The jewel of Dadar Union

Vasoo Paranjape works on a cricketer’s bowling action at the Oval Maidan in 2001. Pic/mid-day archives

In his club cricket days, Vasoo Paranjape, I suspect, spent some part of his Monday afternoons in August either playing out the previous day's Kanga League game in his head or planning for Dadar Union Sporting Club's next opponents. There were no assumptions to be made last Monday afternoon. Paranjape had left us.

Paranjape adorned many hats in his 82-year innings of his life. He played first-class cricket for Baroda and Mumbai, coached and mentored several youngsters, but a large portion of Mumbai's cricketing fraternity would associate him with the impact he had on club cricket.

At Dadar Union, he played with some big names in Mumbai cricket even before he took over the club's captaincy. I have a newspaper report of Shivaji Park Gymkhana's 1963 Kanga League title triumph. Dadar Union could have won the ‘A' division pennant that year with their crushing win over Jolly Cricketers. But Parsi Cyclists ended up losing to Shivaji Park Gymkhana and hence leaders went ahead in points. Paranjape appears in the brief scores - top score of 49 in a total of 238-8 declared with Test men Madhav Mantri (48) and Naren Tamhane (44) being the other scorers. Jolly Cricketers were bowled out for 64.

Apart from being an effective middle-order batsman for Dadar Union, he was an acrobatic fielder. Vilas Godbole, 79, recalled how Mantri used to organise pre-Kanga League fielding sessions. High catches were part of those sessions and Paranjape went for one despite Mantri indicating that it was a dangerous one to attempt. The next thing Mantri and his fellow Dadar Union players saw was Paranjape jumping over a sleeping groundsman's cot and taking a one-handed catch.

Ajit Puthran, who opened the bowling for Dadar Union from 1986 to 1996, recalled a Kanga League match against Dadar Parsi Zoroastrian CC at Matunga where the host batsman Vinay Edekar was all set to take a single for his shot which went to the cover region. But as soon as he saw Paranjape there, he yelled out to his batting partner, "not yet." According to Puthran, Paranjape looked at Edekar and remarked, "never."

Paranjape took his fielding seriously. I remember GK Menon, the late sports journalist, who played a good standard of club cricket himself, recalling how Paranjape ran off the field because he had dropped more than one catch. He had a presence.

"When he was on the field, you could say we were going to win. Many a time we failed to make a playing XI because our regular players used to be busy playing for India or domestic cricket. Vasoo Sir used to turn up and tell us to give our 100 per cent even though we were short of players. Amidst that lively, enjoyable atmosphere he ensured we fought hard on the field and nine of 10 times, we'd win," Puthran told me on Wednesday.

For Salil Shah, the spinner, who served Dadar Union in the 1980s and 1990s, the name Vasoo Paranjape conjures up images of a white floppy hat, scarf, spotless creams and a livewire on the field. "We were happy to imbibe his wealth of knowledge and his advice was always handed out in a non-reprehensible way. He once captained me for Bombay Police in a Police Shield game and there was a batsman who was hitting me across the line. He comes up to me and tells me that I've set the field, now think about how you will go about things," said Shah, the tall left-arm spinner, providing an indication that Paranjape gave players the freedom to work out things for themselves.

Talking of left-arm spin, it was this brand of bowling which did Rajasthan SC in, in a Purshottam Shield game despite reaching 250 for no loss in response to Dadar Union's 330. Mobin Shaikh, who kept wicket for Rajasthan SC, remembered Paranjape bringing himself on and taking four wickets which caused Rajasthan SC's defeat.

Sanjay Jaywant, the fine middle order batsman, who played only one Ranji Trophy game for Mumbai (in 1975-76) told me how Paranjape asked him to join Dadar Union after being impressed by a knock he played for Parsi Cyclists, his second club after Shivaji Park Youngsters. "I agreed and had to face some flak from the late Vijay Manjrekar, who wanted me to continue playing for Youngsters. I was already a member of Dadar Union, but to play for them, I had to pay the membership fees with retrospective effect. Sensing I couldn't afford to pay up, Vasoo handed me a R100 note. He also lent me his leg guards for my Ranji Trophy debut," Jaywant told me, struggling to hold back his emotions.

There were many who were overcome with emotion on Monday, including me after seeing him all set to undertake his final journey.

COVID-19 prevented me from visiting him like I used to. But each pre-pandemic visit was memorable. Amidst savouring the tea and snacks prepared by Mrs Lalita Paranjape, I would listen as her husband spoke about Bradman, Gavaskar, McCabe and of course, that great cricketer-writer Fingleton.

Former India fast bowler TA Sekar, who Paranjape worked with at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, recalled the time when Ian Chappell visited the Dennis Lillee-headed Foundation in the early 1990s. At least one evening ran into the wee hours of the morning when Chappell and Paranjape discussed Australian cricket.

I called Chappell on Monday afternoon to inform him of Paranjape's death. "Good man, Vasoo," he said as he recalled those evenings with him in Chennai and his Matunga home. Before he hung up, he repeated, "Good man, Vasoo."

Vasudev Jagannath Paranjape indeed was one.

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello

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