Dara’s plight and fight

For the many years Irsquove known Dara Pochkhanawalla Irsquove always seen him dressed in a light coloured shirt And that is what I expected him to be in when I was welcomed into his home in Mumbairsquos Fort area last week Instead Dara was in his sudreh vest worn by ParsisHe sat behind a large desk spending his hot afternoon with a television news channel on oblivious to the busy street down below populated by traders I had come to meet a man who is dealing with a cruel blow in the form of a chronic kidney disease which requires thriceaweek home dialysis Hersquos not been outdoors in months except to be hospitalised five times in the last seven monthsDara 73 has been a multifaceted personalitymdashgold medalwinning Mumbai Cricket Association MCA umpire since 1970 journalist and cricket administrator who was twice in the managing committee of the MCA something that was possible because he ran a club called Fort Youngsters Dara didnrsquot just run it he formed it owned it and made the late celebrated cricket statistician and scorer Anandji Dossa its presidentA few years ago Dara decided to sell Fort Youngsters He got R130 crore for it And what did he do with the money Distributed it among 42 club members in the form of gold coins and had to be convinced to keep one for himself If one presumes that this is all he kept from the sale you are very nearly right He kept R1His current grave financial inconveniences notwithstanding there are no regrets for keeping nothing for himself ldquoI didnrsquot want to earn anything from this sale I gave it to my players as a mark of gratitude and appreciationrdquo said DaraFort Youngsters was formed in 1970 They fared well in the lower divisions of the Kanga League and Dara proudly informs me that the club undertook 18 tours within India and organised the first night cricket match at the club level ldquoIt was held at the Wilson College Gymkhana in May 1991 Around 10000 people came to watch Fort Youngsters v Blue Star Cricket Club after Nari Contractor and Diana Edulji exIndia captains inaugurated itrdquo he recalledAbout a decade ago Dara developed knee trouble and couldnrsquot cope with the running of the club which would entail attendance at every Kanga League match and two or three trips a week to the MCA officeldquoWe were also short of sincere players who could stay long at the club Someone whom I knew assisted me but he stopped I was worried about who will run this club I entrusted a former firstclass cricketer to handle the cricketing part but we fared badly and were demoted I then gave it to another club to run We dipped further I thought instead of the club dying a slow death itrsquos better to dispose it off I called a meeting and the members agreedrdquoDara decided to present gold coins instead of cash as the price of gold is always on the ascendancy He made three categories of playersmdashldquosenior semisenior and juniorrdquo Each senior got a gold coin worth R472 lakh the semiseniors got a coin which was worth R210 lakh while the juniors were presented a coin costing Rs 78000Dara is understandably worried about his future expenses Hersquos been on dialysis for one and a half years Monthly rent for the home apparatus is Rs 17000 plus Rs 4000 as operational costs for each session Further funds go towards medication and the 24x7 ward boy is paid R26000 per month excluding his food expenditureLeaving his health issues aside he recalls his journey vividly He cannot forget how he umpired the competitive Times Shield games in the 1970s and 1980s ldquoAny Tom Dick or Harry couldnrsquot play lsquoArsquo division You had to be really good The standards were very high and cricketers outthought their opponents apart from scoring quality runs and taking prize scalpsrdquo he said Umpiring was tough too ldquoTatas v Mafatlal games were tough I remember having a bad game when ACC played Mafatlal at the Wankhede Stadium The ball turned a lot and I made mistakes It affected my career I faced extraordinary punishment I failed the BCCI examination in 1977 and the Board allowed failures to get first preference for the following yearrsquos examination But I was not sent Each state association sent 10 umpires for the exams but that year they sent nine Itrsquos like you playing with 10 players despite having 11 I was very hurt and I knew who got back at me for that poor matchrdquo said Dara Among his memorable moments as an umpire was standing at square leg and watching Dadar Unionrsquos Vikram Dutt claiming all 10 Rajasthan SCrsquos wickets in the 1982 edition of the Kanga League His fellow Parsi PD Reporter the late Test umpire stood at the bowlerrsquos end in that September 5 game at Cross MaidanDara told me he quit umpiring in 1992 By then he was entrenched in MCA administration and journalism Starting out as a freelancer for Free Press Journal in the 1970s He joined the Mumbai Samachar in 1983 and handled their sports section for a number of years dabbling in crime reporting tooDara can look back at a road which led to highways Hersquos not coping well with the slope now He is grateful for the help that has come his way but he appeals for more to come forward with donations Surely a man who has been so generous in his prime deserves our generosity nowmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper