Sir Gary at Eden Gardens                                    

Just two names will appear in every cricket follower’s world XI: Donald George Bradman and Garfield St Aubrun Sobers. Forever they will be enshrined in the ultimate XI of Test cricketers.

Till 31^st December, 1958, we in Calcutta had not seen Gary Sobers. Had only known that he was the world record holder with 365 runs. And in the previous two Tests on this tour of India with Gerry Alexander’s West Indies team, he scored two hundreds, 142 not out at Bombay and 198 run out at Kanpur.

At Eden Gardens West Indies won the toss and batted.  Openers Hunte and Holt left early. At no. 3 handsome Rohan Kanhai walked in. As the 2^nd wicket fell, the crowd stood up in expectation of the man they had come to watch. In the NCC enclosure where I was, the spectators began to cheer “Sobers”, “Sobers”. The huge NCC score-board too put the name of Sobers on the appropriate space.

However as an eight-year old cricket-crazy youngster, I told my mom beside me that the player was not Gary Sobers but Collie Smith! The gentleman beside gave me a condescending smile and furrowed his eyebrows. As Smith took guard as a right-hander, the score-board changed the name and the gentleman gave me a warm pat on the back.

Kanhai scored a blistering 256, followed by Basil Butcher’s 103. In the meantime one left-handed artist –this time batting at number six – remained unbeaten on 106. The style of his languid walk, the grace of his movements captivated the Eden Gardens connoisseurs and the common man. Never seemed to hit the ball, merely caressed it.

 On reaching the landmark hundred, he raised his bat but lowered his head in a gesture of utmost modesty. What a lesson to learn. The West Indies with their free flowing mannerisms and smiling faces transformed Eden Gardens forever. Cricket at Eden was never the same again. The mad rush for Test match tickets at Calcutta began with Sobers and Kanhai, Hall and Gilchrist.

Next Sobers arrived with Jim Swanton’s XI followed by Mohun Bagan AC’s platinum jubilee match in 1964. On either occasion sheer artistry flowed till the customary century was recorded. Wherever he went around the cricketing world, his phenomenal performance was invariably overwhelmed by his lazy elegance and graceful gait.

Next time at Eden he was in 1966-67. Before the start of the 1^st day’s play Sobers, now the captain, was having a bat-ball ‘warm-up’ knock-about on the practice pitch without nets in front of the NCC enclosure. I was close to the scene holding onto the low fencing, gaping at him. What I saw was amazing to say the least.

 One of the reserves, Rex Collymore, a left-arm spinner was bowling to my cricketing God. He was softly pushing the ball back to the bowler. I was thunderstruck when I noticed he was using the narrow width of the bat! He was not using the broad blade of the bat but batting with the edge! Batting with the edge without being beaten even once! In all my experience never have I seen anybody else do this with such ease and elegance.

On the 2^nd day of the match, the CAB organizers sold more tickets than the accommodation available! The crowd went berserk. They climbed the low iron fencing around the ground and chased the police and the administrators. The day’s game had to be abandoned.

The West Indies players quite rightly were unwilling to continue the Test because they felt insecure. The local manager of the West Indies team was Dilip Ghosh, an erudite man and superlative administrator. He rushed to Sir Frank Worrell, who was on a lecture tour at Jadavpur University.

Worrell impressed upon his protégé Sobers that the representatives of West Indies Federation had to be impeccable guests. The match continued. Within months, Sir Frank was no more.

The greatness of two cricketing knights – one earlier in 1964 and one later in 1975 – showed the world what cricket and international relations were all about. They were the two pioneer personalities whose selfless sportsmanship made the West Indies men the most respected and the best cricketers in the world.

Met Sir Gary just once, at Nottinghamshire CCC in 1977. I was in the 2^nd XI while the genius had finished his superlative career with the county club in 1974. His prime message was, “Enjoy the game and give enjoyment to others.” Wherever he went he was the foremost ambassador of cricket. His generosity, his genius and his sportsmanship are beyond words and ages.

 Sobers needed no appellation or awards. But generations bowed their heads to him and hailed him as “The Greatest”. The One and Only.

 

 

India & Football World Cup

13 July is a very important date in the world football calendar. On this day in 1930 began the football world cup at Montevideo between France and Mexico. The first nation to host was Uruguay.

 Indian football was still unheard of in the western world. No one thought of inviting India to take part. However 1947 altered the whole scenario. With independence came an invitation from the Olympic authorities to take part in the 1948 London Olympics.

India sent a team to London. The Olympic authorities were dazed to learn that the Indians would play in barefeet! This was against all norms. The world had moved from the cradle days to adulthood. In India, who cared?

 In India we thought that we were doing something heroic by playing without boots against ‘booted’ opponents. We had no exposure to the outside world of football: its technicalities, its strategies, its methods. We actually thought – and some still feel – that we were doing something very courageous!

We were adamant that we would play in the Olympic in barefeet. Although vehemently against the whole concept of one team in barefeet and all the other teams in boots, the hosts Britain convinced the Olympic committee to relent.

The real reason was of course international relations. India had just got their political independence. The former colonial masters Britain to be politically correct allowed India to play in barefeet!

In fact, India did quite well. Lost the only match they played by 2 goals to 1 against France. India missed two penalties as well. The Indians actually returned with head held high! They actually thought they had shown the world that the game was ‘FOOTBALL’ and not ‘BOOTBALL’!

In 1950 India received an invitation from FIFA to take part in the football world cup at Brazil in 1950. But FIFA made it clear that it would stand ‘no nonsense’ about ‘barefeet’ football. India protested but to no avail. FIFA was very firm and did not have to prove any political correctness to anybody. Thus the first invitation went down the drain.

The 2^nd invitation to the world cup in 1954 at Switzerland came from FIFA. This time our over-smart football administrators could not send the acceptance letter on time!. FIFA rightfully was firm and had no time for India’s lethargy and false sense of importance.

In between the two world cups, India again went to the Olympics at Helsinki in 1952. Again the lenient Olympic authorities allowed India to play without boots. This time, however, the ‘barefeet heroes’ were thrashed 10 goals to 1 by Yugoslavia. You may well ask the reason for this disastrous defeat considering that they had played quite well in barefeet in 1948.

The issue is very simple. In 1948 at London, fortunately the ground was bone dry and in barefeet one could play normally. But in 1952 the playing surface was slushy and it was impossible to control the ball without studded boots.

 After the embarrassing defeat in 1954 we learnt our lesson. Now India were willing to play in boots. We would send our application to be considered to play in the football world cup. But by then the popularity of football was so high that every nation had to qualify to participate in the final round of the world cup. The ‘welcome invitation’ days were over.

India would participate in the preliminary, qualification matches but could never cross the Asian hurdle. Invariably big defeats stared at India on almost every outing. India never participated in the actual world cup. Whenever they played they got eliminated in the Asian round qualifiers.

India is ranked well behind hundreds of nations in the world at football. For us to reach the World Cup final rounds and the Olympic Games, we first need to do well enough in the Asian Games. This appears to be a distant dream...

 

 

 

 

 

 Football World Cup & Cricket

Football World Cup & Cricket

With the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ in full swing, how about bringing the ‘Most Eccentric Game on Earth’ in the picture?

Only one man has played in both the world cup of football as well as in the world cup of cricket. His name? Sir Vivian Isaac Richards. The great batter’s exploits need no repetition to cricket followers. His football career was a world cup qualifier for Antigua in 1972 against Trinidad.

He actually represented his nation first in football (1972) and only later the West Indies Federation at cricket. Please note Richards made his Test debut in 1974 and his first cricket world cup match was in 1975.

Another man with remarkable similarity is Willie Watson of England. He represented England (altogether 4 appearances) in a football World Cup qualifier match against Ireland again in a qualifier in 1949 for the football world cup held in Brazil in 1950.

Willie Watson was an outstanding batter for England in the 1950s. His international cricket debut was in 1953. At the time there was of course no cricket world cup. Watson too represented England at football (1949) before cricket (1953).

But one first-class cricketer stands supreme in relation to football world cup. He is Geoff Hurst of England. In 1966 he helped England to win the football world cup. In a highly controversial final against the might of Germany, Hurst actually scored a hat-trick. The only man to do so in a world cup final. He was knighted for his magnificent effort.

His outstanding achievement in football completely overshadowed the fact that he was a first-class cricketer as well. He played just a single match for Essex against Lancashire in the county championship in 1962, but soon enough realized that he would prefer to kick a ball rather than to handle it!

Here too in cricket Hurst left behind an unenviable statistic. He is probably the only first-class cricketer to have played just one match and scored 0* and 0 in two innings, did not bowl but took a catch. To end a first-class career with no runs and no wickets is indeed unbelievable. Yes, he played just one match!

There are of course a few other cricket and football double internationals. CB Fry, Denis Compton and Arthur Milton (all England) come readily to mind. These sportsmen are at a rarefied level all by themselves. They have utilized their God-gifted abilities with intelligence and devotion.

They never craved for wealth or for political influence or for cheap publicity. They never degraded themselves with any aura of showmanship or petty mercenary issues or political flattery. They never spent time and money to become media-created heroes.

 In contrast they highlighted the ideal of the genteel approach of genuine sportspeople. They served their sporting disciplines with honour just as they served their countries and provinces. They were the genuine ambassadors of sports.

 

Monohar Aich & BJP

Monohar Aich was among the first sportspersons in India to join a political party. Sportspeople devoting time to political ideologies were almost unheard of in the 1990s. Tiger Pataudi and Palvankar Baloo were exceptions.

 In the 1991 general elections in India, actor Victor Banerjee was a BJP candidate for the parliament from Calcutta north-west constituency. Champion body-builder Monohar Aich, winner of Mr Universe title in US, joined BJP and was at the dais during campaigns.

With his world-wide experience, he harped on the issues of ‘one nation; one law’ (as is normal in almost all countries) and the Kashmir problem (Sec 370). The themes in India were of course originally conceived by Syama Prasad Mookerjee (Bharatiya Jan Sangh) and later advocated by his secretary Atal Behari Vajpayee (Bharatiya Janata Party).

At an election campaign in 1991 when the prominent BJP leader Tapan Sikdar was told that Monohar Aich would be one of the speakers, he politely asked who the gentleman was. One man told him, “Tapanda, ooni amader Pocket Hercules.” Parliamentarian Sikdar was taken aback but instantly recovered, “Great news. My boyhood hero. Sorry, I had forgotten his actual name!”

Sorry we are going ahead of the actual sequence of events.

In 1951 when Monotosh Roy returned from USA with the ‘Mr Universe’ title, the Indians were aghast. No one could visualize that an Indian was capable enough to compete with the world’s best and become a world champion at an international body-building contest.

Thankfully Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta – a newspaper involved with the nationalist movement in the pre-independence days – highlighted the news item to show that the Indians were in no way inferior to any other nationality in the world in any endeavour. Independent India actually had a world champion among us in an individual event.

The Olympic hockey gold medal we were used to, but a world champion in an individual contest, especially body-building, was beyond belief. Born in 1916 Monotosh Roy spent a life in total devotion to his worship of the physical self. He knew and preached that a healthy body meant a healthy mind. He was a trail-blazer as a coach to numerous Indian body-builders.

***

 In the following year in 1952 another man from Calcutta, Monohar Aich created a sensation in US. He walked away with the ‘Mr Universe’ title with ease. Extrovert and demonstrative, he held the audience in awe.

Monohar Aich was just under 5 feet in height. Initially the judges were not too impressed because of his height. But when he began to display the supple movements of his muscles, the crowd went into raptures. The judges were unanimous in granting him the title.

The media in United States began to call him ‘Pocket Hercules’. The name stuck and even today people identify him more by his nickname than by his actual name of Monohar Aich. One really cannot blame Tapan Sikdar!

Monohar Aich continued with his worship of ‘body-culture’. Observing his dedication, hundreds of young men began to congregate at gymnasiums. A distinct culture of ‘body beautiful’ emerged.  Monohar Aich maintained his amazing body till his last breath in 2016 at the age of 104.  Hundreds of his disciples as well as his numerous admirers mourned his departure.  

Both Monotosh Roy and Monohar Aich were not recognized by the Government of India for their exemplary service to the nation. Both gave a distinct respectability to the culture of body-building in India by winning the world crown. But their contribution went unheralded. We seemed to have had no time or inclination to honour our genuine world champions.

The stories of Indian champions should be in the text books of children. Only then we shall be able to spread the sports culture to every nook and corner of the country. High time we highlighted our sports heritage.

In the picture Monohar Aich is in the company of Vishnukant Shastri, myself, Sukumar Banerjee (then president of Bengal BJP) and Tapan Sikdar while campaigning for Victor Banerjee at Netaji Indoor Stadium in 1991.