Ranji season shows Mumbai cricket can’t rest on laurels

Vidarbha’s second successive Ranji Trophy title – a marvellous achievement and surely a sign of rapidly growing prowess – holds some bitter home truths for 41 times champions Mumbai who could not even make it to the quarter-final this year.

Vidarbha was not only the team which denied them this opportunity earlier, winning the pre-quarters by an innings, but to rub salt into the wounds, two towering influences in their journey to the title are from Mumbai. Veteran batsman Wasim Jaffer and coach Chandrakant Pandit shifted their loyalties after being given the short shrift by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) a couple of seasons ago. Pandit was unceremoniously ousted and Jaffer, sensing that a sword was dangling over his head too, opted out. Mumbai’s loss has been Vidarbha’s gain. For the second season running, Jaffer has scored over 1,000 runs. Apart from being richly productive with the bat, he has also been invaluable as a senior pro in helping younger players.

I was speaking to former Mumbai captain Milind Rege the other day and he described Jaffer as a “majestic” batsman who provides immense pleasure apart from runs. “In my book,’’ said Rege, “he is an automatic selection in an all-time Mumbai Xl apart from Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Vengsarkar.’’

That is rich praise. True, Jaffer’s advancing years – he is 40 – meant that Mumbai’s selectors had to keep an eye on his fitness as well as try and groom youngsters. But his dazzling form and hunger to play should have convinced authorities of Jaffer’s usefulness rather than make him insecure.

The loss of Pandit was equally detrimental to Mumbai’s cause. Perhaps more so, for at the domestic level – with most ‘stars’ on international duty – the coach as mentor and strategist becomes even more important.

Anybody who has interacted with Pandit will vouch for his shrewd understanding of match situations and manmanagement skills. That Vidarbha have won the title twice on the trot with only one international star – Umesh Yadav, who appears intermittently – highlights his value.

It is nobody’s case that Jaffer and Pandit would have guaranteed a Mumbai win. But the prospects of the team would have certainly been enhanced. This season Mumbai could not win even one match outright, which is hugely disappointing.

The challenges for Mumbai goingaheadaretwo-fold.one, other teams on the domestic circuit are improving by leaps and bounds because of better infrastructure, better coaching and the assurance of reasonable livelihood at least.

Mumbai was the ‘home’ of Indian cricket in the past because it provided the best facilities for skill improvement as well as jobs in companies. To an extent this was true of all traditional cricket centres in the country, like Delhi, Bangalore, Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad. In the last couple of decades, the game has spread across the length and breadth of the country, and players from smaller centres, more desirous of success and willing to work harder for it, have rewritten the pecking order in Indian cricket.

Vidarbha and Saurashtra playing the final speaks of the rapid progress made by smaller associations. More pertinently, the under-19 and under-23 age group teams from these associations are also doing well, giving the trend more heft.

Players from smaller cities and associations, while respectful of Mumbai’s legacy, are no longer intimidated. They take the field as equals. This has been for the betterment of Indian cricket, but also challenges Mumbai cricket’s minders to think differently. They must relook how its academies and coaches are functioning, how worthwhile local tournaments are in the current ethos, how grassroots development is progressing or recast those that aren’t working. But all this stems from how well the administration itself is faring. Currently, the MCA, like many others, is in a mess, locked up in the unseemly tug-of-war with the Committee of Administrators (COA).

The two judges who were appointed in charge to run the association till the dispute with the COA was resolved, have quit. Since then, the MCA has been stumbling along without clear direction or purpose, which is reflected in how the team has fared this year. This doesn’t mean that one needs to strum up a dirge. Three Ranji titles in the last 10 years shows Mumbai cricket is far from dead. But this year’s performance suggests that to even remain competitive, administrators, coaches, players et al will have to do far more going ahead.

The message is clear: Mumbai cricket can’t rest on past laurels.