Lata Mangeshkar and her love for cricket

Lata Mangeshkar was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her contribution to the Indian music industry in a career spanning eight decades gained her honorific titles such as the “Queen of Melody”, “Nightingale of India”, and “Voice of the Millennium”. In recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor; she is only the second female singer, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to receive this honor.

Sadly she passed away on 6th February 2022. But her legacy will never be forgotten by us. Lata didi’s evergreen songs will always be remembered by us. Apart from singing, she loved watching cricket. She was a cricket fanatic, let us see about her love for cricket.

Lata didi was a passionate cricket fan despite having such a busy schedule due to recording, she used to watch cricket matches or listen to the scores. She shared a very emotional relationship with fellow Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar, who referred to her as Aai( means mother in Marathi). But her support and role as a well-wisher of the game and India’s cricketers are perhaps less understood.

She would often go out of her way to congratulate the Indian team and players. Ratnakar Shetty, who has been involved in cricket administration in various capacities for more than four decades, recalled a couple of such instances while paying his tribute to the Bharat Ratna. One of the most vivid memories of Mr Shetty is during India’s tour of Pakistan in 2004 when he was the manager of the team. As soon as India sealed the series at Rawalpindi, Lata didi was the first one to call and congratulate the entire team while talking she was very excited and joyous as any other Indian would be. And it was fitting that the Indian team’s open-top bus ride through Mumbai in 2007 after winning the inaugural World Twenty20 championship, halted for a while below her home on Peddar Road as Ms Mangeshkar waved in jubilation to the victorious cricketers.

Besides her fandom, Ms Mangeshkar played a pivotal role in Indian cricket’s evolution to cricketing heights. In 1983, when Kapil Dev’s boys shocked the cricket fraternity by lifting the Prudential World Cup, the BCCI didn’t have enough funds to reward the team. It was the Bharat Ratna who volunteered to perform at a concert at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi so that the money could be used for the welfare of the cricketers. The BCCI has documented that of the ₹21 lakh surplus from the concert, each of the 14 team members and manager P. R. Man Singh was awarded ₹1 lakh. The remaining ₹6 lakh was used to refurbish the Nehru Stadium, which used to host major matches then. Lata Ji had also kept a fast for India’s victory in the 2011 World Cup semi final clash against Pakistan.

Since then, as a goodwill gesture, the BCCI offers the Mangeshkar family two tickets for every international match played in India. Besides, the BCCI also facilitated a charity match between the Indian XI and the Sri Lankan XI in 1998 at Wankhede Stadium to help Ms Mangeshkar raise funds for a hospital in Pune that the family has founded.

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