Ex-Secretary,
Hyderabad Cricket Association.

An interview with Mr.Mann Singh Agarwal ,
Ex-Secretary, Hyderabad Cricket Association.

Mann Singh Agarwal, referred to as Mann Singh by his colleagues and close ones, had been one of the top Cricket Administrators in the country. The highest point in his career was when he was the Manager of the Indian Cricket team, which won the Prudential World Cup in England in 1983.

He served as Joint Secretary and then as Secretary in Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), for almost two decades. He opted out of HCA during the early 90’s. He also had the privilege of playing alongside the Late M L Jaisimha in a few Ranji games for Hyderabad. Presently he is running his Liquor business in Secunderabad, which happens to be his family  business.

In an exclusive chat with khojhyderabad.com, he shared his views about the state of present day Cricket and rekindled some of his past memories.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Sir, tell me something about your memories of the world cup, when the Indian team left the shores, did anyone of you think that you will come back with the cup?
A. The BCCI sent the Indian team to England just to complete a formality... since the expenses were being paid by the TCCB (Test and County Cricket Board) and we had received an invitation, we went to England. There was no preparatory camp and no specific targets set.

But on the contrary, I was confident that we had the potential to make it to the knock out phase. We had many allrounders like Kapil, Madanlal, Sandeep, Amarnath and others, they all were very young and had the spirit and energy in them.

Q. Which do you think was the most important match of the entire tournament?
A. The second match against Australia was the most important, because after we lost to the West Indies in the second round robin league match, it was very important for us to win this match. We dropped Ravi Shastri in the match and took in Kriti Azad, as there were five lefthanders in the Australian team and we thought his off spinners would unsettle the Aussies.Then onwards every match was important and the rest is history now...

Q. Would you pick out any particular individual performance, which was key in the entire tournament?
A. It is very difficult to pick out any particular individual performance, see each one of them performed... we had the memorable knock of 175* from Kapil against Zimbabwe. Yashpal scored a brilliant 89 against the West Indies in the first match. Jimmy also had some good all-round performances.

Q. Now coming back to the present day cricket, do you think the Indian government's policy of not playing cricket with Pakistan is justifiable?
A. It's really a ridiculous decision on the part of the Indian government. They are maintaining double standards, one side our Hockey team can play them (Pak.) in Dhaka and their Table Tennis team can come to Chennai to take part in some tournament and at the same time they create a lot of hue and cry if we play cricket. What is this...? There should be a uniform policy statement, if any, that we will not participate in any sporting activities with Pakistan.

Q. With the present form, and the young crop we have, how do you rate our chances on winning the World Cup in South Africa in 2002?
A.Its very difficult to predict in a one-day game, see on a given day, whichever team performs well will win the game. As far as the talent and potential is concerned, yes I believe this present lot can make it, but there should be proper planning and approach to the game.

Q. In the just concluded Australian series, the Aussies followed the policy of rotating players so as to give a chance to each one of them, what are your comments on that ...
A.It is really foolish to drop your inform players and give chance to others. Every international game is equally important, no matter what effect it may have on that particular series or tournament. In the third match, the Aussies dropped the inform batsman Mathew Hayden and look what happened, they missed him surely. I do no support this idea.

Q. Now a days, there is a lot of technology coming into the game with the advent of IT, don’t you think that in one way this is giving the opposition a chance to attack us off the field also?
A. Let me narrate an incident, in 1930, when the Australian team was in England on their Ashes tour. Douglas Jardine the then England skipper, travelled all the way from London to Nottingham to meet Harold Larwood and asked him whether he remembers the ball with which he unsettled Bradman and upon assurance from Larwood he attacked Bradman in that line.

So my point is, that such meticulous planning is not new in this game. If one can do that 70 years ago, these days with the advent of television replays and frame by frame capturing of pictures, I can say that it has become easier.

Q. Tell me one thing, why cant we have the concept of a non- - playing captain in Cricket as well, with technological innovations this should make life easy for players...
A. The role of a coach at the international level, is more or less that of a non-playing captain. Its only that he does not have that tag with him, yes once again there is the captain who is also involved in the decision making. But yes, it can be thought about and once again there are a lot positive and negative aspects to it.

Q. What are your comments on some of our great players M L Jaisimha, Abid Ali and Azharuddin..?
A. Jaisimha, I would say was the classiest of these, his elegance and style of game was excellent. But unfortunately during those times, he did not get enough matches to play, there was a period when a lot of international series both away and home had to be cancelled due to lack of funds. Same was the case with Abid Ali, at one time there was a gap of four years when there were no matches in between. And as far Azhar is concerned, he is fortunate enough to have played in a lot of matches and yes in the process he scored enough runs.

Q. In the entire match-fixing episode, do you feel that Azhar was made the scape goat, leaving behind all the big guns..?
A. First of all, I do not support this idea of match fixing at all, unless you have more than 7 to 8 players agreeing to throw their wickets or bowl badly, you cannot fix the fate of any match. And yes, there might have been some players who might have thrown their wickets or bowled badly, which might have affected the course of the match.

And I agree to your statement that there were a lot of other big names behind the scene, which were not even touched upon.

Q. Now finally coming back to the state of Cricket in Hyderabad, we do not have a proper ground for us, leave aside a stadium and we had that controversy going on where the HCA was to swap the facilities with SAAP... what do you think about all these affairs...
A. I think the HCA was asking for the moon, their demand to have the Swimming Pool, Indoor Stadium, Football Ground and all other facilities just in exchange to the land at Gymkhana was really ridiculous. They really could not justify their demand and eventually they lost out in the deal. Now look what happened, they are planning to move somewhere to Saroornagar, for a stadium. It’s really a pathetic situation in HCA now.

Q. Now, Mann Singh Agarwal without cricket, how would you explain yourself to be...
A.There is no Mann Singh without cricket, I eat Cricket, drink Cricket and sleep Cricket, and sometimes I even dream Cricket...

Sathya Narayana