Dilip Sardesai

 Seldom has the reputation of a cricketer depended upon just one Test series. Despite 30 Test matches around the world, Dilip Sardesai’s status as a Test batsman revolves around his record in one particular Test series.

 

 Most critics have hailed his outstanding achievements on the tour of West Indies in 1971, when India recorded her first- ever series victory over West Indies. But there are others who have been highly critical of his horrendous performance on Australian soil in 1968-69.

 

But the real Sardesai is neither the all-conquering hero of the Caribbean tour nor the abject failure Down Under. The real Dilip Sardesai is lurking somewhere in between the two distant poles.

The short, stocky batsman was an antithesis, if ever there was one. Born in Goa, the cradle of soccer in western India, Sardesai became a cricketer having been nurtured on the maidans of India’s cricketing capital, Mumbai .

 

Non-athletic and bulky of appearance, he was as successful as the supposedly physically-fitter men were. Whereas shorter men generally thrive on cuts and pulls, to stocky Sardesai those horizontal strokes were anathema.

 

Otherwise however his career took the conventional pattern that one would normally take in Indian cricket, at least till the 1980s. He moved over to Mumbai, the place to be among cricketers, and received all possible encouragement and opportunities that the masters of Mumbai had to offer.

 

The decades of 1950 and1960 were the halcyon days for Mumbai cricket. They were in complete control of the Indian cricket scene having decimated opponents decisively and deliberately. Men of the stature of Vijay Merchant, Polly Umrigar, Subhash Gupte and Vijay Manjrekar had laid the foundation of the imposing structure of Mumbai cricket, which reeked of solidity and strength.

 

In such a backyard Dilip Sardesai learnt the rudiments of the game. Strong in defence, he played the waiting-game to perfection. His prolific scores in domestic championships propelled him into the Test arena in 1961 when Ted Dexter’s England team landed on Indian soil for the first time in 10 years.

 

On the placid Green Park wicket at Kanpur, Sardesai made his debut. Heavy scoring by either side restricted his opportunity to just a single innings, in which he had the mortification to hit his own wicket. His contribution of 28 was not considered fair enough and he had to make room for Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s debut in the following Test at New Delhi.

 

Fortunately however he was selected for the tour of West Indies in February 1962. He played at Trinidad but the fury of Hall and Stayers unsettled him as it did to others. But Nari Contractor’s grievous injury offered him the chance to open on the lightning fast Kensington pitch at Barbados. Sardesai showed exemplary

fortitude with scores of 31 and 60, but a pair in the next Test relegated him to the sideline.

 

The following series against England in 1963-64 on Indian soil saw Sardesai in bloom. He played consistently enough, mainly at number 3, to aggregate 451 at 45. But the series would be best remembered for the high scores by either team on feather-bed pitches, where both teams were content to play 5 dull, drawn encounters.

 

Against Bob Simpson’s Australia in 1964-65 he had a very modest series. However it to his credit that in the pulsating finish at Mumbai, where India pulled off a sensational 2 wicket victory, Sardesai’s 56 in the 2nd innings was a contributory factor.

 

Close on its heels arrived John Reid’s Kiwis. Here Sardesai delighted with a double hundred at Mumbai and followed it up with a century at Kotla and assisted India to notch a series victory.

 

 Despite another poor series against West Indies and Wes Hall in India, Sardesai went to England in 1967 where John Snow proved to be the nemesis. He was indeed lucky to have been selected for the tour of Australia under Pataudi in 1967-68.

 

The tour of Australia proved to be a positive embarrassment to him, with scores of 1 and 11, 1 and 5 against the likes of Graham Mckenzie and Dave Renneberg. The measly average of 4.5 was certainly not the true index of a batter who had done well enough in the past. Sadly however Dilip Sardesai‘s problems in encountering genuine pace bowlers persisted till the end of his career.

 

Sardesai’s cricket career seemed to have come to its logical conclusion after the disastrous tour Down Under. He missed two home series and was brought back to combat Bill Lawry’s Aussies in 1969. Again his nemesis, Mckenzie, loomed over him and in the 2nd innings the unorthodox leggie Johny Gleeson had him in two minds. By now the writing was surely on the wall.

 

But fate intervened and decreed that Dilip Narayan Sardesai should have at least another call. India was scheduled to tour West Indies in early 1971. Vijay Merchant had just come in as the chairman of the national selection committee and Pataudi was replaced by Mumbai’s Ajit Wadekar. New names like Jayantilal, Gavaskar, Govindraj, Krishnamurthy and Jejeebhoy appeared. Seniors like Durrani, Jaisimha and Sardesai were also named. At this time, Indian cricket was in doldrums. Defeat followed defeat and no hope seemed to be in sight.

 

Sardesai’s selection must have puzzled many. Till then he had failed in every overseas tour and his recent Test form, too, did not appear all that encouraging. However the wisdom of chairman Vijay Merchant paid off in no uncertain manner as Sardesai emerged the principal architect of a major series victory.

 

In the 1st Test when all around him lay in shambles, the gritty middle-order batter seemed to be in excelsis. He scored 212 out of 387 in a stay of over 8 hours. Another century followed in the next Test as India romped home by 7 wickets. As if this was not enough, his gluttony continued with 45, 150 and 24, 75 and 21 in the last 3 Tests, totalling 642 runs at 80.25. It was champion stuff all along.

 

In England in 1971, although not as successful, nevertheless his scores of 54 and 40 in the final Test at the Oval helped India to win the Test as well as her first series on English soil. Sardesai played just another Test, this time against England at Kotla, before bidding good-bye to Test cricket.

 

Exactly where would Sardesai figure in the Indian cricket museum is not easy to judge. Apart from his magnificent and commanding tone of batsmanship in West Indies in 1971, he also assisted India to wins over England at the Oval and over Australia at Brabourne Stadium.

 

Yet he was indeed lucky to have played so often for India despite his embarrassing weakness on the field.  He was also lucky that batters of similar credentials like Vijay Bhonsle, Shyam Sundar Mitter among others never got a single opportunity at the international level.

 

Through sheer tenacity and good fortune Sardesai survived. His phenomenal performance in domestic cricket always acted as a cover for his failures in Tests. Till the very end, he baffled his supporters with his inexplicable weakness against top-quality, genuine pace.

 

He had the strokes to combat, especially against spin bowling. He had the temperament to stay at the crease for hours. He delighted in playing the long innings devoid of any memorable individual characteristic.I personally always felt that this batsman never allowed himself the luxury of gaiety while batting. He appeared too cramped at times, too defensive, too intent. If only he had put more bat to ball, more often and more vigorously, we may have had a different Dilip Sardesai among us.

 

 But in the final analysis, one has to admit that he did help India to win Tests abroad. The bowling may not have been of the very best quality but still he did achieve what we all wanted our batters to do. Sardesai could turn back and ask, “Well, I know I got some very mediocre bowling in West Indies in 1971. But then what about the other batters, except Gavaskar? Why couldn't they get runs against the supposedly weak attack?” To find an answer to that query would be almost impossible.

 

A mark of interrogation seemed to haunt his mind at every turn. The stocky man looked too anxious; too stressed; too grim. He always seemed to be carrying a burden.  Dilip Sardesai gave every indication of a man not in harmony with himself