No match for the past

From the albums

I studied in St Joseph’s European High School and went on to finish my engineering at St Joseph’s College.

This picture was taken when the Bangalore United Cricket Club (BUCC) held its annual general body meeting at the Daly Memorial Hall situated on Cenotaph Road (now known as Nrupathunga Road).

The meeting was held to elect office-bearers, captains, vice-captains and so on. BUCC is one of the premier cricket clubs of Bengaluru and won the ‘Sir Mirza Ismail Shield’ for the First Division League in 1954.

There were three divisions at that time — ‘Sir Mirza Ismail Shield’ (first division), ‘Nassur Memorial Shield’ (second division) and the ‘Metro Shield’ (third division).

 PE Palia, who played for India in the 30s, led the BUCC brilliantly. He was an outstanding bowler and a brilliant batsman too. Most of the players in the photograph have passed away. BUCC’s arch rivals were ‘Bangalore Cricketers’, which was led by Lt Adisesh. His younger brother, Lt Subbu, passed away recently.

 I am standing in the last row with a St Joseph’s blazer and a moustache. Those days, we played cricket for the love of the game and BUCC was like a large family. The annual match between the bachelors and the married men was played with seriousness.

The lunch, post the match, was a grand affair with members pooling in a variety of tasty eats. CV Panduranga was the backbone of the administration and management. As many of us grew up in the Cantonment area, we were influenced by Anglo-Indian culture and had developed a keen interest for sports since childhood.

At that time, St Joseph’s and Bishop Cotton’s were the premiere institutes. I was initially a hockey player but I lacked the required speed. As I grew up, I developed a fondness for cricket.

We played a number of matches and after I left BUCC, I played cricket for a Union and hit a 50 in the first match, without a day of practice. Avenues like IPL have led to commercialisation of the game.

Even players, with their funny clothes, look like clowns in a circus and court jesters. Earlier, we used to play book cricket which was a gentleman’s game. Those days will never come back.

RC Sharma (As told to Anushka Sivakumar)