Yashpal Sharma Was No.1 Product Of Lucknow's Sheesh Mahal Trophy

India's 1983 World Cup-winning batsman Yashpal Sharma, who passed away on Tuesday aged 66, owed his rise to stardom to two summer tournaments he regularly played in Lucknow for several years - the

"I don't think any player would have scored as many runs as Yashpal scored in this tournament. He was a great player. He scored 10 centuries, or maybe 12, in a much less number of years than when I played the tournament. I scored three centuries in 28 years of playing the Sheesh Mahal Trophy," he said.

Pace bowling all-rounder Parvez Ullah said Sharma emerged as an outstanding player from the Sheesh Mahal Trophy.

"He was the No.1 product of the tournament, besides Surinder Khanna and Navjot Singh Sidhu. I remember he scored two double centuries in the tournament. When Yashpal started playing in Lucknow I was in school and used to go to the K.D. Singh 'Babu' Stadium to watch him in action very early in the morning as matches would start at 6 am. We were fans of Sharma. Later, I got the honour of also playing against him," said Parvez Ullah.

Parvez Ullah, who represented his employers, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), and Gulmarg Club in the Sheesh Mahal Trophy, has another reason to remember Sharma. His team, LDA, lost to SBI by a solitary run in 1983.

"It was a three-day final and LDA took the first innings lead. And despite that advantage, we lost the match to Sharma's SBI by one run. I think Yashpal took two or three wickets in that final," he recalled.

Surinder Khanna, who was Sharma's roommate on the Indian team's long tour of England in 1979 that included the World Cup and a Test series, also endorsed the view that the national selectors would in that period take into account performances in top tournaments like Buchi Babu and Sheesh Mahal Trophy.

"They used to consider the performances in these tournaments. Yashpal's performance in the Sheesh Mahal Trophy might have been instrumental in his selection in the Indian team, though he had made his India debut much earlier [1978]," he said. "He was not a flamboyant batsman. He would stay at the wicket and would score crucial runs."

The Sheesh Mahal Trophy was a brainchild of cricket crazy fan M. Askari Hasan, who felt that a vacant slot of summer could be filled with a tournament in Lucknow. The first edition was played in 1951 and matches would start at around 6 am and finish around noon. Matches would be played at the K.D. Singh 'Babu' Stadium and Colvin Taluqdars' College, and when the Chowk Stadium in old Lucknow came up in the mid-1980s, they started playing matches there.

As more and more tournaments were launched in various parts of India with money appearance/prize money, the Sheesh Mahal Trophy lost its lustre as players became increasingly reluctant to play in the warm weather and for little income. Also, sponsors were hard to come by. And, as Hasan's health deteriorated, the tournament also lost its standing and was discontinued in 2010.

Besides Sharma, all other top cricketers of their eras, including Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have appeared in the tournament.