Associated Cement Company cricket team

Associated Cement Company were an Indian first-class cricket team, sponsored by the Associated Cement Company, that competed in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament and played other first-class matches between 1961 and 1971.

Under the captaincy of the former Test player Madhav Mantri, who had just turned 40 and had not played regular first-class cricket since 1956-57, Associated Cement Company toured Pakistan in September 1961, playing three first-class matches.Ebrahim Maka and Rusi Modi were two other members of the team whose Test careers had finished in the early 1950s. In contrast, Dilip Sardesai played his first Test a few weeks after the tour, and five members of the team made their first-class debuts in the match in Lahore against Pakistan Eaglets.

Mantri made the team's top score of the tour with 73 in the second innings against Pakistan Eaglets after the team had trailed on the first innings by 183 runs. Needing 130 to win, Pakistan Eaglets finished on 101 for 7, Bal Kadbet taking 4 for 29 on his first-class debut. Imtiaz Ahmed's XI won the next match by 54 runs, although Sardesai made 68 and 34, top-scoring in each innings, and Polly Umrigar took 5 for 58 and 7 for 32. Umrigar also took five wickets in an innings in the last match, against Pakistan International Airlines, but Associated Cement Company lost by an innings.

Associated Cement Company were more successful in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament. They won in the first season of the tournament's revival in 1962-63, finished second in 1963-64, then won again in 1964-65.

Fielding nine players who had made the tour to Pakistan, and captained again by Mantri, they had the better of their two drawn matches in the 1962-63 tournament. In the final against M.A. Chidambaram's XI, Umrigar made 60 and 104 and took three wickets, and Bapu Nadkarni made 98 and 77 and took six wickets. Their first-innings lead won them the trophy. Later that season, in a friendly match in aid of the national Defence Fund, Associated Cement Company had their first outright victory, over the Andhra Chief Minister's XI.

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