Published: Dec 08, 2016, 07:40 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 11, 2016, 09:09 PM (IST)
On the eve of India’s fourth Test against England at Wankhede Stadium, there was an interesting auction of sports memorabilia going on at Cricket Club of India (CCI), which is only 650 metres away from the match venue, and is home to the historic Brabourne Stadium. It was the inaugural auction of unique sporting memorabilia by Kathiwada Arts and Sports (KAS) in association with Kathiwada foundation. The auction witnessed several few former Indian Test cricketers as well, such as Farokh Engineer, Salim Durani and Yajurvindra Singh, as were Ayaz Memon, Boria Majumdar and Rahul Bose.
The main idea behind this auction is to create awareness and expand the market of sports memorabilia in India and realize it as an important collectible asset of the future. The auction also constituted a charity component whereby some proceeds as realised by KAS will be fed to the starter program of Kathiwada Foundation that supports sports infrastructure building in Kathiwada, Madhya Pradesh. The evening began with Don Bradman’s commemorative coin program, which was sold for INR 36,000, followed by Sachin Tendulkar’s silver coin minted by the East India Company, which got auctioned for INR 15,000.
The auction continued with various historic memorabilia but the best part of the evening came when Wasim Akram’s jumper of 1992 World Cup Final came into play. The auction for Wasim’s iconic jumper began at INR 70,000; and in no time the bidding crossed the 2-lakh mark and rapidly moving towards 3 lakh. The entire auction hall oohed and aahed and laughed in excitement as the bidding rose; it finally got sold for INR 340,000. Meanwhile, another interesting part came into notice and a sense of sympathy for that person who was holding the frame of Akram’s jumper for around eight minutes. The auction money for Wasim’s jumper will go to charity.
The second-biggest auctioned memorabilia of the evening came with the arrival of World Cup 2003 India jersey issued for Sachin Tendulkar hand-signed by the legend himself. It was previously sold in auction in 2008-09. Tendulkar was the highest run-getter in that tournament with 673 runs to his name. The bidding for Tendulkar’s jersey began at 1 lakh. With the arrival of Tendulkar’s jersey in the bidding, once again, a tough task for the man around stage who was holding the iconic jersey. It did not take much time to cross 3-lakh mark; for once it looked like Tendulkar’s jersey might fetch a higher value than Wasim’s jumper, but it fell short by INR 10,000: the final value of the jersey was INR 330,000.
Like in cricket, Brian Lara followed Tendulkar here too with his Test jersey. The bid for Lara’s Test jersey started with INR 32,000 but went unsold. There were plenty of other memorabilia of famous Indian cricketers. These included Virat Kohli’s signed bat, Yuvraj Singh’s signed jersey and an oil canvas painting of Sourav Ganguly. The list also featured a personally autographed photograph of Brian Lara and Shane Warne. One of the most lucrative items of the collection was a bat consisting of the signature of 18 Indian captains — Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Ajit Wadekar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
There were few other autographed bats as well, most significantly one signed by all members of the Benson & Hedges 1985 World Championship finalists, India and Pakistan. There was another bat with signatures of all players from participating teams in that tournament.
The buzz around the bats increased when the auctioneer opened bidding for 2002 NatWest Trophy bat signed by India, England and Sri Lanka players. The moment that bat was showcased, an Englishmen beside me instantly said, “I was there. I remember how Yuvraj and Kaif heroics led to Sourav Ganguly wave his jersey at Lord’s balcony.” It felt nice being an Indian.
Out of 58 pieces of memorabilia from the auction, 42 were sold. The below table will give the clear picture of which historic memorabilia went sold or unsold and for what price.
|
Memorabilia |
Bidding price |
Auctioned amount |
|
Sir Donald Bradman Commemorative Coin Program |
35,000 |
36,000 |
|
Sachin Tendulkar Silver Coin minted by East India Company |
10,000 |
15,000 |
|
World Cup 1999 Flag Pins |
18,000 |
Unsold |
|
Brian Lara & Shane Warne hand signed photograph |
14,000 |
17,000 |
|
Sunil Gavaskar hand signed limited edition photo print |
5,000 |
7,000 |
|
Brian Lara, Oil on Canvas |
100,000 |
Unsold |
|
Sourav Ganguly, Oil on Canvas |
120,000 |
Unsold |
|
Don Bradman hand signed Souvenir Ticket |
8,000 |
9,000 |
|
Bradman hand signed birthplace photograph |
8,000 |
12,000 |
|
Arthur Morris Signed Souvneir |
5,000 |
5,000 |
|
Photograph of Sir Don Bradman with wife Jessie-Martha signed by both |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|
WG Grace Spy Series Print 1877 |
14,000 |
14,000 |
|
Ranjitsinhji Spy Series Print 1897 |
14,000 |
14,000 |
|
Cricketing Reminiscences by WG Grace, published 1899 |
10,000 |
10,000 |
|
Cricket – hand signed in ink by W.G.Grace, published 1891 |
60,000 |
Unsold |
|
The Jubilee Book of Cricket By K.S. Ranjitsinhji, published 1897 |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|
Original hand signed photograph in ink of KS Ranjitsinhji |
24,000 |
Unsold |
|
1906 Cricket Hand Book |
12,000 |
12,000 |
|
Cricket Illustrated 1908 |
10,000 |
10,000 |
|
The (First) All Indian Team, 1911 |
50,000 |
100,000 |
|
Letter written by WG Grace |
24,000 |
26,000 |
|
Neil Harvey and Sam Loxton signed full team photograph |
7,000 |
8,000 |
|
The Don Meets the Babe, 1995 |
40,000 |
Unsold |
|
West Indies Tour Souvenir 1950 |
7,000 |
Unsold |
|
1952 India and England full team autographs |
20,000 |
Unsold |
|
The Art of Cricket, 1958 |
34,000 |
Unsold |
|
Signed Team Sheet – Australia 1964 |
8,000 |
9,000 |
|
Ajit Wadekar hand signed Lord’s match tickets for 1967 England vs India |
8,000 |
8,000 |
|
Hand signed caricature of Bob Woolmer |
7,000 |
Unsold |
|
EAS Prasanna National Blazer, West Indies tour of India 74/75 |
170,000 |
170,000 |
|
EAS Prasanna India Test Cap – West Indies Tour of India 1974-75 |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|
On the steps of Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II and Family |
20,000 |
20,000 |
|
Autographed Team Sheet of Pakistan 1978 tour to England |
9,000 |
9,000 |
|
England Cricket Tour 1981-82 signed Team Sheet |
10,000 |
Unsold |
|
Signed bat of Captains of India |
250,000 |
300,000 |
|
Centenary Match 1982, First Official Test for Sri Lanka vs England |
10,000 |
Unsold |
|
Indian National Team Tie – India’s Tour of Pakistan 1984 |
24,000 |
24,000 |
|
B&H 1985 World Championship bat signed by finalists India & Pakistan |
130,000 |
140,000 |
|
B&H 1985 World Championship bat signed by all the players |
180,000 |
180,000 |
|
Moment of the final wicket – The famous Madras tied Test Match |
12,000 |
12,000 |
|
Wasim Akram 1992 World Cup Jumper |
70,000 |
340,000 |
|
Signed Laminated Front Page of Trinidad Guardian: ‘Lara the Greatest’ & |
30,000 |
30,000 |
|
1995 Coca-Cola West Indies vs Australia signed bat by both teams |
32,000 |
Unsold |
|
National Team Ties — The Official Tour Tie 1996 India/England/Pakistan |
30,000 |
30,000 |
|
National Team Ties – for India’s 1996 Wills World Cup |
34,000 |
Unsold |
|
MCC vs Rest of The World (ROW) Program Guide signed by all players |
75,000 |
Unsold |
|
Neil Johnson signed World Cup Ticket 1999 |
5,000 |
6,000 |
|
India tour of England 2002 Team Sheet hand signed by Indian test squad |
7,000 |
19,000 |
|
2002 Natwest Trophy bat signed by India, England & Sri Lanka players |
140,000 |
Unsold |
|
ICC Champions Trophy 2002 – Autographed 12 mini bats by all nations |
200,000 |
200,000 |
|
World Cup 2003 India jersey issued for Sachin Tendulkar hand-signed |
100,000 |
330,000 |
|
National Team Jersey of Brain Lara with Signature |
30,000 |
30,000 |
|
Yuvraj Singh signed match issued jersey, 2010 |
40,000 |
40,000 |
|
Set of 4 hand signed caricatures N. Hirwani, S. Warne, M. Muralitharan |
15,000 |
15,000 |
|
A bat signed by the winning Indian team of the 2013 Champions Trophy |
55,000 |
65,000 |
|
Tendulkar signed caricature, signed Indian team greeting card 1992 WC |
22,000 |
24,000 |
|
Virat Kohli signed match used bat |
100,000 |
220,000 |
|
KL Rahul match used bat and a pair of his personal gloves. Both signed |
50,000 |
50,000 |
Beside cricketing memorabilia, the auction also carried a chessboard signed by Viswanathan Anand, 2013, a Ferrari car specification sheet signed by Michael Schumacher and Sachin Tendulkar, Mary Kom’s training kits for 2012 London Olympics, and Kabaddi World Cup kits signed by Manjeet Chillar and Deepak Hooda (the cricketer has a namesake kabaddi player).
(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with CricLife and CricketCountry.com. He can be followed at @abhik2593)
