So Satish, Pooja and I went off one morning to the museum which was located in an apartment (two actually). It is promoted as the largest cricket museum with 75000 items.
The man behind all this is Mr Rohan Pate whose passion for the game has led him to be a great collector who is listed in the Limca Book of World Records.
The entry fee is rather steep at 235 or something. We went up to the 3rd floor (I think) and had to take off our shoes before we entered. Somehow i am not a huge fan of places that ask us to remove footwear.
Once inside a very pleasant young man named Devvrath, who had played under 19 cricket from Ahmednagar asked us if we wanted a tour. He guided us through the galleries - the evolution of the cricket bat, world cup zone, 300 club, wickets club, world record holders, Sachin and Virat gallery, a gallery devoted to women's cricket and so on.
Shirts, shoes, bats, balls, gloves, messages, pictures - a shirt signed by Muralitharan, a message from Virat, Sachins entire kit (he inaugurated the museum by the way and for a while it was called Sachin's Museum or something like that), Mark Bouchers gloves, Dhonis gloves and so on.
Of special interest are a gold plated bat of Don Bradman and a much used bat of Neil Harvey. Bats signed by entire teams that won the World Cup - tons of painstaking work.
Most importantly there is a huge poster of the world cup winning team of 1983 and we tried to figure who was who. Interestingly Mr Man Singh who was the manager of the 1983 World Cup team also has a museum in Hyderabad called 'The Pavilion'.
There are pictures of celebrities who visited the museum on the website - Viv Richards, Brett Lee, Enjoyed my time there. Definitely good to visit. Thanks Devvrath and thanks Pooja.
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