Rohan Pate has single-handedly built Blades of Glory in Pune, with 2,000 rare collectibles on display, and close to 50,000 others waiting to be showcased
34-year-old Rohan Pate single-handedly built the world’s largest cricket museum in Pune. Photo by Mexy Xavier
In 2008-09, Rohan Pate attended a sports memorabilia auction in his hometown Pune, hoping to win two autographed bats belonging to cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. But his hopes were dashed as the willows went for Rs 6 lakh and Rs 11 lakh respectively—astronomical sums compared to his budget of Rs 2 lakh. “That hurt me,” recalls Pate, a former under-19 cricketer from Maharashtra-turned-realtor.
It wasn’t the first time, though, that he would have to return empty-handed in pursuit of Tendulkar’s autograph. In December 2009, at the end of a day’s play during the third Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, he saw the former India captain giving throwdowns at the ground. Unmindful of the security cover, he ran towards him only to have a guard shoo him away.
But such near-misses didn’t deter Pate; if anything, they made him more determined. The following year, when Amit Enterprises Housing Ltd, his family-run real estate company, was hunting for a brand ambassador, he convinced his father and signed on Tendulkar for five years. Immediately after, he asked for a bat from the cricketer, and Tendulkar gave him a used one without much fuss. “I thought if I can get Sachin’s bat, I can get anyone’s. That’s how I started collecting autographs and memorabilia,” says Pate, 34, who set up the Blades of Glory cricket museum in 2012.
Tucked away in a housing society at the end of a quiet lane in Sahakar Nagar in Pune, the 5,000 sq ft museum has 2,000 items on display—from late Australian cricketer Donald Bradman’s bat, to the pink ball used in the first day-night Test, and willows signed by World Cup-winning teams, and those with 10,000-plus runs in Test cricket, including Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis. Pate claims that close to 50,000 other collectibles—signed jerseys, bats, balls, stumps, helmets and books—are kept in an area of the same size on the floor above, which is not open to visitors.
In March, Miami-based World Record Academy registered Blades of Glory as the largest cricket museum in the world, ranking it above the one at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in England, The Bradman Museum in Australia, the West Indies Cricket Heritage Centre at Grenada, and the New Zealand Cricket Museum in Wellington. These museums are managed either by their respective cricket boards, trusts or governments, while Blades of Glory is run by an individual, it said in a statement.