Full of life at 75

Frank and forthright, with flamboyance somewhat tempered with age and weight, Farokh Engineer is currently a familiar face on Indian TV. Though he has lived in England for the last 30 years, his heart still belongs to India! The former dashing India Test batsman cum wicketkeeper celebrated his landmark 75th birthday with former teammates Ajit Wadekar, Dilip Vengsarkar and others at a joyous get together in Bombay on February 25, 2013. The ‘five short of four score’ years do not seem to have diminished his involvement and love for the game or zest for life!

Flamboyant Farokh Engineer: then and now

Prominently featured by NDTV 24x7 as expert commentator along with former Australian cricketer Dean Jones for the ongoing IPL 2013 (Indian Premier League, sixth edition), Engineer speaks his mind on all issues: "No player or no individual is greater than the game,” he said in connection with the current controversy raging in the IPL regarding spot fixing/match fixing. "The game has to be protected at all levels, at all times… No Board is greater than the game.” Having played cricket in the decades during which there was little money in the sport, Engineer advocates "zero tolerance” for shady activities, particularly now when players are flush with funds! "The whole nation has been let down… It’s a shame!” he told the NDTV anchor on May 20, 2013, referring to the recent arrest of IPL players alleged to have received lakhs of rupees from bookies to tilt the game in a particular direction. "If found guilty, the most rigorous action should be taken. Their bank balance must be frozen, they should be made an example to youngsters (not to do the same thing). Every tournament should have an anti-corruption official accompanying the team…”
"If you’re afraid of facing fast bowling, then you’re in the wrong profession. Better go and work at a bank or something. (We) never even thought of getting hit. Especially in the West Indies, when Nari Contractor was hit, and I was there, and I saw blood trickling out of his ears,” Engineer told The Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta in a Walk the Talk TV interview, carried as a full page feature in The Sunday Express, May 5, 2013. Modern bats, he told Gupta, "are so well made. Hamara toh Brooke Bond chai ka dabba tha (brittle as a box of Brooke Bond tea!).” Asked whether film actresses lined up at the Cricket Club of India when the team was playing Engineer replied: "Oh yeah, that was a regular thing. We used to be invited to Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, all their homes and they used to take out a harmonium and sing to us. Hum bolé, arré gaana band karo, ab bhookh lagi hai, khana nikalo (We said, now stop the singing and get the food out, we’re hungry!) But how lucky we were!” Actors and actresses thronged players’ boxes at the stadium. "There was no room for players sometimes. But players enjoyed mingling with them. Because in the evenings, we used to be invited to the actors, actresses’ homes, so we got to know them all very well indeed. How well, I won’t tell you. My wife’s listening, I’ll get in trouble (Engineer’s wife Julie is English),” the irrepressible Brylcreem boy’s humor is still buoyant!
Asked whether he remembered any stories of how "the genteel Parsis” (in the Parsi Cyclists team of yore) sledged each other more than their rivals, Engineer replied: "You know what, I can’t repeat it on TV. But without the slightest meaning. It was just done in good humor. Parsis are full of fun. You know, we love to enjoy life. And I think it showed in our team. We enjoyed our cricket immensely.”