Benefit matches for cricketers are now a form of big business, with all its attendant hazards and petty jealousies. The extraordinary response to the Abbas Ali Baig benefits match in the last year prompted a flood of requests for similar matches from other players. But the Cricket Control Board’s framework for these matches has made sure that only people who are already well-positioned in life and have enough business connections can profit from these kinds of events.
However, national selector Vijay Mehra, whose benefit, was staged over three days at the Ferozeshah Kotla during the Easter weekend, had no problems on this score. Though his cricketing credentials at the top level of the game are sketchy—14 innings in eight Tests for an aggregate of 329 with a highest score of 62—Vijay Mehra had the resources to arrange for this sort of extravaganza. As a national selector, Mehra is presently very much in the public eye. Besides, as a public relations man, he had the contacts to arrange for advertisements in the brochure for the occasion, one of the main avenues for raising money.
Vijay Mehra went one better than all others when he got Mohan Meakin Brew to agree to sponsor the whole show, which cushioned him against any losses. With Bishan Singh Bedi as an enthusiastic supporter of the cause. foreign players, too, were roped in. though not in the same numbers as for the big match. The biggest draw was the Pakistanis, four of whom were Javed Miandad, Mohsin Khan, Zaheer Abbas, and young Amin Lakhani. Besides, there was Bobby Simpson from Australia.
However, there were flies in the ointment. The response on the home front was, to put it as charitably as one can, lukewarm. Even State Bank, his employers, would not consent to ordering their senior players like Gundapa Viswanath, Kirmani, and Abid Ali to participate. And Sunil Gavaskar and Company from Bombay preferred their matches in the Times Shield. Worse, even Delhi players seemed to be reluctant participants. Barring Bedi, the only prominent member of the Delhi team on view on the opening day was Chetan Chauhan, and some schoolboy cricketers had to be pressed into service to fill up vacancies as a result. But a few more did turn up in the next two days. How far these abstentions were a reflection on Vijay Mehra as a cricketer and selector are on point.
Vijay tried his best to give a new twist to benefit matches, He divided the three days into the limited-overs matches, the first scheduled for the first two days of 80 overs and the next for the final day over 40 overs. In the event, the third encounter of 15 overs had to be squeezed in on the second day when the first 80-over affair became one-sided, which finished soon after lunch on the second day.
The first encounter provided a fair bit of action. Batting first, the Indian XI hit up 14 for nine declared (Bishan Bedi not coming out to bat) in 58.4 overs. The best part of the innings was a quick hunting 164 by Yashpal Sharma Apparently in high spirits after his inclusion in the team for England, Yashpal Sharma played an uncharacteristically aggressive innings, for he is normally a dour and obdurate customer at the crease. But this day, he clouted six sixes and 24 fours in his knock.
But with Zaheer Abbas in their ranks, Mohan Meakin XI was good enough for the task. Zaheer Abbas hit up 59 in 66 minutes with a six-and-nine-four. Bobby Simpson followed up with an even more aggressive innings of 76, which included one over in which he hit three sixes and one four, off Bedi. Mohan Meakin XI finished at 322 in 65.4 overs. The Indian XI’s score had been passed with two wickets to spare, but rules in these sorts of matches are flexible, and the final day’s 40-over match should have been a more interesting affair, but by then an exodus had started among the players, Zaheer Abbas and Venkat Raghavan left, and Simpson and Prasanna put in only fleeting appearances on the final day. As a result, the last match was one big yawn, and that too on a Sunday.
The results of such a show have, of course, no meaning. But the sustained publicity campaign that tired the crowd is another matter. Four days before the match, the organizers announced that Imran Khan had arrived in Delhi. But he never did so, and no correction was published. Similarly, right up to the first day of the show, the public was led to believe that Graham Roope of England and a few more Pakistanis were certain to participate. Deceptions like this can have a bad backlash on similar future occasions.
Reference: Sportweek, April 22, 1979