Our special guest this week is Mudar Patherya, a cricket writer for Sportsworld magazine through the 1980s – before he moved on to other interests.
Across five trips to Pakistan, visits to Sharjah, a tour to West Indies, and several assignments within India – Mudar made a name for himself as one of the finest writers on the game. The more we listened, the more we were convinced that he was the ‘Forrest Gump of cricket’ in the ’80s.
Talking Points:
- Covering India’s tour to Pakistan in 1982-83
- The fascination with Abdul Qadir
- Getting to know Imran Khan
- Javed Miandad’s famous six in Sharjah
- The shock and disbelief in Lahore on that evening in 1987
- The World Cup final at Eden Gardens
- The fiery passion for cricket in a small corner of Calcutta
- Meeting (and shocking) a president of the MCC
- The genius of Mushtaq Ali
- The magnificent Mr Pataudi
- The craze for football in the Calcuta of the ’70s and ’80s
- Azharuddin’s dream debut
- When Sanjay Manjrekar was the Wall
- Sachin Tendulkar’s first day in Test cricket
- Collecting cricket memorabilia
- and much more…
Related clippings from Sportsworld (courtesy Clayton Murzello and Mudar Patherya):
Related:
Lessons from a middle-aged cricketer – – ESPNcricinfo – Mudar Patherya
Does Kolkata still love Test cricket – ESPNcricinfo – Mudar Patherya
Third Ground – The Cricket Monthly – Mudar Patherya
A man of opposites – ESPNcricinfo – Mudar Patherya on Tiger Pataudi
Charmingly villainous – The Cricket Monthly – Mudar Patherya on Imran Khan
An Old, Old Cricketer Speaks – Wisden Cricket Monthly – Mudar Patherya interview with DB Deodhar
When Azhar stole the show at Eden Gardens – Mid-Day – Mudar Patherya
‘Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories’ – Sharda Ugra podcast on 81allout
England XI v Australians in 1921
Victor Trumper’s iconic 335 and a smashed boot factory window – Cricketcountry.com – Pradip Dhole
At Lord’s – poem by Francis Thompson
Books by Mudar Patherya:
The Penguin Book of Cricket Lists – Mudar Patherya and Barry O’Brien
Wills Book of Excellence: Cricket – Mudar Patherya
Ultimate World Cup Cricket Quiz – Mudar Patherya and Ravikant Srivastava
Books discussed in the podcast:
Another Bloody Day in Paradise – Frank Keating
Beyond a Boundary – CLR James
*
Lead image courtesy Mudar Patherya
Very evocative writing. Loved the last para in Imran’s panegyric.
The introduction (which wasn’t actually) made me chuckle.
Like every other podcast, I was fascinated to know how it all started. Loved every bit of it – the thing about the Bohri community in Calcutta and the cricket association, the story about Mushtaq Ali (that was really something), not to forget the Abdul Qadir story. But the highlight of the episode has to be ghostwriting for Imran (at the age of 19*). Also the thing about Pataudi pronouncing some word correctly (from the epiglotis, I forgot which one though :))
Few thoughts:
1. The place Gujranwala is not pronounced with “run” instead it is “raaan” with a slight sound of ‘n’. There is a locality in North Delhi with the same name.
2. *He did so many beautiful things early in his career but everytime he mentioned his age, it was 19. (This is just in humour)