Mangaluru: In times when states spar with other states over various issues, international cricketers from Mysuru (then Karnataka) and Maharashtra showed a good 50-years ago that it is possible to overcome such fissiparous tendencies. The cricketers – legends of the game – came together to play 10 matches – five each in Maharashtra and Karnataka, including one in Nehru Maidan here, to raise funds for victims of the Koyna earthquake that rocked the neighbouring state.

Incidentally, April 5 marks the 50th anniversary to the day the match was played at Nehru Maidan in 1968. Although the three-day match had to be called off 80 minutes prior to close, due to an emergent situation back home in Maharashtra with the visitors having the upper hand, this event is etched fresh in minds of cricket veterans of the region. Kasturi Balakrishna Pai, former manager of Dakshina Kannada Cricket Association (DKCA), is one such veteran.

A sprightly teenager, all of 19 then, K B Pai known fondly as ‘Pai Maam’ to his friends and well-wishers, said the matches were a fine example of federal cooperation with one state reaching out to the other in a time of need. “The Koyna Earthquake Relief Fund Cricket Match played between Mysore State Finance Minister’s XI and Maharashtra State Finance Ministers’s XI was able to raise Rs 1 lakh from the Mangaluru leg of the match itself,” Pai said, while recalling the match.

Nearly 16 test and state cricket players of the two states, and a good number of cricket administrators such as M Chinnaswamy, Karunakar and Madhav Manthri, participated in this match as observers. “What was exciting about the match was that the city came as one to host the match, and donated generously to the relief fund,” he said.

“The district had just 7 cricket clubs then. It was DKCA and Mangalore Sports Club that took the lead in organizing the event,” he adds.

“The cricketers – Narendra Tamahne, Chandu Borde, Padmakar Shivalkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Wadekar, Umesh Kulkarni and our own E A S Prasanna, G R Vishwanath, V Subramaniam – to name a few— were cynosure of all eyes over the three days they played in the city,” Pai said. “The cricketers stayed at Hotel Moti Mahal, owned by Kudpi Srinivas Shenoy, Pai’s grandfather, and in which his father Kasturi Devadas Pai was the general manager,” Pai recalled.