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In 1987-88, a year before the 125th
anniversary of our school, St. Mary’s junior cricket team won the Giles Shield
beating the fancied Shardashram (English) with “the seemingly invincible Sachin
Tendulkar” (quoting the St. Mary’s coach Mr. Ashar). He called it nothing short
of a minor miracle.
Then to top that achievement, under his
able coaching and mentoring, in the following year, on the momentous 125th
anniversary of St. Mary’s School (ICSE), the senior team regained the coveted
Harris Shield, after a gap of five years. We have reproduced below the article that
the Coach, a former Ranji Trophy player, Kiran Ashar wrote in the school
magazine of 1987-88 in congratulations to the junior team for them having the
Giles Shield. Little did he know that his senior cricket team would repeat the mammoth
accomplishment next year!
WELL
DONE BOYS!
I hardly knew what I was letting myself in
for, when I accepted the offer as cricket coach for St. Mary’s by my friend and
colleague Mr. Milind Rege.
My first priority was to persuade the
school authorities; to help us lay a proper turf wicket, which would be
conducive to better results. This was readily agreed to by the PTA, who
sanctioned a generous amount for which I am very grateful.
I started with the very difficult task of
selecting the Junior and Senior sides for the Giles and Harris Shields
respectively.
A special mention must be made of Mr. Munir
Vahanvaty who very kindly offered the use of the Bohra Cricket Ground till the
school wicket was ready. The friendly matches were played with the Bohra
Cricket Club was a strong indicator of the talent of the boys.
Practice started in earnest once the school
wicket was ready. Special emphasis was placed in the fielding techniques though
equal importance was placed in the other departments, as most of the boys were
ignorant of the rudiments of the game.
We won all the matches in the Harris Shield
convincingly, till the semi-finals where we lost to Anjuman-I-Islam High
School. Here I must mention, the team sorely missed the services of our skipper
Joydeep Singapuri, Aftab Vahanvaty and Kavi Desai who were unable to play
because of the I.C.S.E. exams.
The Giles Shield can be called the “Triumph
of the Year”. We outplayed our very worthy rivals, and in the finals defeated
the much fancied and feared Shardashram (English) by a wide margin.
The team’s success can be attributed to
Venkat Kunnath – our consistent run-getter, Dinesh D’Souza who gave a brilliant
all round performance, dimunitive Yuvbir and Mohan though small in stature,
contributed greatly to the team success. Khurram Darbar bowled well throughout
and struck in a big way when he took the prized wicket of the seemingly
invincible Sachin Tendulkar. Sanjay Parekh was magnificent behind the wickets.
Manish Shah batted superbly in the finals.
With every player playing to the best of
his ability, the team pulled off, what everybody thought was a minor miracle.
My special thanks to the Principal, Rev.
Fr. Berkie, the PTA, Sports Director Father Austin, Mr. Rana, Mr. Cedric and
last but not the least Sitaram our grounds man without whose encouragement and
help this would not have been possible.
“Only the test of fire makes fine steel”.
Boys, even though I seemed harsh at times,
it was only for your benefit and out hard work has reaped rich rewards. I hope
you’ll continue to do well and someday win laurels not only for your school,
but also for your country.
From Sir With Love,
Kiran Ahsar
Cricket Coach
- Article from the St. Mary's School (ICSE)'s 1987-88 magazine.
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