Ashok Mankad, affectionately known as `Kaka' by all his peers and juniors, looks to have aged beyond his 54 years. The balding pate, the lines on his face and the measure of circumspection in his stride all indicate that his physical strength has waned considerably. But the cheerful Mumbaikar is still mentally agile as ever as an encounter on the sidelines of the two day coaching seminar at the MRF House in Chennai showed.

Having taken over as Mumbai coach last season only to face up to the shattering blow of his wards failing to qualify for the Super League, Mankad showed the stern stuff he's made of by marshalling his resources with shrewdness to a trophy triumph this time round. "The present team is much stronger than the one I captained in the '70's", he said. According to Mankad, the attitude of players who missed selection to the Indian team was responsible for the failure last season.

Mankad said that his role was to channel the energies of the players for the good of the team. "The talent and hard work was all there. What I did was to introduce a change of focus whereby the boys were made to direct their attention towards performing for the state rather than worrying over Indian selection". Mankad also disclosed that "the application of yoga had helped the team to unify ourselves in thought, to think collectively towards a particular objective which was not to win but to put in our best effort. The result became the consequence of the effort".

Mankad, who played 22 Test matches from 1969-1978, also briefly went down the corridors of history to pull out a few memories from his playing career. The first three matches of the 1969-70 series against Australia undoubtedly comprised his finest moments in Test cricket. Although he never reached the three figure mark at Test level, Mankad said that his innings of 97 in the third Test of that series at Delhi was special because it contributed to an Indian victory. But he considered his knock of 74 in the first Test on his home turf of the Wankhede to be more technically satisfying.

However it was in the Ranji Trophy that Mankad brought home the bacon on umpteen occasions for Mumbai. He still remembers with pride the 265 (407 balls, 28 fours) he struck against Delhi in the Ranji final of 1980-81 in some ten hours of batting that helped trounce the visitors by an innings and 46 runs. "My most memorable innings", he said, "and also my highest score in first class cricket".

Mankad also reminisced about the most exciting game he ever played, again picked out from the annals of the Ranji Trophy. "It was the quarter final against Hyderabad. They were a strong side with Jai, Pataudi, Abid, Jayantilal, Govindaraj and all our best players were away on tour. Hyderabad took a first innings lead but we finally won outright. It was a first class game". To fill in the gaps in Mankad's cryptic testimony, the game in question was in the 1975-76 season, with Mankad himself stroking a classy 136 as captain and Mumbai winning by 70 runs with about an hour and a half to spare.

In conclusion, he reflected upon his legendary father, Vinoo. "He was my coach in my formative years. He didn't focus on matters of technique but just taught me to enjoy the game and play it without pressure". Indeed the Mankad family has produced three generations of gifted sportsmen for on the same day that `Kaka' was talking to me, his son Harsh had reached the final of an ITF satellite tennis tournament in Bangalore.

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