From Subhash Gupte to Shreyas Iyer, Shivaji Park Gymkhana legacy lives on | Cricket News – Times of India

It made for lovely banter in Mumbai’s club circuit and Whatsapp groups. Sunil Gavaskar, an India and Dadar Union (DU) legend giving the first Test cap in Kanpur to Shreyas Iyer, a product of Mumbai’s most fertile cricketing stable, Shivaji Park Gymkhana (SPG), DU’s fiercest club rival.
Iyer is the 22nd player from the Mumbai cricket nursery to have played for India, apart from countless First-Class cricketers who went on to play for Mumbai and when he steps on to the turf at his home ground, the Wankhede, come December 3, there will be reason for SPG to get decked up.
Especially if he gets another ton. Iyer’s coach, Pravin Amre, a former India batsman, current assistant coach of Delhi Capitals and president of SPG, took Iyer under his wings at the club’s academy which he founded in 2001, when he was 12 and instilled in him the values of the famed club and the rich history it has.
Shardul Thakur too is a product of that academy.

“There is something in that soil isn’t it,” exclaims Amre, emotionally, when asked to describe why SPG has produced so many top players, most notably Ajit Wadekar, Bapu Nadkarni, Baloo Gupte, Ramakant Desai, Sandeep Patil, Sanjay Bangar
Subhash Gupte and Vijay Manjrekar. Indeed, there must be something special about the soil. That is why Sachin Tendulkar used a mixture comprising its soil, vermillion from Siddhivinayak and holy water from Mount Mary to apply on his Mumbai Indians’ teammates’ foreheads prior to one of the first net sessions during IPL 2008.
Amre started playing for the club in the Shatkar Trophy in 1984 at the age of 16. He was instrumental in starting the academy with BPL in 2001, took his first steps in coaching at the club and today serves as a four-term president.
He’s been in that role for the last nine years and claims, “The latest role has taught me life skills too like organizing AGMs and giving speeches on a mic.”
Playing for Shivaji Park is an emotional investment, say many players. Another famous alumnus, Bangar, former India all-rounder, batting coach and current coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, reckons,
“The fact that we had the achievements of our past luminaries to look up to who played for our club and aspire to play at that level, was always an inspirational factor.”
Bangar shifted to Mumbai from Aurangabad in 1990 and was coaxed by coach Deepak Mutkar to join SPG and he never played for any other club.
“The club has always given a long run to any player who becomes part of the team,” Bangar says, explaining why players develop an emotional bond. Bangar says a bat gifted by Amre, an India shirt gifted by Prasad Desai still hold pride of place in his memory bank.
Amre too stresses that he never played for any other club despite having many lucrative offers.
“Not just me. In 1998, we slipped from the A Division. Yet, none of the players defected from the club despite knowing that selection for Mumbai, or job offers from famous companies happen only when you perform in the A Division matches. We won all the championships in the B Division and progressed to the A Division,” he re veals.
Amre says rivalry with DU defined the club’s legacy as DU too had stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Vasu Paranjpe. “An A division match on Sunday used to be watched by 5000 people. It was surreal,” he says.
The rivalry is best defined by an anecdote narrated by late SPG and India stalwart Wadekar in his unique humming and hawing style, punctuated by dollops of kai re. “I and Sunil (Gavaskar) were travelling in a car and after the car stopped, I asked Sunil, who was a youngster, to step out and push it. Sunil obeyed but later realised I was making fun of him and the car was fine.” He was asked why he did it. “Because he plays for Dadar Union,” was Wadekar’s reply.
Wadekar also famously told Amre before his Test debut in Durban. “Pravin. Just think you are playing for Shivaji Park. Everything will be fine.”
Everything was indeed fine. Amre got a ton on debut like his protégé, Iyer to add to the SPG legacy.