By Gulu Ezekiel
When a school boy and a grandfather in India break cricket records separately, the game truly cuts across generations.
Twelve-year-old school boy Sarfaraz Khan batted almost 10 hours to pile up 439 runs in a school match in western Mumbai city last fortnight, the highest score by an Indian student.
And 63-year-old retired bank officer, Neville Wadia, who runs a school in western Vadodara city, has just got a certificate from the Guinness World Records for becoming the oldest century maker in a cricket match, minor or first class.
Wadia smashed 105 runs from just 60 balls in a local Twenty20 tournament some months ago.
Young Sarfaraz, son of a cricket coach, has been setting records since he first appeared as a 10-year-old in a club league two years ago.
He began playing the game with a plastic bat and ball when he was four years old.
Indian cricket stars such as Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar have all made their mark both in Mumbai’s popular Kanga League and the Harris Shield tournaments.
** Hero**
Sarfaraz Khan’s 439 runs eclipsed the record set by the late Ramesh Nagdev who scored 427 not out in 1963-64.
He hit 56 fours and 12 sixes to become one of four quadruple centurions in the Harris Shield school tournament.
They include India opener Wasim Jaffer with whom Sarfaraz likes to compare his powers of concentration.
It was in the Lord Harris Shield - named after the former England captain and Governor General of Bombay (now Mumbai) and founded in 1897 - that Sachin Tendulkar first made the world of cricket sit up and take notice 21 years ago.
Tendulkar (326 runs) and Vinod Kambli (349 runs) featured in an unbroken 664-run partnership for the third wicket which remains a world record for any wicket in all forms of cricket.
Tendulkar topped that with 346 not out in the same season and in less than two years, he had made his Test debut for India.
Not surprisingly, Tendulkar is Sarfaraz’s hero. “I admire him for all the centuries he has scored and because he has been so consistent,” he says.
Sarfaraz now says his “next ambition” is to play in the Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic cricket tournament.
In Vadodara, Neville Wadia says he is overjoyed that his feat has been recognised by the Guinness World Records.
“They have got back to me with a certificate confirming it is a world record.”
His six-hitting abilities astound opponents and teammates who are young enough to be his grandchildren.
Wadia, a member of the tiny Parsi Zoroastrian community who were the pioneers of cricket in India, has now been playing cricket for exactly 50 years, including in the highly competitive Kanga League and club tournaments in Mumbai.
Though they have a rich cricket history, the last Parsi to play for India was wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer in 1975. The tradition was, however, kept alive by England all-rounder Ronnie Irani in the 1990s.
‘Laughter therapy’
Ask Wadia the secret of his fitness and he insists it is all down to the “laughter therapy” which he and his wife practice.
“I am a member of the International Laughter Club and my wife Jalloo was voted ‘Laughter Queen’ in 2005,” he says with a laugh.
So how long can he continue playing competitive cricket
“By God’s grace, at least another 10 years. Meanwhile, I will continue giving free coaching in Vadodara including to my eight-year-old grandson.”
Age-specific world records are nothing new in Indian cricket.
The youngest to score a first-class century was Punjab’s Dhruv Pandove in the Ranji Trophy tournament at the age of 14 years and 10 months in 1988 having made 94 on his debut a year earlier.
Tragically, he was killed in a road accident in 1992 when he was in the national reckoning.
And the oldest first-class cricketer of all time was Raja Maharaj Runwar Singh who captained Bombay Governor’s XI against a Commonwealth XI in November 1950 at the age of 75, dismissed by Jim Laker for four runs in his one and only innings.
He took no further part in the match and was listed as “absent-ill” in the second innings. The maharajah passed away in 1959.