Kudos PT!

Always very interesting reading my favourite PT – especially the pages on Parsis making history of being included in the magnificent 100 at Lords!!

I wish to heartily congratulate Team PT for their brilliant coverage of Parsi Cricketers Making History at the very home of cricket at Lords! I am hugely proud both, as an Indian and a Parsi, especially as it’s our minuscule community which has created history, yet again, to be featured and felicitated at the very home of cricket!

I’ve got Father Time above my house in Cheshire England, which will always remind me and people passing by, of the original Father Time at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Our community should indeed be very proud of our forefathers! And kudos to PT for covering the news so very well. Keep up your great work PT!! 

By Farokh Engineer (Legendary Cricketer)

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Re: PT’s Coverage Of Parsi Cricket Pioneers of 1886…

Being a cricket lover, I enjoyed the story Parsi Cricket Pioneers of 1886 Honoured at Lord’s. May I point out that in March 1986 the Australian Zoroastrian Association in Sydney had celebrated the centenary of the 1886 Parsi team to England by staging a play ‘Aapri Cricket – Hastovari’ (Our Cricket – of course! Scripted by me, there was actual cricket played on stage, using a red tennis ball. 

Our member, bearded Noshir Sachinwalla, who resembled the legendary English cricketer – WG Grace, bowled three bouncers to Parsi batsman – Jamshedji Morenas (played by me). And Jamshedji hit all three balls in the crowd for fours! Those sitting in the front three rows were scared they’d be hit by a real cricket ball! All in fun! But I had done detailed studies on that tour and all that happened on stage was historically correct although humour was added to make the play interesting even to non-cricket lovers. 

To quote from the play program, “Call it factual farce or hysterical history, but it did happen. Exactly 100 years ago, an all-Zoroastrian team, led by Dr. Dhanjishaw Patel toured England. This was the first time a sporting team from the subcontinent had gone on an overseas tour. Once in England, they became a social hit, hobnobbing with royalty and keeping Queen Victoria amused with their quaint Zarathoshti customs…” The play was so successful that it received international press coverage, including England’s reputed magazine – Wisden Cricket Monthly (May 1986).

By Kersi Meher-Homji, Sydney.

(Author of 16 cricket books including ‘Parsee Cricket Centenary 1886 to 1986’; ‘Cricket’s Great Families’; ‘Out for a Duck’; ‘Nervous Nineties’; ‘The Waugh Twins’…)

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Action To Name Navi Mumbai Airport After JRD Tata

Without any delay, the Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet and the Trustees of WZO should call an urgent meeting to urge the relevant State and Central Government Authorities to name the Navi Mumbai Airport – “J R D Tata International Airport’.

It should be made clear and plain that JRD Tata – the pioneer of aviation in India – alone deserves to be honoured!!

The Tata family’s phenomenal contribution to our nation’s growth and economy, and their unsurpassed vast cosmopolitan charity needs to be taken into consideration. 

Hope this matter is taken up urgently. 

By Jamshed P. Irani