The much-awaited cricket museum of the Mumbai Cricket Association was inaugurated on Saturday. While the cricket fans will be able to experience the MCA Sharad Pawar Cricket Museum at the Wankhede Stadium premises from September 22, the museum will also house the Dr. HD Kanga Library.
Despite being Asia’s largest cricket library, operations at the library had been suspended for well over a decade. That the library will resume on the first floor of the museum premises is music to the sport’s connoisseurs and fanatics. One of them is Sunil Gavaskar, the first man on the planet to scale 10,000 runs in Test cricket, whose statue was unveiled at the entrance of the museum.
“I used to go there when the Kanga library was at the CCI (Cricket Club of India’s Brabourne stadium) North stand and then it came here as well. I used to go and pick up books and I have also donated some books in the past,” Gavaskar said.
“Some of the books that I have, cricket books, I would love to donate them to the library. It doesn’t have to be the coming generation, it can also be the earlier generation which wants to go through some of the books, some of the autobiographies of different people that I have.”
Housing the library and the museum together is an attempt at archiving the legacy of Mumbai and Indian cricket by combining conventional and modern media forms. Besides displaying several artefacts, the museum will also have an audio-visual section through which the fans can delve into Mumbai and India’s glorious past.
“In those days, it was more the written word rather than the digital word which is there (now). That amalgamation is wonderful and that is how it should be because it keeps you in touch with the past while looking at the present as well as the future,” Gavaskar said. “That way, it is a tremendous idea to be able to get this done.”
Gavaskar, along with former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, was among the first ones to be given a short tour to the museum on Saturday.
What was it that he found the most interesting bit at the museum? “It was just a rushed trip but my favourite part has been looking at some of the blazers, because the blazers have changed over time. There are crests that have changed over time. At the start, I think, ‘the three lions’ was the crest. Now, the BCCI logo is the crest. So, to be able to see those things was something very, very touching.”
Published on Aug 24, 2025