Vijay Madhavji Merchant: pioneer of our traditional batting approach.

 

If Professor Deodhar pioneered the classical approach to batting in Indian cricket, it was left to Vijay Merchant to herald to the world the genius of Indian batsmanship.

 

A lover of traditions and conventions, he followed all the basic traits of batting. He was the model on whom the great tradition of Indian cricket batting approach was structured. Like all great classical musicians, Merchant would start with the slow and steady aalaap and then raise the tenor as the concert rolled on.

 

He was a perfectionist. The ultimate professional, as distinct from the mere mercenary. He adopted and adapted to methods that suited his temperament and style. Also was the first Indian to reveal to us that no one is born a ‘specialist opener’. One becomes a ‘specialist opener’ by virtue of his inherent qualities, his indomitable spirit and his determined application. No mere branding can make a man a ‘specialist’ in any sphere. 

 

Moreover, he taught us that every genuine specialist is not merely a one-dimension player. A real specialist also possesses the will and the skills to adapt himself in any other position according to the situation.

 

Serious cricket addicts are well aware that Vinoo Mankad like Mushtaq Ali  began as a left-arm orthodox spinner, as did Ravi Shastri and all three of them went on to open the innings very successfully for India. Both Pankaj Roy and ML Jaisimha began their successful careers in first-class cricket batting down the order for their respective State teams. In fact, Jaisimha’s early matches for India were also down the batting order.

 

And the surprise of surprises – the greatest opener of them all – the one and only Vijay Merchant never opened an innings till he set his foot in England in 1936!

 

While playing for Bombay or for the Hindus in the Quadrangular and Pentangular tournaments, Vijay Merchant was a prolific performer in the middle order. And it may amaze some to know that he even made his debut in Test cricket at number 6!

 

 The phenomenal batsman ended his first-class career with an average of 72.35, second only to Sir Donald Bradman. Merchant’s specialization was batting. He could bat as well as he did in any batting position. He had the uncanny habit to adapt his batting to the needs of the team and the situation at hand. That was the reason he was a specialist in the real sense of the term.

 

Many players were willing to be branded as ‘specialist openers’ to enable them to take the short-cut route to the India team. Invariably they failed. They were branded as ‘specialists’ by influential quarters but actually they were back-door entrants. These so-called specialist openers finished their careers with batting averages as low as in the 20s.

 

The career of Merchant would give us an idea of exactly how transformations take place. Call it destiny, fate or accident, there is no denying that the best laid plans do not always yield the desired results in this most uncertain of all ball-games. Before reaching England in 1936, Merchant had played 12 innings in 2 seasons of Ranji Trophy cricket. Not once did he open the innings. All his phenomenal performances in the inter-State and inter-community matches till 1936 came as a middle-order batsman.

 

Even in England in 1936 he began as a middle order. Broke a finger in mid-May, and came back in 6 weeks time to find that the team had not yet settled down to any semblance of sanity in the batting order. Constant chopping and changing of the batting line-up had caused immense displeasure and serious problems.

 

Merchant requested his captain Vijaya Anand (popular as Vizzy) to allow him to open the innings, and thus began a new and fruitful chapter to his Test career. He opted to open and applied himself, I suspect with much serious consideration, to stay away from the intrigues and worse that pervaded and polluted the Indian dressing room on that tour.

 

As partner he found a man who was a perfect antithesis, the mercurial Mushtaq Ali. The pair put up 203 for the 1st wicket against the likes of Allen, Gover, Hammond, Robbins and Verity. Doyen of cricket writers Neville Cardus waxed eloquent over Vijay-bhai's methods and Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac was quick to confer on him their much coveted "Cricketer of the Year" award in their 1937 edition.

 

But then why was this middle order batsman so very successful in the unusual position of an opener? Plain and simple, he had both the qualities required to bring about success: willingness and capability, which in modern lexicon would read spirit and skill, just for some stunning alliterative effect.

 

Vijay Merchant’s batting was based on conventional techniques as exemplified by the MCC coaches and their manuals. He concentrated on every minute detail: grip, stance, head position, balance, front-foot and back-foot movements, etcetera. He relied on constant practice: shadow, net and match. He laid the very foundation of batting technique that found resonance in latter-day technicians like Vijay Manjrekar, Pankaj Roy, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, among others. He emphasized on meticulous planning, long-span concentration, cool temperament and intelligent application.

 

Before he set sail for England, Merchant had no previous first-hand experience of English conditions. So he diligently set about to prepare himself on the guidance of men who had gone to England in 1932. Merchant invited his friend, the great pace bowler Amar Singh, to bowl to him on wickets laden with early morning dew at the Hindu Gymkhana nets in Bombay. Merchant would even have water poured on the practice pitch before going in to bat!

 

The detailed and intelligent preparations did not go waste when he volunteered to open in England. The same technique, the same intelligent application, the same dogged will-power of those early morning nets at Bombay had prepared him for the travails that lay ahead in England. And then when the opportunity came, the willingness and the capability were manifest in solidity and success. He was meticulous in his preparations to the last detail.

 

A plethora of Test Matches today on sun-baked, tarpaulin-covered, feather-bed pitches have turned batting aggregates and averages topsy-turvy. Little do we realize that even 50 years ago the pitches were exposed to the whims of nature and it needed quality batsmanship to succeed consistently on those ‘uncovered’ pitches.

 

On those ‘uncovered’ pitches of variable bounce, the balls deviated like insane bulls. Unflappable Vijay Merchant’s relaxed approach did not give any impression of worry. On the contrary he made the English critics not only rub their eyes in disbelief but actually wince at his technical supremacy and impeccable temperament. His skills were unmatched.

 

The 1946 English summer was a terrible summer. Incessant rain and post-war food shortages made life miserable for most, particularly the vegetarians. Merchant merely took the deprivations in his firm strides. He relentlessly batted on and on. On English grass-laden pitches where the well-acquainted Hammond, Hutton and Compton struggled, Merchant scripted 2385 runs at will with an average of 74 .53!

 

 For a man of strict vegetarian diet, who relied mainly on bread, milk and fruits throughout the entire tour was an achievement by itself. To have played almost without rest for nearly 5 months was without doubt a minor miracle. Merchant did not believe in such luxuries like lack of motivation and staleness.For him cricket was a mission. A mission to be undertaken at whatever the price.

 

Curiously enough, Merchant did not score even 1000 runs in his Test cricket career. Lest we forget, he played just 10 Test matches over a span of 20 years! And the peak of his career was submerged by the World War II.

 

However, even in that truncated and scattered Test career his average remains as high as 47.72, without  the scope to thrive on placid ‘designer- pitches’. The moderns also have the opportunity of playing the exact number of Tests that Merchant played (ten) in just one year! How ironical and cruel this game can be.

 

Merchant's cricket career was full of ironies. Even the start to his Test cricket journey was delayed by political upheavals in the country!  On India’s inaugural tour of England in 1932, Vijay Merchant and DB Deodhar would have been certainties. This was the period when the nationalist movement in the country was in full swing and the ruling Britons employed atrociously tough methods to weaken the movement. Prominent freedom-fighters were put behind bars for flimsy reasons.

 

In response the Hindu Gymkhana requested several players including Vijay Merchant from attending the trials. Out of sheer patriotism he did stay away from attending the trial and thus he lost out on his cricket career.

 

 This was a self-respecting individual's sacrifice for the greater cause of his motherland. Very few would have the character to make such sacrifices. They would talk of restraint of trade, free-will, professional income and such other excuse which enhances self-promotion at the expense of national duty.

 

As it transpired the Test debut was to come 18 months later. Against Douglas Jardine's MCC team at the Bombay Gymkhana ground in 1933-34 in the match noted for Lala Amarnath’s grand hundred on Test debut. Merchant batted way down at no.6 and with his methodical and composed manner impressed one and all. The batting order made no difference at all. It was the skill of the craftsman that mattered.

 

Hailing from an industrialist family and with a sound academic background, Vijay Merchant was a confident young man, of high principles and values. No fun and frolics for him. His life-style, like his cricket, was studious and of character. He analyzed and rectified; planned and prepared. He knew the value of strong principles. Those were to stand him in great stead on and off the field.

 

For the sake of the national team, Vijay Merchant volunteered to open way back in 1936. Willingness to serve the cause of the nation was his principal forte. Vijay Merchant and his famous contemporary Vijay Hazare were thought by some critics to be dueling among themselves by way of scoring runs in domestic cricket. That was not the true picture. They were friendly rivals who were happy to have someone to compete with for a common cause. They set each other huge targets and invariably the challenge was accepted. Theirs was the contest to help each other raise themselves to the highest limit.

 

Vijay Merchant led India in quite a few unofficial Tests without ever revealing any outstanding leadership streak. But when he took the India team on its unofficial Test tour of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1945-46, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be leading India to UK in the summer of 1946.

 

However that did not happen. An ageing and out-of-touch Iftikar Ali Khan Pataudi came out of retirement to lead India for the first time. Pataudi was a total failure as a batsman as well as a captain and the extremely talented team lacked leadership. 

 

 India’s next visit was to Australia for the first time in 1947-48. Merchant was selected to lead. Unfortunately Vijay Merchant declined to go for personal reasons. The actual reasons still remain shrouded in mystery. Whatever the reasons were, Merchant’s absence on that tour weakened the Indian batting strength. Lala Amarnath led the side.

 

This was the tour where Merchant would have had the opportunity to face the two best fast bowlers in the world at the time, Raymond Lindwall and Keith Miller, on the hard, fast Australian tracks. It was a glorious opportunity to serve the nation when India needed him the most against the might of Sir Don’s Australians.

 

Alas! That was not to be. Merchant’s non-availability had raised quite a few eye-brows at the time. The responsibility of exhibiting Indian talent fell on the broad shoulders of Vijay Hazare, Dattu Phadkar, skipper Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad.

 

Soon after the Australia tour, Vijay Merchant again returned to the captaincy saddle but never gave any indication of inspiration to the men who followed him. He appeared to be over-burdened with caution and consequently most matches drifted into drab, drawn affairs. His physical well-being also appeared to be on the decline. His was a care-worn self.

 

Vijay Merchant became a national selector in the season of 1968-69 when the tourists were from New Zealand and Australia. To his credit some young talents came to the fore and did justice to their undoubted abilities. For four seasons he was the man who helped India to discover several fresh faces who developed into legends.

 

At the same time quite a few choices appeared to have hardly any conceivable reason. Some of Merchant’s steps were very difficult to decipher. Once on the morning of a Test match he dropped the only genuine pace bowler from the playing XI to include a second off-spinner! Why at all announce the XI the previous day, if you are not certain of what to do?

 

He once chose a player as a specialist batter who was yet to score a single first-class century at that point of time! Playing Test cricket as a batter without a single first-class century as well as without any prolific run-getting ability in first-class cricket is rarely heard of. If this man had rare potential, what about those men who were scoring hundreds in profusion? Did they lack potential?

 

His choice of Ajit Wadekar ahead of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi to West Indies in 1971 evoked strong criticisms from various quarters. But with Wadekar winning two successive series abroad, Merchant’s selection process was vindicated. Our two respective series winners against West Indies and England – Durani and Chandrasekhar – were not considered good enough for both tours! Durani went to West Indies and Chandra went to England.

 

But prior to that tour to West Indies in the Duleep Trophy final tie he coerced a Zone team to take their reserve wicket-keeper in the playing XI! Ultimately the wicket-keeper went with Wadekar’s team to West Indies only to be sidelined within months for ever. What purpose was served? What was the message given?

 

Was he a ‘Jekyl and Hyde’ personality? One would never be certain. He was a corporate captain with an industrial empire, but not an inspiring leader of men on the field. He did associate himself with community work but the social service hardly ever extended to needy cricketers in the vicinity. In the 1940s he was the premier opener in the world, yet he made himself unavailable against Bradman’s Australia, thereby weakening India’s batting strength.

 

With his wide knowledge of cricket, Vijay Merchant was a regular in the All India Radio commentators’ panel. But his rendering, his voice, his inputs hardly cut any ice with the listeners. On-the-field of play, he was certainly ‘the master’ and performed splendidly. But off-the-field in most of his activities he appeared to be at the other extremity. His remarkable consistency was exclusively confined to the crease.

 

Vijay Merchant’s idiosyncrasies continued till his last Test innings. After unfolding an exquisite innings of 154 against Nigel Howard’s MCC in 1951-52, he suddenly decided that it was time to hang up his boots! He actually wrapped up his Test career on a high, with a century round his strong, stocky shoulders.

 

Even his surname has a ring of a mysterious incident behind it. Vijay-bhai was born into a very well-known Gujrati family of Thakersay in Bombay. It is believed that on being asked his surname by the European teacher at the time of school admission, someone thought that the school authorities wanted to know his father’s profession!  Promptly the person said, in all innocence, “Merchant.” And the surname stuck for the rest of his life!

 

Merchant or Thakersay, the great Vijay-bhai was the ultimate ‘Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde’ of Indian cricket. A batsman of the highest pedigree. A national selector of whimsical decisions.