Cricket 1906

CR ICK E T: a w ee k l y r e c o r d o f t h e g a m e . JUNE 14, 1906. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. N o. 7 2 2 . V O L . X X V . THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1906. p r i c e 2d. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. M r. J. M. FRA.MJEE PATEL. The Nestor of Parsi Cricket— A. happy description of Mr. J. M. Framjee Patel, and one which, as thoso who know anything of the devflopm ‘rit of oricket in India can vouch, fits him like a glove. It would be im­ possible, indeed, to over­ estimate the value of the work the Patels have done to acclimatise and consoli­ date the greatest of all games in Western India. Mr. A. B. Patel it was who was responsible for the arrange­ ment of the first match between the Parsee C 0. and the Bombay Gymkhana in 1877. It was under his personal guidance, too, that the pioneer <earn of Parsee cricketers came to England in 1886—beyond a doubt the most enterprising and am­ bitious cricket mission so far recorded in the history of the game. Unfortunately, the fertile brain which did so much for Parsi cricket in its early days has been long at rest. Happily, Dr. D. H. Patel, who captained that team, is alive and flourishing, as is his cousin, Mr. J. M. Framjee Patel, to whose enthusiasm, judgment, and courageous Bupport of cricket Lord Harris has borne such eloquent testimony from his personal experiences while Governor of Bombay. Mr. Patel, who at the present moment is in England on a long visit in search of health, is enj lying the opportunity of seeing first-class cricket under the best conditions. It was only a fitting recog­ nition of his devotion to the game that the M.C.C. should have conferred on him the honorary membership of our premier club. With a similar compliment from the Surrey County C.C., Mr. Patel, it is to be hoped, will carry back with him to India another proof of the strong link which unites cricketers all the world over. So much by way of introduction. Au reste Cricket readers will have the satisfaction of hearing in Mr. Patel’s own words of the wonderful development of the game in India of late years, particu­ larly among the nalive ra'ies. “ The first club,” Mr. Patel said, in reply to an ei q iiry about the early diys MR. J. M. FBAMJBE PATEL. {Photo by Vernon and Co., Bombay.) of Parsi cricket, “ was the Oriental C.C., which came into existence in 1848. Later on the ‘ Zoroastrian ’ and ‘ The Mars,’ the principal cricket bodies in those days, found opponents in regimental teams from the Bombay Garrison, against whom they were fairly successful. The only ground then, as now, was the Esplanade Maidan; bat in those good old days the surroundings, like th? imple­ ments used in praotice, were crude, and the players had to be satisfied with cjnvas tents, which were only a protec­ tion agiiust the rays of a tropicil sun.” In his work, ‘ ‘ Stray Thoughts onIndian Cricket,” to which Cricket has recently referred, Mr. Patel gives a graphic pictu-e of the Parsi player in the quaint but picturesque costume he affected in those primitive days. Some of it he still retained when the teamcame to England, as I can well remember, though it soon ceased to be visible on Eng­ lish grounds. “ Everything in those early days was crude,” added Mr. Patel; “ the pitches were rough and ill tended; there were no boundaries, and the umpiring was ‘ void and without form.’ The Parsees at the outset had only their own enthusiasm for a stimulant. They had no supporters even in the Press, and that they were only tolerated in public opinion can be judged by the fact that the cricketers were deprived of their usual pitch in consequence of a strayball hitting a European lady during her constitu­ tional.” “ They have changed all that now,” I suggested. “ Yes,” Mr. Patel replied, “ thanks to the good offices of the sportingAnglolndians, particularly to the members of the Bombay and Poona Gymkhanas. Generous en­ couragement has been given to Parsee cricketers, and goodwill has been con­ spicuous of late in the cricket relationship of the governing and governed.” “ Native cricket was greatly indebted toLordHarris while Governor of Bombay, it has always been understood,” I inter­ posed. “ Lord Harris’s consistent encourage­ ment of physical culture had a very great deal to do with placing Parsee, and,