With Amarnath & Pataudi (Sr) in UK, 1946

                                    World record with Chandu Sarwate at the Oval,1946

Shute Banerjee: cricketer crucified again and again…

 

He was crucified time and again. Nails sharp and pointed: available in plenty; no shortages over a decade and half.

 

Shute Banerjee had a strange career even by the strange standards of contemporary India in the 1930s and 1940s. The tall and broad shouldered youth was a genuine fast bowler, ranked just beneath Mohammed Nissar and Ladha Ramji for sheer pace at the time. Young Shute had impressed one and all with his pace, energy, enthusiasm and all-round ability. He had the potential to prove that he was just the colt India needed for the future.

 

In 1935 he played for India for the first time. It was an unofficial test against Jack Ryder’s Australians. With his blistering speed and all-round aggression he created a very fair impression on the national selectors. The fast bowler even opened the batting for India in one innings and scored 70. Shades of all-round skills of pace bowlers Dattu Phadkar and Kapil Dev in the years to come.

 

 In 1936 he toured England with Vizzy’s team as one of the pace bowlers. Mohammed Nissar of blitzkrieg pace and Amar Singh of crafty brilliance were the automatic choices in the first XI. But when Jahangir Khan played in all 3 Tests bowling 55 overs without a single wicket, one could make out that considerations apart from cricket skills were being given prominence.

 

As if this was not enough, Mohammed Baqa Jilani was played in the 3^rd and final test at the Oval. Jilani had done precious little on tour –no comparison to the highly talented Banerjee or the steady Gopalan – but some external influence seemed to have tilted the scales in his favour! That Jilani abused CK Nayudu under captain Vizzy’s orders to get selected in the Test team is another story, another time! Both Jahangir Khan and Baqa Jilani came from very influential family backgrounds.

 

Back home Shute continued playing for India in the unofficial tests with success, once dismissing the world’s premier all-rounder Keith Miller twice in one match for less than 10 runs in each innings. He was outstanding in Ranji Trophy as well.

 

Then in 1946 he was again in England with Iftiqar Ali Khan Pataudi’s team. His pace had come down considerably but the intelligent bowler used the seam to good effect on the grassy conditions in England. But again no place could be found for him in the Test-playing XI.

 

This time in 1946 he even created a world record as a batsman! Both Chandu Sarwate and Shute Banerjee, batting at numbers 10 and 11, scored centuries against a strong Surrey side that included the legendary Alec Bedser. They added 249 in 3 hours of immaculate stroke-play. This happens to be the only occasion in cricket when both the last batters got hundreds. The achievement still stands. But the official Test debut still eluded Shute.

 

After independence, the West Indies under John Goddard were the first team to come to India in 1948-49. In the 5^th and last Test match at Bombay’s Brabourne Stadium India took the field with Shute Banerjee in the playing XI for the first time in an official Test for India. Now at 36, he was well past his prime as a fast bowler and no one expected him to counter the likes of Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott with any conviction.

 

How mistaken we all were. The ‘old’ man came with his bag full of cunning. He took 5 wickets and nearly helped India to win the Test against all odds. India had to score just 6 more runs when stumps were drawn. Ironically the man who brought India to the threshold of a great victory was never selected to play for India again!

 

Believe it or not, Shute Banerjee was never again considered capable enough to represent his country!  His debut and his swan-song coincided. But before bidding his final adieu, by capturing 5 wickets and bringing India to the door step of a great victory, Shute Banerjee proved to the world how unjustly he was handled over the years.

 

Shute was a victim of circumstances beyond his control ever since he became a name to contend with. He began his first-class career with Bengal in 1935-36 and played against Ryder Australians with success thereby becoming the first native Bengalee to play for India in an unofficial Test.

 

Following season, 1936-37, while doing wonders for Bengal in the initial stages, he got trapped in a situation over which he had no control. The princely state of Nawanagar had just been allowed by BCCI to take part in the national championship for the coveted Ranji Trophy. They had a fairly strong outfit including the great Amar Singh and the highly talented young Vinoo Mankad. By dint of excellent performances Nawanagar reached the Ranji Trophy final. As Bengal had done from the other half of the knock-out Ranji Trophy championship at the time.

 

Now both the teams reached Bombay for the final at the newly-constructed Brabourne Stadium. Apart from cricket on the field, the Nawanagar royals thought of an unusual scheme. Nawanagar offered a job to Shute Banerjee on the eve of the final with a condition that he had to join the employment on that day itself! By the peculiar notion at the time this meant that Shute would not be able to play against Nawanagar for his home state Bengal!

 

Unemployed Banerjee was in a quandary. He had little option. He opted for the security of a job thereby rendering himself ineligible for the final against Nawanagar. Thus Bengal was deprived of their main player and Nawanagar went on to win the Ranji Trophy with comparative ease.

 

Most certainly Nawanagar did themselves no credit by resorting to a highly unethical practice in the recruitment of the India all-rounder Shute Banerjee. Banerjee had gone to Bombay with the Bengal team, his home State, to play against Nawanagar in the Ranji Trophy final. As the premier all-rounder, he was having a highly successful season for Bengal.

 

 The Bengal captain was PI Van der Gucht, a wicket-keeper of Dutch descent. He spoke to his opposing counterpart, AF Wensley, a professional English county cricketer, regarding the strange and unusual scenario, but without any success. Wensley pleaded helplessness as the ‘orders’ had come from the State monarch. Those days the rules of BCCI were highly elastic and inevitably some elements took advantage of the situation.

 

Just goes to show that the so-called spirit of cricket was sacrificed with impunity even in the past as it is done today. Officials and players of the past were no saints. In fact, in the earlier days conspiracies and back-stabbing were as common as those are today.

 

After serving Nawanagar,  Banerjee went to Bihar and led them from 1942 till he retired at the age of 47 in 1958. He happened to be the first-ever cricketer to play Test cricket from Bihar when he played against West Indies in 1948-49.

 

Shute Banerjee served as the manager of the East Zone teams in the 1970s. Magnanimous to a fault, he would never breathe a word of criticism against anyone, nor even against people who had been unjust to him during his cricket career. The broad shouldered six-footer had a hearty laugh and would lose his wallet quite often! We, the players, had to keep the manager under constant watch! Once, with a full-throated laughter, he exclaimed, “Raju, you would make a good manager!”

 

He really had me stumped with his answer one day. I would pester him about his cricket and the whole lot of problems he had to face. He laughed and said, “You seem to know more about me than I do. I do not remember a thing of what you are saying about me. I guess you are making up these stories yourself! Raju, life is too short to bother about little problems.”

 

To him life was just a passage of time. To be spent with laughter and fun. He was hard on himself; soft on others. The spirit of chivalry that Shute Banerjee planted in Bihar soil manifested manifold in the soul of the great MS Dhoni. Dhoni is the most deserving pall-bearer of the ‘cool-fighter’ Shute’s heritage.

 

Born in a family of freedom fighters, the north Calcutta-based young man of massive frame enjoyed sporting activities of all disciplines. He was particularly inclined towards football. But one day Dukhiram Mazumdar, patron of cricket and an influential member of Aryan Club, asked the young man to try bowling quick at the nets. The lively pace and the lift generated by the physically strong youngster was enough for Mazumdar to ask him to concentrate on cricket.

 

This was just the kind of inspiration that the talented, gutsy man needed. Within a few months his name featured in the conversation of expatriate British cricketers who represented Bengal.

 

With all good motive, many of his local seniors tried to wean him away from bowling fast. They told him to concentrate on ‘length and line’, rather than on lively, all-out pace. Young Shute, generally confident and aggressive, was in a dilemma.

 

Thankfully Alec Hosie – former Hampshire player and the only double centurion in Quadrangular cricket – was the Bengal cricket captain at the time. He put his arm round Banerjee’s shoulders, “Son, you have the pace to scare batters. Never compromise on pace. Control of length, line and variations will all come later. Just keep doing what you are doing naturally. Bowlers of extreme pace are rare; they are naturals; they are as good as gold.” Expatriate Alec Hosie happened to be the first from Bengal to play an unofficial Test for India in 1926 against Arthur Gilligan’s MCC team.

 

Upright and intelligent, the confident youngster Shute Banerjee maintained highest principles for the rest of his life. So much so that he lost the opportunity to play a Test match in England in 1936 for not being part of a conspiracy! He was asked to humiliate CK Nayudu publicly if he wanted to play the final Test at Oval. As a man of character, he declined the unusual offer. Highly influential Baqa Jilani willingly carried out the dastardly act and received his ‘gift’! The 25 year-old man of principle had his Test debut delayed by 12 years!

 

Sarobindu Nath ‘Shute’ Banerjee (1911-1980) died a man full of bonhomie and laughter. He was larger than life. As a human being, far ahead of the conspirators who back-stabbed him.

 

A forgotten role-model. My salute to the cricketer, more so to the man.