Pitches of the past

Excerpts and photographs from a new book that chronicles the long and colourful history of Indian cricket.

The ardent Ranjitsinhji

That Indian cricket was not just confined to India was brought home to me in Australia, where my friend Brian Stoddard, a noted sports historian, in trying to direct me to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), said, "Just walk down from where you are towards Hotel Windsor, where Ranji had stayed in 1897-98, and you will have a sighter of the MCG."

A man for whom the Australian government had relaxed its immigration laws in 1897-98, Ranji was the first Indian cricketer to have captured the imagination of the West.

There's considerable debate about whether Ranji was an anglophile, imposter, prince, selfish raja of Jamnagar or Jamsaheb, as they called him, or a regional chauvinist. That he was a passionate lover is, however, beyond doubt.

Even while he was deeply in debt in the 1890s, owing money to every other man in Cambride, including the tailor, the bartender, the grocer, the newsagent and the restaurateur, he rented a whole train to take his lady love Mary Holmes (also called Madge and Poly) to London for a holiday.

While he lived off his friends, eating in their houses, he presented Mary with costly gifts "" a diamond bracelet, an ivory necklace, a model of the Taj Mahal and a jewel-studded brooch.

All this is evident from his thirty-seven letters to Mary, rescued from oblivion in March 2002, 112 years after they were written, and now housed safely in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Nayudu blitz, and the birth of nationalism

In 1926, when Arthur Gilligan's MCC team reached Bombay undefeated, having beaten Indian cricket combinations across the country, Indian cricket stood at a crossroads.

Could an Indian side challenge the MCC? Was there an Indian batsman capable of taking on the guiles of Tate, Astill and Boyes? Was Indian cricket ready for the big league? C K Nayudu's innings of 153 in Bombay, though in a lost cause, was the answer to all these questions.

Nayudu's innings dented the aura of the MCC. It was an assertion of indigenous cricketing prowess against the colonizers; it was a signal that the Indians were legitimately knocking on the doors of world cricket.

This innings is now part of Indian cricket lore and may be regarded as the moment when an indigenous brand of nationalism took shape on the cricket field. The description of this innings by Edward Docker, one of India's earliest cricket historians, elaborates this point:

"Nayudu played circumspectly forward to two balls from Boyes, then dance out to the next one and hit it back over the bowler's head and onto the pavilion roof. The crowd was stunned. Was this the first six ever hit by an Indian batsmanagainst the MCC? Boyles bowled again to Nayudu. Crack! Another six, this time to the right of the pavilion, and not only did the ground burst into a tremendous sustained roar but even the umpires were seen to clap vigorously...it was amazing how fast the news spread, considering the city was still without a wireless set. When Nayudu returned to the wicket after lunch every tree was black with human spectators, as was every rooftop that commanded even a partial or distant view of the game."

India's first Test win - Chepauk, 1952

When the English under Nigel Howard arrived in India for a five-Test series, there was hope all round that India would now achieve the elusive Test victory. In the absence of stars like Bedser from the English team, the hope wasn't misplaced.

However, all seemed lost when India went into the last Test match at Chepauk in Madras down 0-1, having lost the second Test at Kanpur. The Indians thus had much more than pride at stake in Madras.

Finally, at 3 pm on 10 February 1952, when C D Gopinath, the youngest member of the side, caught Statham, history was made. Hazare had led India to their first-ever Test victory.

The chief architects of the victory were the "famous five" "" Vinoo Mankad, Ghulam Ahmed, Pankaj Roy, Polly Umrigar and Probir Sen.

When England ended Day One at 224 for 5, not many could have predicted the historic outcome. But the second morning was Mankad's and England were soon all out for 266.

When Roy and Umrigar both struck centuries, the Indians were firmly in the box seat and could smell victory. Hazare finally declared the Indian innings at 457, an hour before the end of the third day's play.

The fourth and final day saw India at their best. Mankad and Ghulam Ahmed ran through the English batting to give Indian fans what they had been dreaming of for twenty years.

Reminiscing about the occasion in his memoirs, Pankaj Roy declared:

"It was one of the best moments of my life. Our first Test victory and that too against the country which had been our master till five years before, this victory had a special significance for every Indian."