. We were blissfully unaware of what was coming around the corner.

As the Maharashtra team led by Surendra Bhave walked into the field. The Bombay openers followed. Zubin Bharucha, a decent opener who also later played county cricket for Surrey, was accompanied by Vinod Kambli, who had already earned a reputation for his penchant for attacking shots and big scores.

We decided to wait and found a spot underneath the trees lined up along the ground. If there was ever a wait worth it, that was it.

The Kambli Show

Vinod Kambli displayed why he had the reputation that he carried. He put on a show of fireworks on that slightly gray morning. It was an absolute pleasure to watch.

It was mostly spinners in operation. Maharashtra had its own share of decent hardworking spinners like Shrikant Jadhav, Santosh Jedhe, and Milind Gunjal.

I had never seen such a butchery of bowlers before. We had read stories of Stan McCabe, Garfield Sobers, K Srikant, Kapil Dev, etc., but never had seen that kind of batting in flesh.

The spinners were dispatched with disdain. Anything floated outside the off stump was driven with a flourish; short balls were cut with an uncorking wrist down to the point boundary. Jadhav tried the flatter trajectory, Kambli stepped out, took the ball on a half volley, and went hard into the drive. The ball just shot past the umpire and thudded into a tree trunk near us. The speed at which it went across the ropes is still vivid in my mind.

The short balls were pulled into the ground and sent racing to the ropes. It was just pure class, every shot from the text book, played perfectly. The sweeps were just as effortless, and while we stood watching, Kambli, overnight 21, was raising his bat to his teammates for a hundred.

It was not just throw-the- bat- at-the-ball stuff. Kambli was creating a proper cricket innings with power, grace and a lot of effort.

My colleagues had left as they had families to get back to, and me with just a friend back in my shared accommodation stayed on. It was a wise decision, as within a matter of a few hours, Kambli had a double century, and with him at 202, Bombay declared. The 202 had come off 209 balls with 18 fours and one six. In the company of Bharucha to start with, and Jatin Paranjpe and Sairaj Bahutule, he took Mumbai to 399 for 4 before they declared.

It was nothing like I had seen.

I stood there for a few minutes, digesting what I had seen, and turned away to get home. Maharashtra could do what they wanted with the chase; I had gathered a memory for a lifetime and was well, hungry. Thank you Vinod for that memory.

Fate is sometimes very cruel. The same Kambli, who had the world at his feet, crumbled in life while his partner from his school days, Sachin Tendulkar, went on to become a god of the game.

It is sad, but then life is not always fair is it?

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