The quintessential enthusiast, Mahendra
Patel was infinitely more in cricket circles than a blazer – he
was a passionate, driven ambassador whose quest for improvement had a
profound bearing on the way the game is now structured in this country.
Born in Kampala to Indian parents who had moved to Uganda when his father took
a job on a plantation, Mahendra was sent to school in Norwich in 1961 to sit
his A levels, after which he read Chemical Engineering at the University of London.
The young scholar had already sampled the delights of cricket in Kampala but
it was after taking up a post with BP Chemicals in Grangemouth in 1966 that he
became entrenched in the game.
After one season with Stenhousemuir, the right-arm opening bowler stepped up
a level by moving to Clackmannan County in Alloa, where a four-decade love affair
with the game would blossom. Mahendra's other lifelong romance was consummated
when he married Aruna, from Nairobi, in 1967, and they had two children, Mona
and Sanjay, currently the captain of Grange CC in Edinburgh.
Settled in the belly of Scotland, Mahendra captained Clackmannan County’s
1st XI over six seasons in total and served the club unstintingly, whether dressed
in whites or collar and tie. That he played on into his 50s allowed him the distinction
of sharing a dressing-room with locals such as Bryn Lockie, who would go on to
play for Scotland, and Dougie Brown, who would go on to play for England as well
as Scotland. As a golfer also, Mahendra became an accomplished and enthusiastic
member of Alloa Golf Club when his cricket-playing career came to an end.
As well as rising to senior management positions at BP, Mahendra was a pillar
of regional administration and upon becoming president of the Scottish Counties,
made it his mission to unify the game nationally.
The game was then divided into three strongholds: the Counties, as far-flung
as Aberdeen and Prestwick, the Edinburgh-centric East League and the mostly Glaswegian
Western Union. The view was that each contained four or five strong clubs that
were being held back, so Patel pushed for the formation of the Scottish Cricket
League (SCL), which became the Scottish National Cricket League (SNCL) when the
westerners saw the light and signed up.
Finally, Scottish cricket could be taken seriously, with an elite club structure
aiding the emergence of a credible national side which was granted autonomy from
England in 1994 by the International Cricket Council.
As the diplomat who had broken down the regional barriers, Mahendra was well
placed to play an active role in Scotland's globetrotting adventures. He and
Aruna travelled, mostly at their own expense, not only with Scotland's one-day
international squad, but also with national and district junior selects.
He was elected president of Cricket Scotland and served between 2006 and 2008,
a tireless and ubiquitous presence at the game's ambassadorial helm.
The highlight of his tenure was not, as it might have been, the 2007 World Cup
in the West Indies but instead the event that preceded it, the World Cricket
League in Aruna's home city of Nairobi.
Jim McFadyen, a fellow board member, recalls the Patels' command of Swahili coming
in useful in taxis; former captain Craig Wright remembers Mahendra, participating
in a round of drinking games by the hotel pool after Scotland had comprehensively
beaten the tournament hosts. His and Aruna's company was sought after at every
dinner.
"He was an excellent president, and he was very proud to take up the role
because he saw it as a real honour," said Cricket Scotland chief executive
Roddy Smith.
Mahendra lived just long enough to see the birth of his first two grandchildren,
twins Zahra and Ishaan, but died at home in Sauchie on 29 April, aged only
66, after an 18-month battle with illness.
This obituary first appeared in The Scotsman and is reproduced, with
minor amendments by JDH, with the permission of the author Jon Coates |