CK Nayudu

Sorabjee Colah had threatened to throw him overboard the ship-deck in 1932. In England in1936 Baqa Jilani abused him publicly and was rewarded with a Test cap for it by skipper Vizzy. Yes C. K. Nayudu evoked manic emotions in players under him.

 

Mushtaq Ali and the Holkar players worshipped him. The young Vijay Merchant was enchanted as he saw Nayudu pulverize MCC with 11 sixes at the Bombay Gymkhana ground in 1926. Lala Amarnath received his unstinted support as he raced to his Test debut century in 1933-34.

 

The person was none other than the legendary CK Nayudu. For Cottari Konkaiya Nayudu, cricket originated in ancient India and he always maintained that the supple and strong wrists oaf the Indians made them naturally adept at this game. Let it not be forgotten that Nayudu spoke of undivided India, an India which extended to Peshwar in the north-west periphery.

 

How true his reading was. Visualize the names of Fazal Mahmood, Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Majid Jehangir, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Akram in the company of our greats. Actually if petty political considerations had not partitioned us, undivided India would have ruled international cricket most certainly from the 1960s at least.

 

This was the dream that Nayudu had dreamt. At a time when Hammond, Hobbs, Bradman, Hutton, Headley and Constantine dominated world cricket, it took some guts to say that the sub-continent players were naturals and consequently the best. But then raw courage was his talisman, a constant companion.

 

Majestic CK Nayudu was a figure from the pantheon of cricketing gods. Over six feet in height, lissome of build, strong of arms. From his dark chisselled face radiated a halo that engulfed Indian cricket as no profile has done before or since.

 

In 1926 Arthur Gilligan brought a strong England (then M.C.C.) team to India to play a series of matches including unofficial Tests. At Mumbai against the combined Hindus team, Gilligan's men in exemplary fashion raced to 363 and then had the opposition Hindus in disarray at 84 for 3. In walked the ram-rod straight figure of C.K. and proceeded to play an innings which for sheer fire-power has had no equal.

 

C. K. reached his individual hundred in 65 minutes and then for good measure thrashed his way to 153 runs in just 115 minutes out of 187 runs added since his advent! A minor matter it was of 13 fours and 11 sixes against an attack that had Tate, Geary and the top professional bowlers of England at a time when English cricket ruled the world. Yes, you read right, no less than 11 over-boundaries.

 

It was not the statistical figure that had the Indian crowd walk ten feet tall. Nor the amazing speed of scoring. But the regal manner in which he unmasked the supposed superiority of the British Raj.

 

Like other subject people in Asia and Africa, the people of our sub-continent had come to believe in the invincibility of the White-Man, in thrall as they were for centuries. Perpetual servility had crept in, as it were. The Britons were far superior to ourselves, was the accepted notion.

 

In this context, the mayhem carried out single-handedly by CK Nayudu was a page out of the Mahabharata epic. If a singular act of defiance had raised the self-respect of Indians in those days of subjugation, this was it. Yes, CK Nayudu was the first Indian cricketer who made his own people believe that they could be just as aggressive as the best.

 

From that magical moment Indian cricket was no longer the same again. The morale of the Indian cricketers rocketed sky-high. The great barrier of the Englishman's invincibility had been broken down by one of their own and that too by one who was not of princely lineage but of ethnic stock.

 

Nayudu was born in an erudite Telegu family of Nagpur in 1895. The precocious talent for almost every ball-game was evident very early while still at Hislop Collegiate High School. His family encouraged him in every possible way and instilled in the young boy the sterling qualities of steadfastness and positive thinking, attributes which were to be his pillars of strength throughout his life in every endeavour.

 

It is commonly believed that while a youth he was encouraged by Ranjitsinghji, his father's colleague at Cambridge, to be more aggressive instead of being the plodder that he supposedly was at school. This appears to be apocryphal. For Ranji was no friend of Indian cricket and never encouraged any Indian cricketer.

 

Then again, CK was regularly hitting hundreds at school and surely no mere plodder could be reeling off hundreds and yet be regarded as a child prodigy. Lastly, later even when CK was at his best against the English in England or in India in the early 1930s, there was never a word of encouragement or admiration from the great Ranji.

 

Actually CK Nayudu was born and bred in India and was indeed fortunate that no foreign influence could curb his natural style. By 1915 at 20, he was selected to play for the Hindus in the Quadrangular tournament.

 

 On his debut against the strong Europeans he played as medium pace bowler and when the opportunity arose, he smote a six as his first scoring stroke. The bowler was Frank Tarrant, the brilliant Australian all-rounder who had come down to India to coach. It was no bravado, no desperation; just a hint to herald the positive nature and undoubted skills of this stupendously self-confident young man.

 

A man of great moral strength and physical courage, his penchant for physical training and constant practice had prepared him for an active first-class cricket career that spanned 48 years! From 1915 to the ripe old age of 66 in 1961 he virtually dominated the Indian cricket world.

 

 Like his famous peer Professor Deodhar, CK Nayudu too was in the habit of scoring double centuries in first class matches at a brisk pace while in his 50s and that too against the top-quality Indian bowlers. And so today when we hear that cricketers of the past were not physically fit enough, we can only smile at the ignorance of the uninitiated.

 

Indian selectors of the past however were no different from today's ‘jokers’. In 1932 for the tour of England the mantle of captaincy did not fall on the most deserving CK Nayudu because it was felt that only 'blue-blooded’ men had the ability to lead! Porbandar was elected to lead with Limbdi as his deputy. Disregarding the silly ideas of the national selectors,  both Porbandar and Limbdi were magnanimous to withdraw and allow Nayudu to lead in the inaugural Test at Lord’s in 1932.

 

 CK was magnificent as a leader and the team exhibited brilliant cricket earning genuine praise from all quarters. Nayudu at 37 scored a brilliant 40 on Test debut and made 1603 runs on tour, a landmark, including 5 centuries and was hailed by the cricketers’ Bible  “Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack" as one of its five cricketers of the year. Thus Nayudu was the first among Indians to be so rewarded.

 

Unfortunately not every Indian cricketer of the time appreciated his disciplined way of life. They found him a martinet who believed in total regimentation. In this we must readily admit they were not always wrong. For Nayudu, himself a product of elitist India, could not fathom the carefree nature of the simple rural India (Amar Singh) or the bonhomie of liberal education (Shute Banerjee). He rebuked Nissar for slackness in fielding but could have shown a little more restraint considering the fact that Nissar was bowling his heart out match after match.

 

Moreover Nayudu at a later period did himself no credit when he declined to play under Wazir Ali under a minor pretext. Yes, Nayudu, the master tactician that he was, had an Achilles' heel when it came to man-management. In CK's days, as of now, bias and prejudice have remained the bane of Indian cricket.

 

Back in India skipper CK duelled at par with Jardine, with whom he had a lot in common. Whereas Jardine had a disciplined brigade to handle, CK was in the midst of petty politicking throughout his tenure with mediocre mandarins perpetually carrying out cloak and dagger operations. On the 1936 tour yet again he scored more than a thousand runs with a magnificent 81 in the last Test. Even at 40 he was good enough to get runs against top international opposition.

 

But the petty officials at home finally did him in. Once he was invited to play a Test and on the morning of the match he was dropped for no apparent reason. The man who had given self-respect to the Indian cricketers was humiliated by stooges who craved for power even at the expense of the motherland.

  A man of charisma. Of presence. An embodiment of courage. Even in portraits he radiates an aura of respect.