Many are indebted to the former Tata Sports Club secretary, but his contribution to cricket promotion in Vile Parle must not be forgotten
Prakash Palekar, Ratan Tata, Dilip Vengsarkar, Manohar Joshi
Prakash Palekar didn’t own a recruitment agency, but a flock of Mumbai cricketers are indebted to him for being employed in various Tata firms. Mumbai-based Palekar (74) died recently in Pune, where he went to visit some friends; a passing which has greatly saddened the cricketing fraternity.
In July, he organised a get-together involving a few Tata players at the Worli residence of former Test bowler Umesh Kulkarni. The rains were playing havoc and Palekar just wouldn’t entertain Kulkarni’s attempts at postponing the luncheon party. “I don’t have time,” he said to Kulkarni more than once.
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Prakash Palekar with Ratan Tata (extreme left), Dilip Vengsarkar and then Mumbai Cricket Association president Manohar Joshi (extreme right) during Vengsarkar’s benefit match at Wankhede Stadium on October 20, 1994. Pic/mid-day archives
Palekar came to Sportsfield armed with three laminated copies of this newspaper’s 37th anniversary piece on Rajasthan Sports Club’s 1979 Kanga League ‘A’ division pennant victory. During the function, he presented a copy to Pushkaraj Shenai, the son of late Prakash Shenai, the Rajasthan SC team manager, who was mentioned a few times in the piece. One copy was presented to host Kulkarni and Palekar kept the third one for himself. The words, “I don’t have time’ reverberate in Kulkarni’s head and some of Palekar’s friends are left wondering whether he had a premonition of his death.
He will always be synonymous with cricket at Tata Sports Club, but Palekar also played a significant role in popularising cricket in Vile Parle (East). Former Test bowler Ajit Pai recalled playing tennis ball cricket with Palekar and efforts of Palekar and brother Aru Pai towards success of Vile Parle Recreation Club. Interestingly, Pai didn’t play with a season ball till the age of 21. Both childhood friends last spoke and reminisced — for an hour — on Friendship Day on August 8.
Prakash Kelkar, another Mumbai cricket go-to man from Vile Parle, partnered Palekar in organising benefit matches for former players. In a 1990 Sunday column which he wrote after witnessing a successful benefit match for Eknath Solkar, Sunil Gavaskar called Kelkar and Palekar “two indefatigable cricket lovers who slogged to make sure that everything was hitch-free.”
Sunil Gavaskar, who was in the West Indies when he learnt about Palekar'’s death, reacted by saying, “That’s sad news indeed. He was sending me my favourite Tata diary for the last few years. He was one of those passionate cricket lovers who served the game selflessly in an administrative capacity. May his soul rest in peace.”
India’s chief selector Sandeep Patil’s mind raced back to 1976 when, at the Western Railway ground in Mahalaxmi, he scored a quickfire 60 for Century Rayon against Tata Sports Club in a Times Shield game. Later that evening, he was offered a job at Tata by then captain Milind Rege with Palekar the secretary of the club present. “I got closer to Mr Palekar at Tata Oil Mills (TOMCO). He was instrumental in my trip to UK (for league cricket) sponsored by TOMCO and gave me tips on how to handle immigration officials at Heathrow airport,” Patil told me.
Rege called Palekar “a man of great vision” for initiating the Tata inter-company cricket tournament. “No one had thought about this activity in the group. What followed was football, hockey, all indoor games — tennis, badminton, bridge and so many more. He created a Tata family through sports,” said Rege.
Apart from being involved in inter-office cricket, Palekar was also a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) managing committee member for two seasons. Vilas Godbole, who was then the MCA Jt Secretary, reckoned Palekar’s greatest contribution to city cricket was his realisation that cricketers must get employed. Godbole remembered Palekar as a lover of Marathi literature and a keen traveller to all parts of the world. He requested both teams playing their Kanga League fixture at his United Cricketers club (Cross Maidan) to observe a minute’s silence in honour of Palekar.
What was Palekar like at Bombay House? Former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira said: “Prakash and I were colleagues in TOMCO when the late Vinod Bali was the boss. Both were passionate about cricket with Vinod throwing his room open for the entire staff to watch matches on his TV if they wished. I have no doubt that Prakash nudged him in that direction. Prakash also had a dry and sly sense of humour. He was a very good friend and ardent supporter of sportsmen in the corporate system.”
Inter-office cricket is not what it used to be in Mumbai. Employment due to cricketing ability is near-extinct. There are multiple reasons for this depressing turn in city cricket. One of them is the lack of passionate benefactors such as Prakash Palekar.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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