The Osian's catalogue was launched by the legends of yesteryears.
Despite being the cash rich sport that it is and despite the BCCI being the richest cricket board in the world, India still doesn't have a national cricket museum of its own. I need to put on record, however, that the BCCI has just recently floated a tender to set up the museum. This after the museum committee has been in existence for at least five years! The fact is we have very little understanding of our cricket heritage. We are least bothered with creating legacy or rather what constitutes legacy. While fans are much enamoured by a Sachin Tendulkar or Mahendra Singh Dhoni autograph, they have little interest in artefacts of the past, central to nurturing a sensibility and creating respect for the game. In the West every little county ground has a museum of its own. Cricket auctions are a feature of life and collecting memorabilia is part of fan culture. This explains the vibrant cricket literature industry, the publication of myriad cricket books all through the year and a proper memoralisation of legends of the past. I urge my readers to try a simple experiment- just take a look at the kind of English cricket memorabilia being auctioned on ebay and compare it with the Indian situation. You will know what I am talking about.
I was delighted to see a series of artefacts from the 1971 Indian tours of England and West Indies listed in the auction catalogue. These twin tours marked the watershed for Indian cricket and without 1971 there would never have been a 1983 or a 2011. Yet there is little documentation on the historical significance of these tours and little memorialisation of these achievements across the country. What I find sad is that a Dhoni or Sachin bat gets auctioned for some 30-40 lakhs while a Sardesai tie from the 1971 tour fetches a few thousand rupees. The fact is Sachin and Dhoni will be around and so will their bats. There is every chance fans will get many more opportunities to buy a Sachin or Dhoni used bat or other memorabilia. A Dilip Sardesai tie from 1971, however, is almost impossible to find. And if you genuinely love your cricket, a 1971 piece of memorabilia is something to die for.
It is our apathy or rather the inability to appreciate and preserve heritage that explains why we flock to IPL games and prefer to give Test match cricket a miss. While every cricketer worth his salt will tell you that Test cricket is the real thing, fans will happily trade a Test match ticket in the Eden Gardens Club House for a Kolkata Knight Riders ticket in an ordinary stand. While attending the IPL has become a status symbol, Test match cricket is earmarked as a domain for the purist or the connoisseur.
Among the list of items consigned for the auction on the 13th, there are a number of C K Nayudu signed photos from the 1932 tour, a G S Ramchand bat signed by the Indian and West Indies teams from the 1950s and most importantly two priceless signed cricket books, a limited edition Jubilee book of Cricket signed by K S Ranjitsinhji and a first edition of Cricket (1891) signed by W G Grace. I'd be interested in seeing if the BCCI or any state association for that matter makes a bid for either of these books, which are real treasures for any cricket museum or library anywhere in the world.
What the Osians auction draws attention to is that every little object has value. Be it a ticket, a trading card, a stamp or a photograph for these are all key components of our cultural heritage and are hence a part of our history. With Osians having taken the lead in the late 1990s, film posters, lobby cards or booklets are now perceived as art in India. People treasure these things and don't treat them as rags anymore. The same, one expects, will happen after the cricket auction on the 13th.
