What A Party, Mr. SMG!

Like his eye-pleasing straight drives, among other copybook strokes, Sunil Gavaskar has warmed the cockles of many a heart over nine years and seven gatherings by throwing a party to his friends, acquaintances, and cricketers from his school and club days. Some were many, many years older than him, like former Test cricketers Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, and Chandu Patankar. A superb all-rounder in his days, Borde, 89, came from Pune accompanied by Raju Metha of Sunny’s Sports. Patankar – one of the great Col. CK Nayudu’s favourites — is 93, and Nari Contractor, 90, a resident of South Mumbai, drew much of the attention. So did Chandu Joshi,92, Rajasthan’s leggie of the past and excellent standing, making the road trip Pune-Mumbai-Pune for seven hours and in between spending a breezy four hours at the bash where everyone was trying hard to, as they say, “paint the town red.” The little master shuffled towards the golden gang and welcomed them with a delightful: “Ah, here are the youngsters” as the “Indus Club” chatter at BKC Mumbai began to raise its decibel level. Everyone would agree with SMG’s Instagram post that a handful, most notably Tukaram Surve and Avinash Karnik, were missed. The much looked forward “SMG Party” had the charming presence of many Bombay and Mumbai boys, including Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar, Sandip Patil, Milind Rege and Abdul Ismail. Three times each at the MCA- BKC and the Indus Club and once at the Cricket Club of India…where next, Mr Gavaskar! Only Anil Joshi can tell us all, come next year.