Past. Present. Future

By Invitation
Sunil Gavaskar

From irrepressible Lala to dynamic Kapil, savage Sachin to devastating Viru and vibrant Virat… Indian fan has had plenty to cheer.

India play their 500th Test at the Green Park, Kanpur. The opponents are New Zealand under a young captain Kane Williamson, who is already among the best batsmen in the game and bids fair to be the best that New Zealand have ever produced. India will be skippered by Virat Kohli, who also is relatively young as far as captaincy is concerned but has a year’s start ahead of Williamson. Both are the batsmen that the others in the team take inspiration from and so will have a pivotal role to play in the fortunes of their teams.

It all started for India way back in 1932 when they toured England and played their first ever Test at the Lord's cricket ground. The Indian team was captained by Col CK Nayudu, India's first ever cricketing superstar who was a giant among others. The Indian bowlers did exceedingly well to get half the English team out for not too many but found it harder to get the last few wickets out and England were able to reach a good score, thanks to their lower order batsmen. This inability to prise out the lower order has stayed with the Indian team for a long time though there are exceptions when India's bowlers have bowled superbly to dismiss the opposition out twice to win Test matches.

If that was the starting phase for Indian cricket, the current phase must be one of the winningest ones the Indian team has had as they have beaten just about every opposition they have played over the last couple of years.

The second World War interrupted the careers of some of the greatest names in Indian cricket who, otherwise, would have had achievements more than what they have.

The ones to suffer were Col Nayudu, the irrepressible Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Mohammad Nissar, all legends of Indian cricket. When Test cricket resumed after the war, many of these greats had lost prime years of their careers and were clearly not the players they were before the war. Yet we saw glimpses of the greatness of these players in the time that they played after the war.

The late 40s to 60s was the era of India’s best batsmanship and I use the word advisedly because the pitches were uncovered and so could change character overnight or even if there was a slight drizzle. The 'Vijays' dominated the batting, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar.

In Vinoo Mankad, India also had an all-rounder of the highest class. There was Polly Umrigar too and soon to be followed by Chandu Borde and Tiger Patudi. Umrigar’s big hitting in the West Indies earned him the nickname 'Palm Tree Hitter'. Borde was more in the mould of the Vijays but Pataudi brought about a transformation in the Indian batting by repeatedly playing the lofted shot and getting the crowd on its feet.

The 1960s was the glamorous era of Indian cricket. The Indian team then had so many good looking men that women began to flock to the ground to see them rather than their game. Those were the days when we, as budding cricketers, would hear stories of players dating film stars, models and leading an exotic after hours life. If today for most youngsters the incentive is to get a big ticket IPL contract, for those growing up in the 60s, it was the possibility that by playing well for India you could date gorgeous women.

The 70s is where India started to win Test matches regularly, both in and out of the country. It started under Ajit Wadekar, under whose leadership India won back-to-back series in West Indies as well as in England. It was also the first time that India had beaten those two countries in their country.

There was also the famous run chase against the West Indies when India chased down 405 runs. The wizardry of Gundappa Viswanath and Mohinder Amarnath’s solidity got India past what looked like an impossible chase. That was also the era of the spin quartet who wove magic through their fingers as they in varying ways brought the batsmen to their doom. Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishan Singh Bedi bowled at around 50 miles an hour but they gave sleepless nights to the opposition batsmen as much as facing the fastest bowlers of the time used to give.

India discovered their own fast weapon when Kapil Dev came on the scene in the late 70s. The dynamic allrounder completely changed the face of the Indian attack with his swing and seam bowling at a speed that had not been seen before from an Indian bowler. If today India have a good stock of bowlers who can hurl the ball at more than 90 mph, it is solely due to Kapil who showed that even on unresponsive sub-continent pitches you could rattle the opposition with pace and movement. His robust batting also endeared him to the fans who would drop everything once they knew he had come to the crease.

India had been making progress but they still did not have the world’s attention till they shocked West Indies to win the World Cup in 1983.

However as the decade was coming to an end, there was a bit of despondency about Indian cricket with its recent performances. That despondency was lifted when a young curly haired boy, who hadn’t even started shaving, made his debut against the old rivals Pakistan. Sachin Tendulkar’s arrival marked an upsurge in Indian cricket’s fortunes just as his batting took everyone’s breath away.

Soon there were others who joined him, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly looking to replace the stylish Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohd. Azharuddin. These batsmen thrilled audiences all over the world with their stroke play on all kinds of pitches. Just as the century ended and the new millennium began, Anil Kumble became only the second bowler in the world to take all ten wickets in an innings. He continued the tradition of Indian spin magic and went on to capture 619 wickets in Test matches apart from hundreds more in limited overs cricket.

The turn of the century also saw India’s most devastating destroyer of bowling come on the scene. Virender Sehwag batted like no one else before and unlikely to be one in the future too. His super quick hand-eye co-ordination allowed him to be in perfect position to hit even the great deliveries for boundaries or sixes and his devil may care approach made many an opposition bowler dread bowling to him. He was soon followed by another cool customer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who went on to skipper the Indian team to a World Cup win after 28 years. His unruffled manner despite a critical position the team may be in earned him the title of ‘Captain Cool’.

Now it is 'vibrant' Virat, who along with his talented young bunch, is taking the team to newer heights and as India play their 500th Test, the Indian cricket fan will have plenty to cheer and whistle about. PMG