Inter-community cricket & the princely patrons

 The inter-community cricket tournament, later popularly known as Pentangular, began in 1892 at Bombay as Presidency matches with the Parsees playing the Europeans.

 

In 1907 the tourney became a Triangular contest with the Hindus joining. In 1912 arrived the Muslims and converted the tournament into a Quadrangular affair and finally in 1937 a combined team from other communities were considered as the fifth team – The Rest – to convert the inter-community cricket championship as the Pentangular. The Ranji Trophy began in 1934 but was initially upstaged by the Pentangular.

 

The communal nature of the tournament had upset MK Gandhi and he wanted an end to it. The maharaja of Patiala and the maharaja of Nawanagar too refused to release their players for the communal tournaments.

 

At the time the sports journalists had the knowledge as well as the courage to speak their minds. Brilliant commentator from Bombay AFS Talyarkhan was all along vehemently against the idea of the communal nature of the tournament. So were the open-minded, brave journalists like JK Moitra from Bombay and from Calcutta, Berry Sarbadhikari and Rakhal Bhattacharya. Their concerted effort echoed the sentiments of the political arena.

 

The very popular Pentangular tournament, which vied with the Ranji Trophy championship as the premier domestic cricket tournament of India, vanished into thin air by 1945. Thankfully the inter-state title for the Ranji Trophy, which had begun in 1933-34, became the focal point for all concerned.

 

The inter-community cricket championship was undoubtedly the seed from which emerged the huge oak of Indian cricket. Apart from producing excellent players, this era also enabled the Indian princely States to focus on sporting activities.

 

Patiala

The House of Patiala was a great benefactor of Indian sport. In the 1880s the maharaja of Patiala Rajendra Singh began to promote wrestling, hockey and cricket in his territory. His son Bhupinder Singh was the first to conceive of an all-India team touring abroad.

 

Undoubtedly Bhupinder Singh, was the numero uno among the patrons of Indian cricket. In 1911 he sponsored the first-ever fully representative India team to England to gain experience. Patiala’s team was not restricted to any community or province. That would go completely against the grain of this generous visionary.

 

He invited players from all over India. In 1911 the Patiala All-India team comprising cricketers from all over the country went to UK and earned wide acclaim. The Hindu ‘Harijan’ Palvankar Baloo came into international limelight on this tour. Apart from Baloo, Bombay’s Parsee cricketers KM Mistry and JS Warden revealed the inherent talents of Indian cricketers.

 

In an amazing incident in 1926 Bhupinder Singh represented his club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against an All-India team at Bombay! The MCC captain Arthur Gilligan selected the maharaja of Patiala to play for MCC by virtue of being a member of MCC. This was the match where Prof Deodhar displayed his remarkable fight against the colonial masters.

 

This match later came to be recognized as the first unofficial test between India and England (then MCC). Thus the proud and patriotic maharaja of Patiala has an ironical record of playing an unofficial test against his own nation!

 

He was the man who donated the Ranji Trophy, the symbol of India’s premier cricket championship. The House of Patiala’s contributions to Indian sports are too numerous to be mentioned here.

 

Bhupinder’s son Yadavendra Singh went a step ahead of his father. He represented India in an official Test and was an immediate success. There is a mistaken notion that the first-ever ‘royal personality’ to represent India in official Test cricket was Iftiqar Ali Khan, the senior Nawab of Pataudi. The credit goes to the impeccable credentials of the yuvraj of Patiala, Yadavendra Singh.

 

The tall, strong and handsome Sikh possessed a heart as big as his frame. Never took advantage of his royal status. Never craved for power.  Knew not pettiness.  In an age when ‘royalty’ was expected to lead on and off the field, Yadavendra Singh readily offered his services to play a Test match under the leadership of the ‘commoner’, CK Nayudu.

 

Yadavendra used the bat as a scimitar whenever he found the time for cricket from his busy schedule of Patiala State duties. After the Tests at Bombay Gymkhana and Eden Gardens, where the Indian batting had not fared too well, the selectors opted for Yadavendra at Chepauk.

 

In those days the Madras Cricket Club saw to it that the pitch had a rich layer of grass to make the contest between bat and ball even. The opposition was England at Chepauk in February 1934. With Douglas Jardine as the opposition skipper, no player – royalty or commoner – could expect any mercy.

 

In the first innings, debutant Yadavendra notched an uncharacteristic, sedate 24 to Vijay Merchant’s 26. But in the second outing the young prince was at his attacking best against the likes of Verity, Clark and Nichols. His ferocious hook to the left of the leg-umpire had even the tough Jardine nod in approval. His magnificent 60 was India’s highest score in the innings. The athleticism of the yuvraj came to the fore as he snapped both the catches that came his way.

 

As it transpired, this Test was both his debut and swan-song. He was a certainty for India’s following tour to England in 1936. But Yadavendra, now the monarch of Patiala, could not find the time from his pressing duties. Cricket’s loss was Patiala’s gain.

 

Despite such magnanimous contributions to Indian cricket, neither father nor son ever jockeyed for posts in the hierarchy of Indian cricket. Ironically neither was ever a president of BCCI. They all along stayed away from its musty corridors.

 

 They were among the wealthiest and the most influential of the royal families, yet they never bothered to dominate the BCCI. They helped Indian cricket like no other, yet they never stayed back to enjoy the benefits. They let the petty and the corrupt to crawl in the stench. Patiala’s contribution to Indian cricket has been forgotten because they never bothered about publicity or power.

 

Cooch-Behar

In the capital city of British Empire – Calcutta – it was left to the maharaja of Cooch Behar, Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, to be the chief patron of cricket around the time when the maharaja of Patiala, Rajendra Singh was vigorously promoting the game in north India in the 1890s.

 

Apart from providing fabulous cricket facilities both at Calcutta and at Cooch Behar in north Bengal, he even brought over coaches from abroad to train the young Indians at cricket. His son Prince Hitendra Narayan played for Somerset in the English county championship in 1910. Nripendra Narayan’s extremely popular grandson Jagaddipendra Narayan, nicknamed “Bhaya”, led Bengal in the Ranji Trophy in the 1940s.

 

The influence of cricket in the eastern part of the country, then undivided Bengal, extended to places as far as Natore, Narayanganj, Mymensingh, Bikrampur, Dacca, Rangpur (now all in Bangladesh), Cooch Behar in North Bengal and Jorhat in upper Assam. In fact, the first-ever organized cricket tournament in the world for school children was held at Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh) in the 1880s.

 

Natore

Cricket by the turn of the 20^th century was becoming very popular with the princely states. The Indian rajas and nawabs realized that cricket did make an immediate impact in their relationship with the colonial British rulers.

 

If Patiala and Cooch Behar were the pioneers, the native states of Holkar, Nawanagar, Baroda, Cochin and Travancore among others were not far behind. They raised their own teams, got coaches from abroad and also recruited players from England and Australia to strengthen their teams.

 

However the Maharaja of Natore (now in Bangladesh) was a glorious exception. Maharaja Jagadindra Nath Roy of Natore would not even visualize having anything to do with talents borrowed from abroad. His team had only Indians playing. The magnanimous patron would have Indians coming from all over the country and from all communities.

 

What a visionary he was. Most of the top cricketers of India who went to UK in 1911with Patiala’s all-India team were from the Natore XI.  Natore’s ground was in the Picnic Garden area on the eastern periphery of Calcutta. Once Ranjitsinhji played here for the visiting Jamnagar side, while Palvankar Baloo was with Natore XI.

 

Once at a match an opposing captain leading Calcutta Cricket Club (CCC) asked maharaja Jagadindra the number of pros in his side implying that there was no credit in beating CCC with hired players. The maharaja promptly replied that since he himself did nothing else but play cricket, apart from he there was no other pro in his team.

 

What a fitting rebuff during the heydays of the British Raj. What a marvellous gesture towards sportspeople. This was the kind of respect he had for cricketers. He had the ‘Harijan’ Baloo sit beside him in group photographs. Hundred years ago for a royalty to embrace a ‘commoner’ was not as easy as it may sound today. Natore’s Jagadindra remains among those exceptional patriots who have been ignored by independent India.

 

Ironically in the history of Indian cricket, these genuinely liberated patriots have been totally overlooked and forgotten. The ‘new riche’ of Indian cricket do not know their own heritage, nor are they bothered. That’s the true picture of Indian sport.