Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has presented the autographed bats of all the teams that took part in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England to Shyam Bhatia’s cricket museum.
Speaking to Gulf News, Bhatia, who has prominently displayed this new addition to his museum, said: “I am really honoured to receive the bats from the world cricket body. I consider it also as a mark of recognition to the museum, which depicts the history of cricket through the walls of the museum and have many mementos from the greats of the game.”
Bhatia had personally collected the autographs of 2011 and 2015 World Cup teams. “I have been to all the World Cups over the years. Among my prized collection is the bat autographed by all members of the Indian team that lifted the 1983 World Cup,” added Bhatia, whose museum has over 200 autographed bats from cricketers.
“Among the 200 are bats autographed by legends like Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad, South Africa’s Mike Procter and Graeme Pollock. I have also a bat signed by Don Bradman with his batting statistic embossed on it,” said Bhatia, who has added original newspaper clippings from India’s tour of England in 1932 as All India team under captaincy of Maharaja of Porbandar.
“I am happy to have received original clipping from the 1932 tour and even clippings of great matches from 1949 to 1970s. Among my collection of books are legendary cricket writer Neville Cardus’s full series and Ranjitsinhji’s limited edition book autographed by him,” said Bhatia, who is working on creating a new museum with support from the Dubai government so as to enable all tourists to witness this rare collections.
