Part III
…………………………… .. Friday, 23rd, March, 1962, West Indies v India, Third Test, Kensington Oval, Barbados
Frank Worrell, the West Indies Captain and his Indian counterpart, the Ninth Nawab of Pataudi strode down the steps of the Pickwick Pavilion, and headed out on to the pitch to spin the toss. Worrell spun a coin into the high Barbadian sun, and the Nawab made the wrong call. The Nawab of Pataudi Jr, as recorded in the scorecard, at the age of 21 years and 77 days, had become the youngest ever Test captain.
Ten years prior, to the day, the two captains had been ship mates on one of the famous ‘Strata’ boats of the P&O line, making their way to England. While the rest of the West Indies team headed home following the 1951-52 tour of Australia and New Zealand, the professionals – Roy Marshall, Sonny Ramadhin, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, and Worrell – were off to ply their trade in the Lancashire Leagues. When the boat docked in Bombay, among the passengers embarking were Vinoo Mankad, also bound for the Leagues, and the young Nawab headed to prep school in England. The latter soon became a regular attendee at the tennis ball cricket net sessions held on deck by the professional cricketers.
Now, the Nawab was captain of an Indian team in complete disarray. The previous Saturday had been marred by the horrifying incident of India’s Captain Nari Contractor being struck on the head by a bumper from Charlie Griffith in the territorial match against Barbados. Distracted by someone opening a window in the dressing room, (there was no sightscreen at the time), Contractor lost track of the ball, and suffered a fractured skull. Now, he lay in hospital, two operations later, having suffered the loss of a lot of blood and fighting for his life.
The Nawab, despite being the third youngest member of the tour party, and having only made his Test debut the previous December, had been appointed as Contractor’s understudy. Troubled by muscle problems, he hadn’t played in the first two Test matches which India had lost by ten wickets, and an innings and 18 runs, respectively, and his contribution in the innings defeat by Barbados, had been a pair of ducks.
The demoralized Indian team lost the Third Test by an innings and 30 runs, with the Nawab contributing 48 and another duck, while batting sixth in the order. The West Indies went on to sweep the series as they took the next two Test matches by seven wickets, and 123 runs, respectively.
It was a ‘sadder and wiser’ Indian captain who returned to India in April. The Indians were a battered lot, whose ground fielding had been poor, with many catches being spilled, and whose weakness against faster bowling had been exposed. Their tentative approach to the game was there for all to view. Their scoring was slow and their first instinct was safety first: play for a draw, rather than lose the game. Coupled with this malaise, fifteen years after Partition, was the fractious dressing room, comprising players from different regions and cultures, and where Marathi was often the dominant language, amongst several others. The Nawab, who had a fondness for bridge, had not been dealt a great hand.
The Ninth Nawab of Pataudi was born and bred to lead, and lead he was going to do. No longer capable of fielding at slip, his first love, he set out to and became one of the best cover point fielders in the world. Relying on excellent anticipation, fleetness of foot and a quick release, the Nawab set the standard for the quality of fielding he expected at the Test level. The accident limited his ability to throw properly for two years, yet he developed to such an extent, that he drew comparisons to the South African Colin Bland, arguably the world’s best fieldsman in the 1960s. Bland, in an interview, once rated the Nawab, ahead of his fellow countryman, Jonty Rhodes (oft considered the world’s best fieldsman in the
90s) because “his anticipation was so good, he never got his trousers dirty by diving around.”
Indian pitches at the time were not conducive to producing fast bowlers, despite the Indian captain’s criticism of them, so they would have to play to their strength, spin bowling. The fabulous Indian spinners, Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan were promoted under his guidance, as India, against convention, more often than not, took the field with three of them in the side. Inspired by his high standards, India developed a ring of sharp close catching fieldsmen, Ajit Wadekar, Venkataraghavan, Eknath Solkar and Abid Ali, who would snap up anything that uncertain batsmen failed to keep down from the quartet who tantalized many a team.
The conservative approach of playing for a draw was no longer an option. India was going to play to win every Test match and every series, both at home and abroad. So what if they lost? The Nawab, leading from the front, was going to attack the bowling. The lofted drive, (the hook shot had to be discarded), pulls, and drives were all parts The debonair Nawab of Pataudi later modelled smart suits in magazine advertisements