A priceless collection

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 12

Autograph-hunter Dharam Vir Duggal, popularly known as the ‘nation’s best collector of autographed cricket bats’, is now eyeing to have a first-of-its-kind cricket museum in Chandigarh to display his priceless collection of 578 autographed bats, white balls and everything related to the sport for the coming generations.

Having a world record title for collecting maximum autographed bats, 60-year-old Duggal is eagerly waiting for the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, scheduled later this year, to increase his precious collection to 600.

“I have purchased PPE kits, special pens, gloves and everything to get autographs of cricketers in the upcoming championship. Cricket is my passion. I will continue to go as far as possible to collect unimaginable memories with cricketers,” said Duggal.

He added: “I am making a proposal and will meet the Punjab Governor & UT Administrator to build a cricket museum of the precious collection. It has taken my 30 years to collect the rarest of the collections. I have followed well-known names of cricket to get their signatures on my collection.”

His 578 collection of autographed bats include signatures of Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh, Brain Lara, Sir Garry Sobers, Ramiz Raja, Viv Richards and many others. He also has a small bat signed by Yuvi six times, after he struck six sixes in an over against England. The autograph collection goes over the 3,000 mark, including a single bat having signatures of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. His collection of autographed cricket balls bear the names of Australian pacer Jeff Thomson, Denis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Michael Holding, Javagal Srinath, Richard Hadlee, Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan, and the list goes on.

“I have a gold coin gifted by John Bradman, son of Sir Donald Bradman, given on his father’s birth centenary. I also met Mohd Jahangir Khan in Lahore who autographed a Re 1 note for me.I got a gift of golden knife signed by Imran Khan, now Pakistan’s Prime Minister,” added Duggal.

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