Scoring off every ball

Gharat’s first responsibility as chief scorer is to announce the playing XIs of both teams. And on this occasion,he faces a stringent test: Kolkata has named the only Dutchman in the IPL,Ryan ten Doeschate,in their line-up. After numerous attempts to get the pronunciation right in his home-grown Marathi-accent,which induces some serious banter with his colleagues,Gharat finally gives up. So Ryan ten Doeschate will only be “Tendo”,the name printed on the all-rounder’s jersey. That proves to be the only real challenge for Gharat throughout the night.

“The scoring softwares have become so easy these days,anyone can do it. All you need is some knowledge of computers and a little sense of cricket,of course,” says Gharat,while demonstrating how one click ensures that the figures of the batsmen,the bowlers and the team get updated. “It even changes the strike on its own whenever a batsman takes a single,” he says.

Having devoted a major part of his last 22 years to cricket scoring,Gharat now also conducts annual courses for those aiming to follow his path at the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). And while insisting that he has never once committed an error during his illustrious scoring career even during the pre-laptop era,he can’t help but reiterate the comfort that technology has brought about in his area of

expertise. “These days,even a mistake can be revoked by a single click,” he says.

Things were a lot more different when he was named official scorer at the MCA in the 1990-91 season. Having been a head cashier at the Bank of Baroda since the early seventies,he was always systematic and vigilant with numbers. He couldn’t establish a regular place in his bank’s cricket team,so he took to scoring.

“I have been a cricket buff all my life. And there were a lot of big names playing for Bank of Baroda back in those days. And scoring was one way I could remain attached to the game. But I enjoyed it so much,that I would sit with score-sheets even while watching matches on TV at home,” he recalls.

His interest in scores caught the eye of officials at MCA and they soon made Gharat an official scorer. “Fortunately,my home and my workplace have always been close to each other. And my bank gave me a 30-day annual leave allowance so that I could pursue my passion,” says Gharat,who so far has worked on nine Tests,over 30 ODIs and close to 250 domestic matches during his career.

Gharat keeps coming back to his “back in those days” line. “In the beginning,we used the box method,which was cumbersome. Then we shifted to Bill Frindall’s linear technique,which we still use. Even the softwares are based on this method,” he says,adding that scorers in the past even drew batsmen’s wagon-wheels using multi-coloured pens.

Gharat’s attention suddenly is diverted by the action in the middle. Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar has just hit another boundary. He frantically presses the white switch placed right next to his laptop. The red light placed outside the press-box flashes,indicating to umpire Simon Taufel that his boundary signal has been acknowledged. And when Gharat takes the microphone to announce the frantic 50-run partnership that Tendulkar has just recorded with his opening partner Aiden Blizzard,he makes no attempt to hide his glee.

A huge fan of Tendulkar and Mumbai cricket,Gharat likes to talk about his various encounters with cricketers. “Amol Muzumdar scored a triple-century for the Mumbai Under-16 team in the first match I worked on. And in my first Ranji match,Sanjay Manjrekar scored a terrific 377 against Hyderabad,” recalls Gharat. His greatest moments? India’s World Cup win two months ago and when his 20 years as scorer coincided with the Test win after which India climbed to the top of the rankings in 2009.

Gharat also remembers the times Tendulkar would regularly come to him after a day’s play and enquire about the number of balls he had faced during his knock. Journalists make impossible demands too. Not a minute after his latest announcement,a journalist wants to know how many runs Tendulkar has scored off Kolkata’s Brett Lee so far in his innings.

“I have got used to them,” he says,“There have been a couple of really bothersome people over the years,but overall,they are manageable. The demands of journalists too have changed. Earlier,they were hugely dependent on us as there weren’t so many TV screens. But now,in the days of T20,they want all their information quick,even specialised details like over-rate,” says Gharat.

Amidst the ceaseless banter with colleagues,Deepak Joshi and Ramesh Parab,Gharat keeps himself occupied and focused by humming songs. Over the last seven to eight years,Gharat’s son Sanket has kept him company in the press-boxes. At 31,the junior Gharat is one of the video-analysts at the MCA,and can often be seen manning the video-analysis system during Mumbai’s Ranji matches.

“He started accompanying me when he was 15 and before long,became a scorer himself,” says Gharat.

By now,Mumbai have recorded a tense victory and Gharat’s laptop is already flashing the final scores. This is the last competitive cricket match in the city for the season. The old trouper will have at least three months now to put his feet up. But Gharat will not announce the final figures into the microphone till he is done tallying every single detail on his manual-scoresheet. Old habits die hard.