Ex-umpire, journalist and administrator Pochkhanawalla sold his cricket club for R1.30 crore, and kept just R1 and a gold coin for himself, only to end up battling a health-related financial crisis

Dara Pochkhanawalla at his south Mumbai residence last week. Pic/Clayton Murzello

For the many years I’ve known Dara Pochkhanawalla, I’ve always seen him dressed in a light coloured shirt. And that is what I expected him to be in when I was welcomed into his home in Mumbai’s Fort area last week. Instead, Dara was in his sudreh (vest worn by Parsis).

He sat behind a large desk, spending his hot afternoon with a television news channel on, oblivious to the busy street down below, populated by traders. I had come to meet a man who is dealing with a cruel blow in the form of a chronic kidney disease which requires thrice-a-week home dialysis. He’s not been outdoors in months, except to be hospitalised five times in the last seven months.

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Dara, 73, has been a multi-faceted personality—gold medal-winning Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) umpire since 1970, journalist and cricket administrator who was twice in the managing committee of the MCA (something that was possible because he ran a club called Fort Youngsters). Dara didn’t just run it, he formed it, owned it and made the late celebrated cricket statistician and scorer Anandji Dossa its president.

A few years ago, Dara decided to sell Fort Youngsters. He got R1.30........

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