Skip to main content

Blaise D'Cunha/tributes/foto gallery


ASIANS V EUROPEANS IN KENYA



1951-52


                        
                                                                    1953-54
1954-55
                                    
1955-56

1956-57


1957-58

1958 v Non White South Africans in Kenya

1968 v MCC


    Europeans v Asians 1958-59


Blaise D'Cunha

Memories

JOHNNY LOBO, national and club teammate: I met Blaise at the National Bank of India (now Kenya Commercial Bank KCB) in Nairobi around 1947.

He told me he was from Pakistan and that his brother was the Manager of N.B.I. in Kericho. I immediately connected that they were from Moira in Goa the same village that I come from.

 We spoke about Cricket at length and then I asked him if he would like to join us for a match against the Nairobi Club which he agreed to do. The match was N.C. vs Kenya Goans and I was Captain for that game. Nairobi Club won the toss and chose to bat. In the early part of the innings they looked solid at 60 for no loss and so I decided to bring in Blaise.

 T.M. Bell who had already scored 50 was facing Blaise and on the third ball was clean bowled. The next man was also cleaned bowled. I have never seen cricket players running to the pavilion to change and come back as umpires just to see Blaise bowl.

 In the end, he took 10 wickets all of them clean bowled.

RAMESH SETHI, former club cricket teammate: I played alongside Blaise in the Kenya Commercial League when we represented the Education Department. I used to travel from Nakuru. We won the Commercial League often because of his bowling. He was almost impossible to read. With R B Patel, we used to run through most batting line-ups. Our best win was against Barclays Bank when we scored 444-4 and bowled them out for 128. It was a memorable game for me too, I got a career-best 239 not out

.Initially, I played for the RGI, then for the Railway Asian Institute and two years with the Sikh Union before joining the Indian Gymkhana. He was a master spinner, very accurate and had a huge googly, which accounted for batsmen who couldn’t read it and were bowled when they left the ball.

 A lovely gentleman with a wicked sense of humour. I can still picture his bowling action, with a characteristic limp in his run-up.

 

NORMAN DA COSTA: Journalist, who played alongside Blaise and Johnny for the Railway Goan Institute.

 

 



ST PATRICK’S HIGH SCHOOL 1944-45

Winners of the Rubie Shield for the Fifth Year in succession

Anand J, C. Pereira, G. Raza FH, B. D’Cunha, P. Aswani, F. Mehta, F Pinto.

O. Ferro, J. Britto (captain), P. Mendes, Fr Modestine, E. D’Mello, Govind D.J. R. Nazareth. Jack Britto was talented sports all-rounder who was a Pakistani hockwy Olympian who also played for Malawi.


Kenya in South Africa



Above: 1956 East Africa v Pakistan Cricket Writers Club: Note the great Hanif Mohammed, Wallis Mathias!

Sitting: Gafoor Ahmed, Saludin, D.W. Dawson (captain), H.E. Afzal (Pakistan High Commissioner), Sir Evelyn Baring (Governor of Kenya), Basheer Mauladad (President Kenya Muslim Sports Association), A.H. Kardar (captain CWC), Ramanbhai, Hamid Jalal (Manager CWC)

Standing front row: Hernimann (umpire), Mehboob Ali, G.B. Jhalla, Ramesh Patel, Gursaran Singh, B. D’Cunha, Anwar Hussein, Hanif Mohammed, Waqar Hassan, Halim, Alimudin, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Imtiaz Ahmed, Robinson (umpire).

Standing back row: J. Fawkes, Jabbar, Salaudin, Giles, Jaffer, Mahmood Hussein, Umar Qureshim, Wallis Mathias, Ikram Ilahi, Sher Mohamed Khan.

 



Above: 1958 Kenya v MCC
Sitting: J J Warr, Chandrakant Patelm, F R Brown, (capt MCC) A M Davies (President Kenya Kongonis CC) Dr G T Hicks (President Kenya Cricket Association) D W Dawson (capt KCA) S C Griffith (Manager) G B Jhalla.
Standing first row: G H C Doggart, Rasik Patel, G W Cook, Gursaran Singh, C J M Kenny, B D'Cunha, D R W Cook, Gafoor Ahmed, P E Richardson.
Standing:  R Watkins (MCC coach), Daljit Singh, J Fawkes, G Rabbanim Ingleby-Mackenzie, J Caudlem R E Luyt, J A Bailey.



Kenya v Tanganyika 1958

Sitting: Ramanbhai Patel, Alban Fernandes, T M Bell (captain Kenya) Harbans Singh (President KCA) R B Donaldson (captain Tanganyika), G B Jhalla, Mohninder Singh
Standing: F W Corroyer (umpire)  R B Patel, L D Lyndsay, I T Harbottlem Gursaran Singh, C D Patel, Halim Mohamed, Don Pringle, R J B Yeldham, J L Porter (umpire)
Standing: G Solanki, R H Chambers, W H Bennet, P R Prodger, T G Dodd, Nazir Hussein, Ali Hamidi, B D'Cunha, R D.Patel






























1956-57 Kenya v Tanganyika


Kenya v Tanganyika 1958
 

Comments

Unknown said…
Superb ... very well done.
Anonymous said…
Loved this, remember Basil and all SVIG players. I used to watch them and at tee time my dad would take me inside for that cake! Memories

Popular posts from this blog

MORE photos of cricketers in Kenya added

More cricket photos added! Asians v Europeans, v Tanganyika, v Uganda, v East Africa, Rhodesia, etc some names missing! Photo Gallery of Kenya Cricket 23 photos: CM Gracias, Blaise d'Cunha Johnny Lobo! Ramanbhai Patel, Mehboob Ali, Basharat Hassan and hundreds others.  

Pinto: Blood on Western and Kenyan hands

  BOOK REVIEW   Pinto: Blood on Western and Kenyan hands   Review by Cyprian Fernandes     Pio Gama Pinto, Kenya’s Unsung Martyr 1927-1965 Edited by Shiraz Durrani [Vita Books, Kenya, 2018, 392 pp.   Pbk, £30, ISBN 978-9966-1890-0-4; distributed worldwide by African Books Collective, www.africanbookscollective.com ]   Less than two years after independence from the British, on 24 February 1965, the Kenyan nationalist Pio Gama Pinto was gunned down in the driveway of his Nairobi home.   His young daughter watched helplessly in the back seat of the family car.   Pinto, a Member of Parliament at the time, was Kenya’s first political martyr.   One man was wrongly accused of his death, served several years in prison and was later released and compensated.   Since then no one has been charged with the murder.   Now the long-awaited book on Pio Gama Pinto is finally here, launched in Nairobi on 16 October 2018....

A message from Mervyn Maciel from his Hospital Bed

Morning my dear friends. Want to write to each one of you but I am exhausted! Thanks for everything. You have done much for me. Being discharged today after three long weeks. Have to live with pain for the rest of my life! Home at last, thanks to all of your prayers and kind wishes! From Mzee Mervyn Maciel to all of you. Morning Skip. Please don’t think I am or have been ignoring you – quite the opposite hard to spill it out with diminishing gufu (strength). Wish they could establish what is causing the chronic bleeding in my brain region. I want to sing again and write so much however gufu na shindwa mimi (lack strength is hampering me. Please thank everyone for their prayers and for enriching my life. I was the dunce in the family: My brothers Rev Joseph SJ and the late Wilfrid are my heroes. I owe them so much, also my darling Elsie and each of my loving children, including Conrad who suffered so much during his short life. Our faith kept us going during those painful days in Marsab...