It’s the season (monsoon) in which city cricketers used to be jolly. The whole congregation of city cricketers — young, old, accomplished, struggling — happily made their way to the various maidans and gymkhanas for a bite of the cricket pie that the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) laid out for 14 teams across seven divisions.

Over the years, the Dr HD Kanga Cricket League, initiated in 1948, has undergone changes in an effort to make it relevant. It has got to a point where city cricket pundits are wondering whether conducting the league serves any purpose. But this is not a new question. I first read about the league losing its sheen from Sharad Kotnis, who, apart from being a respected writer, was a former Bombay Cricket Association (BCA) treasurer, enjoying a long-standing association with Shivaji Park Youngsters as the club’s torchbearer. ‘BCA tourney losing its glamour,’ Kotnis wrote in an article for Afternoon Despatch & Courier in 1991. Ironically, it was a year when Mohsin Khan, the Pakistan opener, played the league for Khar Gymkhana to infuse glam quotient.

However, the preview article said the BCA “should examine the issue properly since he is a foreigner” despite Mohsin being “a bona fide resident of Bombay, the main requirements needed to play in the Kanga League.” Mohsin ended up playing.