Twins win and lose!

Ajay and Sanjay Gadgil born in 1968 were identical inseparable and innocuous The game of cricket that they once followed was an integral part of the special glue that bonded these twinsThey kept in touch with me intermittently After one brother finished greeting you in Marathi the other one would come on the line mdash same tone same words same affectionAround a fortnight ago I got a call from Sanjay 56 in Pune informing me that Ajay was no more A cardiac arrest at home took him away on March 16 Sanjay spoke about how the various cricket books and autographs they collected do not mean much to him nowSanjay Gadgil and Ajay GadgilMe pointing to the importance of keeping everything they had collected over the years in the memory of Ajay didnrsquot convince Sanjay who has lost a brother and friend This after his cricketloving dad who served in the forest division in places like Nashik Kolhapur Latur and Thane passed away in 2010 Their caring mother left them five years later leaving the twins to pursue their agricultural farming activities The mid1980s and 1990s provided them with an opportunity to be at the peak of their cricket interest Collecting autographs was only a part of their passion Meeting wellknown cricketers for just a handshake would make their day tooObserving upandcoming players too Sanjay recalled being very impressed seeing a young Shishir Hattangadi open the batting for Mumbai against Maharashtra at Kolhapur in 1982 during the future Mumbai captainrsquos second firstclass seasonThe match in which they soaked in the international flavour was the West Indies versus West Zone game at the same venue in 1983Their list of autographs grew and so did signed copies of books In the late 1980s they managed to buy a copy of a Sir Don Bradmansigned Farewell to Cricket the cricket legendrsquos famous autobiography for Rs 800 ldquoOur passion for autographs was common Ajay and I very seldom disagreed over what to buy Our cricket heroes too were common ndash Imran Khan Sunil Gavaskar Viv Richards and of course Sir Garfield Sobers whose signature we have in one of his booksrdquo said Sanjay who admitted being the extrovert of the two ldquoAjay was calm and cool He spoke very little Apart from cricket he was keen on history and spiritual sciencerdquo revealed Sanjay Just like the West Indian tourists of 1983 fascinated the twins the Imran Khanled Pakistanrsquos team visit to India for the 198687 Test series evoked huge interest for their hobby of collecting autographs However the 1995 BSI World Masters tournament for veterans provided ideal fodder for Ajay and Sanjay ldquoThere were so many great players playing every day at the Brabourne Stadium They willingly obliged us with autographs ndash Joel Garner Clive Lloyd himself Australians Graham Yallop and Jeff Thomson Also Englandrsquos Bob WillisWe treasured Imran Khanrsquos signature He achieved whatever he set out to do and also made cricket a better game by pressing for neutral umpires He was a very honest manrdquo Sanjay saidTalk about honesty the brothersrsquo cricket interests dipped when the match fixing controversy surfaced in 2000 That controversy proved that something was seriously wrong with the game but the spot fixing scandal involving Pakistan in 2010 moved them to pull the shutters down on their cricket following ldquoThe Hansie Cronje issue affected us but the 2010 incident convinced us that cricket was definitely not clean enough for us to follow We wouldnrsquot miss listening to commentary right from the time when India toured Australia in 198081 But no commentarytelevision watching for us since 2010rdquo said SanjayZerofollowing of cricket doesnrsquot mean Sanjay wonrsquot go back to peer over his autograph collection and touch the signed framed photographs of cricketers and other sporting legends like sprint king Carl Lewis Jamaican champion athlete Merlene Ottey boxing great Evander Holyfield tennis greats Ivan Lendl and Steffi Graf While those items bring back splendid memories nothing would match the memories of the good times with his deceased brother Ajay who apart from watching cricket matches and listening to radio commentary was great company while flying kites ldquoOnce I fell into a small pond near our home while we were flying kites Ajay rushed to call my father and I was pulled out of the pondrdquo Sanjay recalled Therersquoll be no Ajay by his side if ever Sanjay wants to feel young again and fly kites but who is to say he wonrsquot be up in the sky smiling reassuringly at his grieving brothermiddayrsquos Deputy 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