Last week’s function at Wankhede, where 18 sports journalists were honoured, reminded one of the time when media, sportspersons, administrators coexisted without today’s complexities and mistrust

Felicitated journalists Jemi Bardoliwala (extreme left, standing), Fredun De Vitre, Ayaz Memon, Dwarkanath Sanzgiri, Suhas Joshi, Vinayak Dalvi, Satish Mishra, Mukesh Parpiani, Anthony Azavedo, Raymond Fernandes, SS Ramaswamy, Sharad Kadrekar. Sitting: Guests of honour Edward Sequeira and Dilip Vengsarkar, PM Shirodkar (in a wheelchair). Pic/Ashish Raje

It seemed like the old times for the city’s sports journalists at Wankhede Stadium’s PD Hall, where 18 former journalists were felicitated by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM) last week. Respect for each other, memories, cheering and leg-pulling were all in abundant supply that May 29 evening.

The PD Hall was unmissable for cricketers of another era, because they were housed in the accommodation facility for domestic games above the hall. The venue was named after one of the most enthusiastic of Mumbai Cricket Association administrators, VB Prabhudesai—who went as Assistant Manager of the Indian team to England in 1986. Dilip Vengsarkar, who played a key role in that rare series win (2-0) in England, with two centuries in three Tests, was the guest of honour at the function, along with 1972 Munich Olympics runner Edward Sequeira.

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While Sequeira spoke about his exploits on the track and the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes in Munich,........

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