Club class: Modern Cricket Club gives Kalyan a good name

While Mumbairsquos Chennai Super Kings pacer Tushar Deshpande has made Kalyan residents proud of his cricketing deedsKalyanbased Modern Cricket Club is scoring high marks on the club sceneSkipper Sanket More and coach Mobin Shaikh guided Modern CC to clinch the Shamrao Thosar Trophy by beating Jolly Gymkhana and earned Kanga League qualification by beating Crown CC in the knockout phase of the prestigious tournament held recentlyModern CC also witnessed a semifinal finish in the Salarjung Trophy with Souvenir CC being their last opponentsModern CC recently celebrated their success in the presence of former Mumbai cricketer and coach Sulakshan KulkarniThroughout our cricketing life we played in the Thosar Shield Its a very tough tournament and in those days its standard was very high Players like Sandeep Patil Sachin Tendulkar Zaheer Khan and several Ranji Trophy players used to play in this tournamentA club from Kalyan reaching the semifinals of the Salarjung Trophy and winning the Kanga Knockout tournament is a very big achievement I think the Kanga Knockout tournament is the most difficult one to win I played a few seasons in this tournament but we never managed to win it Kulkarni said while addressing the Modern CC playersAlso Read Coach Sunderam backs CSKrsquos Tushar Deshpande to turn things around in IPLs El ClasicoThe function was also a reunion of sorts as Shaikh and Kulkarni played a lot of matches at Subhash Nagar maidan in KalyanKulkarni 56 said We used to play at Subhash Nagar maidan in the famous Diwadkar Trophy We had a very good bonding 40 years ago and even today it is the same There was healthy competition between Mobin and me but despite that we are still great friendsMeanwhile Shaikh recalled how he sacrificed his wicketkeeping job for Kulkarni in his first Mumbai U19 match against Saurashtra at Pune in 1982We were wicketkeepers and played for Mumbai in the U19 semifinal at PYC Gymkhana in Pune We batted first and scored around 250 As I was walking out to keep wickets our coach Vilas Godbole sir asked me whether I would field instead I said yes and Sulu kept wickets in that match in which he scored a brilliant hundred in the second inningsI was dropped for the remaining games but our friendship remained intact Shaikh remarkedShaikh was an accomplished lsquokeeper at the club level He holds the record 202 for most dismissals behind the stumps in the Kanga League lsquoArsquo division while representing Rajasthan SC and Victory CC