For a long time, Mumbai cricket has been synonymous with Shivaji Park, Matunga Gymkhana and Cross Maidan, but during the third Test between India and England in Rajkot, one of the metro's lesser talked about nurseries, Azad Maidan has had its moment in the sun. While Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan were dominating England's bowlers, the cricketing world marveled at how the Mumbai Maidans continued to churn out run machines.
Rohit's journey from the outskirts of Borivali to take over as India captain has been well-documented, and Jaiwal and Sarfaraz's success has been a huge success in south Mumbai, home to 22 pitches and multiple match-inspired frenzy. The spotlight was on a vast 25-acre plot of land.
“These days, all the good players used to come from Shivaji Park, Matunga, Kros Maidan. Hamay garb hai (Now Azad Maidan has produced two lion-hearted cricketers),'' said Ramadar Jaiswal, who hails from Azad Maidan like Sarfaraz and Yashasvi.
Ramadar lived in a tent at Azad Maidan for several years as a student and spent most of his life on the ground, first as a cricketer at Mazgaon Dock and then as a coach at the St. Xavier's College ground. “The pitches at Azad Maidan are bald and dusty. Your footwork against spin and your ability to control spinning balls is honed on courses like this. (After this) when you get to play in a gymkhana, it feels easy. But then playing at Wankhede is a piece of cake. That's what Azad Maidan teaches,” said Raju Pathak, who was the school coach of Sarfaras, Jaiswal and Prithvi Shaw at Rizvi Springfield on the outskirts of Bandra. said.
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While most of the Maidan grounds have short boundaries, Azad Maidan and Shivaji Park require a lot of running to accumulate runs. “It's a very large area and the boundaries are very arbitrary… it's never-ending. Only when the batsman starts spinning for the third point does the umpire signal for a boundary I will start deciding whether it is good or not,” said Mushtaq Shaikh, who is following in the footsteps of his late father Channawala and is managing pitching at Azad Maidan. If that happens, there will be a lot of pitches in a small area and confusion will ensue.
“The match is played side-by-side so there are 10 players fielding around and the players have to face distractions… It is the toughest form and school of cricket. And that's the end of the story,'' said fellow former Mumbai batsman Zubin Bharucha. In 1984, he played cricket at Azad Maidan with Parsi Cyclist. “That's why we have Jaiswal, Sarfaraz, Tendulkar, Kambli, Rohit.” Most matches are unprepared because continuous matches mean the pitch is overused. It is played on an unprepared pitch and the outfield is uneven.
Azad Maidan cannot be compared to the state-of-the-art academies that are mushrooming across the country. There are no Division A clubs in the Kanga League. Reputable coaches prefer to establish centers elsewhere. But Maidan stands out for what it offers: fierce competition, abundant opportunities, and continuous encouragement. If you work hard enough, you will find success and support. For example, Jaiswal, who could not afford to pay coaching fees, received free coaching from Ishrat Khan at the Muslim United Cricket Club. Imran Kodia, the club's owner, allowed Jaiswal to stay in the tent for free. They look for that one genius hidden among thousands of players. In Ishrat's eyes, Jaiswar was also one such talent.
“As I was bowling slowly towards him, he said, “Sir, bowl faster, ya toh marlonga, ya toh keronga'' (“Sir, bowl faster, ya toh keronga'') “It touched my heart. I told myself there was something special about him, and it was an extra It meant abandonment,” recalls Ishrat.
Sachin Tendulkar was carried from ground to ground by his coach Ramakant Ashrekar, Sarfaraz Khan could bat for multiple matches in a day on one Maidan, but Azad is so big . Same goes for Jaiswal. “The good thing about living in Azad Maidan is that Yashasvi was able to play a lot of matches. Before the metro construction started, there were 22 matches being played at the same time on weekends. There were also 12 matches being played, as well as school and university matches, practice matches,'' says Ramadar.
Zulfiqar Shaikh, grounds manager at Muslim United Cricket Club, who nurtured young Jaiswar from an early age, says: “Yashasvi lived with us for three years in a tent at the club. He would play all day long. He would put on his pads and knock on some ground. He would go wherever matches were being played. But he rushed over with his bag and demanded to play. Same.
daily routine. It was a living, eating, sleeping cricket. Pappu sir (Ishrat Khan) used to come and teach him,” echoes Sarfaraz. “Naushad has been working very hard on him. He has been at the ground (John Bright Cricket Club) since 5.30am,” Zulfikar said. .
It is only a facility for games in name only, with the players simply pitching tents as changing rooms. Ideally, they would like to see improved infrastructure such as toilets and changing rooms, but some argue that it is the harsh labor that is creating the Jaiswaris and Sarfaras. When I play here, I always hear people saying, “Don't throw away your wickets, hit the ball along the ground and you have to score 100 points.'' They don't necessarily come from the coach. Everyone speaks the same language you are absorbing.
For Barucha, the value of the effort lies in the amount of orchids produced. Tendulkar's 15,921 and his Sunil Gavaskar's 10,122 alone would have meant more than 26,000 Test runs. Adding up from Vijay Merchant (he was playing for Fort Vijay in Azad Maidan) to Rohit Sharma, this number is Shivaji Park, Matunga's major Dhadkar Maidan, Cross Oval, Azad Maidan. That's enough to reach 100,000 runs within a 15km radius including
“This kind of high-volume execution doesn't come from unstructured systems. It comes from a very powerful framework that all of this is built on. That's the part that people don't understand. The framework becomes the culture,” says Bharucha. It's like Brazilian boys playing soccer in the favelas and on the beach. It is the ability to make a person strong and crush it in the open maidan under the scorching sun.
