Plain tales from the pavilion
Veteran sports journalist Gulu Ezekiel tells a lot of interesting little stories behind some of cricket’s hoary legends
There are four types of Indians. These are not mutually exclusive categories.
Thus there are those who play cricket. Those who watch it. Those who talk about it. And those who read and write about it.
Gulu Ezekiel belongs to the last category. As a sports journalist and cricket writer for over three decades, he lives and breathes the game.
He has also written many books. As the title of this, his latest, says, he has sought to dispel some myths about the game. In the process he tells a lot of little stories.
I have chosen just a few here but not listed them in any order of significance. They are just the ones I found most interesting. You may have a different ordering.
THE UNCOVERED MATCH: So, was the historic 175 not out by Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup not televised because the BBC was on strike? The mythology is that this is true.
No, says Ezekiel. The truth is that the BBC in those days had only two channels and had to decide which game other than the one on which England was playing it would cover.
In the event it decided that the Indiazimbabwe match was too inconsequential and so there was no coverage.
He cites a lot of convincing evidence in support. This includes the fact that two other matches were telecast.
THE 1981 GAVASKAR TANTRUM: Every cricket fan would have seen Gavaskar, then India’s captain, leading his batting partner Chetan Chauhan off the field after being given out LBW off a ball by Dennis Lillee. Everyone also believes that Gavaskar did this because of the wrong umpiring decision.
No, says Ezekiel. However much he might Gulu Ezekiel have been seething, it wasn’t Publisher: because of the umpire but
Price: because of Lillee.
In an interview to the late Pages: Nawab of Pataudi in 1981, then editor of Sportsworld, Gavaskar said, “My mind snapped,” but stopped at that. Ezekiel then says Gavaskar gave the real explanation in his 1983 book Idols in which he said that as he was walking off and went past Lillee, the latter uttered some unprintable expletives and that was what did it.
THE HELMET STORY: A little addendum here is that, contrary to the mythology, both Gavaskar and Viv Richards wore helmets — but under their cricket caps — from the early 1980s. Ezekiel also says that helmets have been around since at least the 1933 England tour of India when Douglas Jardine asked his batsmen to wear pith helmets of the sort the gora sahibs wore when out in the jungle!
THE TIED MATCH: One of the most memorable scenes in Indian cricket lovers’ minds is the tied Test of 1986 at Chepauk against Australia when Maninder Singh was given out LBW with the scores equal.
Who persuaded Allan Border to declare, leaving India to score four runs per ball in 87 overs? Did Maninder get an inside edge on to the pads? Was Ravi Shastri right in taking the single to ensure an equal score but leaving Maninder to face three balls?
There has been a lot of storytelling around these questions. You will have to read the book to find out what actually happened. But one thing is certain: If India had won that day, the match would have been forgotten even though it would have been against the best team of the decade.
As it stands, and as Ezekiel quotes K Srikanth and Maninder Singh as saying, it is now a part of cricket history. Until then there had been only one tied Test. That was the one at Brisbane in 1960 when the West Indies forced a tie against Australia, announcing the arrival of the West Indies as major cricketing force.
MANKADING: The real reason: Mankading is the name given to the run-out by the bowler of the non-striker when the latter tries to steal a single by backing up before the bowler has bowled. It was done for the first time by the great Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad in 1947.
The history and controversies around it are well known now. But as Ezekiel reminds us, Mankad had a very special reason for doing what he did. A journalist in an Australian newspaper called Courier Mail wrote that Mankad told him, “My reflective vision becomes affected and my bowling concentration suffers... I warned Brown in Sydney… not to leave the non-striker’s popping crease until the ball had left my hand but Brown ignored the warning.”
What Mankad was saying was that as a left-handed bowler the non-striker moving down the crease distracted him and that a right arm bowler was not similarly “embarrassed”.
THE RIDGE AT SABINA PARK: Thanks to Clive Lloyd’s autobiography a myth suddenly emerged that the Sabina Park wicket, in 1976, suddenly developed a ridge that caused the ball to rear viciously at batsmen. As a result, at the end of that match, almost the entire team was severely injured.
Ezekiel, however, reminds us that the West Indies, having lost the previous match to India which chased down 404 runs, were desperate to win. They played four pacers who bowled short consistently, hitting batsmen often. The ridge theory was concocted to explain that sort of attack.
But, says Ezekiel, Michael Holding in his autobiography has written that there was no such ridge. He says it was the usual surface and their bowling short from round the wicket was bound to hit the batsmen. And hit them they did.
Ezekiel then goes on to tell a great little story which he says has not been told before. But, as I said, you will have to buy the book to find out what it is.