50 years and still going strong ...

HYDERABAD: Little did the late Ghulam Ahmed know that the three-year-old he gifted a bat to would show such fierce commitment to cricket. Or for that matter Vijay Merchant, who presented another bat to the same kid when he turned seven. It's just that he turned out to be a bowler.
Sixty-six summers on and ramrod straight, Noshir Mehta is no new kid on the block, but his enthusiasm for the game has not waned.Amid much bonhomie and backslapping on Sunday, he celebrated his 50-year-old love affair with league cricket in Hyderabad, whom he represented in 57 first-class matches and claimed 178 wickets with his off-spin.
It's an achievement that made many old-timers nostalgic at the Gymkhana, where it all began in 1964 with Secunderabad Union Cricket Club (SUCC), the oldest club in the league, followed by stints with his employers State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH, 1972-93), MP Youth, Roshanara, Secunderabad Club and now Roshanara again.
An Internet search revealed DB Deodhar as the oldest Indian first-class cricketer till his death aged 101 in 1993. That makes Mehta unique in pursuit of his passion. "I love the game so much. I play tennis everyday to stay fit, and I'm blessed not to have suffered nasty injuries. If anybody had told me when I started that I'd have played this long, I'd have taken that. Yes, it's been a long, but memorable journey during which I've met some lovely human beings and made some good friends," Mehta told TOI.
Moments such as being congratulated by the late Vijay Manjrekar are still cherished. "I got him in a Moin-ud-Dowlah Cup match, but the umpire didn't give him out and he stood his ground. During the tea break, he came to me and congratulated me. For a legend to do that was awesome. I dismissed him in the first over after tea though," he gushed.
Expectations, though, were a corollary after he emulated the late SR Mehta, his father, in representing Hyderabad. "He was the chairman of the HCA senior selection committee, but suggested that I was too young for Ranji in 1965 and that I should be groomed along with left-arm spinner Mumtaz Hussain." The two of them made their Ranji debut against Madras at Chepauk in 1967 and if Michael Dalvi was Mehta's first scalp, Bapu Nadkarni, Sunil Gavaskar and Salim Durrani also fell for his guile.
Not that he lacked idols closer home. "Growing up in Secunderabad, it wouldn't have been anybody else than SP Misra and (ML) Jaisimha. For someone who wanted to learn cricket, Jai was the encyclopaedia of the game."
If bagging 10 wickets in a match in a winning cause against Madras was a highlight of his career, so was winning the bet with his skipper - and a crate of beer - after his all-round show helped Hyderabad defeat Karnataka in Bangalore, with the likes of E Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar in their ranks.
There are some regrets too; not playing for the country tops the list. And not winning the Ranji Trophy like his father did in 1937-38. "We took the lead twice in the semis but lost to Mumbai and Rajasthan on those occasions. As for not playing for the country, probably I was not destined to play. And that, despite playing for South Zone in the days of Prasanna, Venkat and Chandra."
To think of it, Mehta, first standby for India's historic tours of the West Indies and England in 1971, probably wouldn't have been a spinner, but for Ibrahim Khan, the Hyderabad Ranji trophy winning team bowling spearhead, spotting a chink in his follow through and advising him to be a spinner.
"I owe everything in my life to cricket. I met my wife (Yasmin) through cricket; she was in Bangalore on a holiday when I was playing there and she's been a pillar of strength," Mehta said.
It does look, though, that Mehta and cricket are made for each other.