Published: Sep 22, 2016, 12:05 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 22, 2016, 12:11 AM (IST)
It will be a momentous occasion, India’s 500th Test, what with a galaxy of former Indian captains being present at the ground. While some would have preferred BCCI to arrange for a more glamorous venue for the historic moment, one must not forget that Kanpur has hosted some of the most iconic Tests, the greatest of which was the emphatic win over Australia in 1958-59. Jasu Patel claimed 9 for 69 in that Test, setting a new Indian record that stood till Anil Kumble famously claimed 10 for 74. Patel broke the record of Subhash Gupte, who had claimed 9 for 102 against West Indies — at Kanpur.
Kanpur has also witnessed India’s famous 8-wicket win over South Africa in 2007-08, a Test highlighted by Sourav Ganguly’s 87 — in the opinion of many his greatest innings — and the 2008-09 win against Sri Lanka, where S Sreesanth scythed through a strong batting-order on a flat pitch.
But this piece is not about Kanpur. This is a selection of moments that Indian fans would want to forget: most of these were embarrassing; from bizarre controversies to terrible collapses to humiliating defeats, India have had more than their fair share of them all.
Here, then, is a list of ten.
1. The other August 15 incident, 1936
Make no mistake: Baqa Jilani was not a passenger on the England tour of 1936. He will forever be remembered as the first bowler to take a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy, and had an acceptable, if not outstanding, domestic record.
But then, 1936 was also the tour where Vizzy was in charge. Lala Amarnath was sent home mid-tour. Vizzy was also knighted on that tour: when the ceremony was taking place, news got out that CK Nayudu was leading the tourists to a win over Lancashire; Vizzy immediately cabled Nissar to bowl full-tosses. Nayudu, realising what was going on, took Nissar off and won the match himself in tandem with Jahangir Khan.
The squad got segregated into two groups, loyal to Vizzy and Nayudu. Vijay Merchant was a part of the latter. When Merchant and Mushtaq Ali walked out to open at Old Trafford, Vizzy insisted Mushtaq ran Merchant out. Mushtaq informed Merchant beforehand; the pair added 203 in 150 minutes.
Things reached a nadir before the third Test at The Oval. Vizzy had already declared openly that an insult aimed at Nayudu would result in rich rewards for his men (including a trip to Paris).
Baqa Jilani insulted Nayudu on the morning of the third Test and was immediately given a Test cap. Shute Banerjee, set to make his debut, was relegated to 12th man minutes before the Test.
Ironically, the date was August 15, a date which would become more relevant in 11 years’ time.
2. Blown away by pace, 1952
Were India confident before that ill-fated tour of 1952? They had, after all, recently won their first Test, that too against the same country…
The Indians were caught unaware when a raw, uncapped fast bowler called Fred Trueman tore into them at Headingley. He took 3 for 89; India reached 293 based on Vijay Manjrekar’s 133. Ghulam Ahmed, that forgotten man of Indian cricket, took 5 for 100 to restrict England’s lead to 41.
Fourteen balls into their second innings India were reduced to 0 for 4. Trueman’s figures read 1.2-1-0-3 at this stage. The scoreline, 0 for 4, read so absurd that Yorkshire Post actually called up the ground to verify whether there was an error, and the score was actually 4 without loss.
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Trueman finished with 4 for 27. India were bowled out for 165 that included a 105-run fifth-wicket stand. England won by 7 wickets.
Vinoo Mankad was summoned from Haslingden League on SOS basis. He responded with 72, 5 for 196, and 184 and Lord’s, but could not prevent an 8-wicket defeat.
Further humiliation awaited India at Old Trafford, where Len Hutton scored 104 and England reached 292 for 7 by stumps on Day Two. Hutton declared on 347 for 9 the morning after. The match got over the same day: India were bowled out for 58 and 82.
It was even more embarrassing than that. The Indians could not come to terms with Trueman’s pace at all. Polly Umrigar actually backed away towards square-leg. Trueman claimed 8 for 31 in the first innings. Alec Bedser got 5 for 27 in the second. India lasted 58.1 overs in the entire Test.
Rain saved India at The Oval after England put on 326 for 6 and Bedser (5 for 41) and Trueman (5 for 48) bowled out India for 98. Trueman finished the series with 29 wickets at 13.31; Bedser, 21 at 13.95.
3. Musical chairs, 1958-59
Indian selectors have baffled the world on many an occasion, but perhaps never more than the home series of 1958-59 against West Indies. Things went wrong before the series started. Lala Amarnath, Chairman of Selectors, wanted Ghulam as captain despite Ghulam getting injured and bowling only 10 overs for Board President’s XI against the tourists. When LP Jai and Cotar Ramaswami, the other selectors, voted against Ghulam, Amarnath put his casting vote to good use.
But Ghulam was reluctant to lead India at Bombay, a city that, according to him, was never too supportive of him. He opted out of the Test and Umrigar led India. Pankaj Roy batted for 444 minutes in the fourth innings to save the Test.
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Ghulam returned at Kanpur. Gupte claimed 9 for 102 (as mentioned above) but India lost by 203 runs. He continued at Calcutta, where Rohan Kanhai slammed 256 and West Indies won by an innings and 336 runs.
Ghulam resigned after the Calcutta Test but the selectors opposed to it. Ghulam agreed, but only reluctantly. Meanwhile, Mankad was summoned out of nowhere for the Test.
Just before the Test Ghulam dropped a bombshell by retiring from Test cricket altogether. This also meant India lost a quality spinner, and things only became worse when Manjrekar declared himself unfit.
Amarnath wanted to replace Ghulam with Patel and Umrigar at the helm. Ramaswami wanted Kripal Singh (who could also bat) for Ghulam and Manohar Hardikar for Manjrekar. Hardikar complicated things by missing the flight from Bombay. They selected Apoorva Sengupta of Services.
Meanwhile, Umrigar refused to lead if Patel played at Madras. A few minutes before the Test he actually broke into tears, refusing to lead. When a curious Gerry Alexander, captain of West Indies, asked Gupte who would lead them, Gupte responded with “we don’t need captain, it’s all communal.”
But there had to be a captain. The selectors dragged Mankad to the toilet behind the dressing-room; minutes later, Mankad walked out to toss. Not surprisingly, the clueless Indians lost by 295 runs as Mankad nursed an injury he picked up during the Test.
The selectors were impressed with the way Gulabrai Ramchand marshalled his men when Mankad was off field. When an official tried to get in touch with Ramchand he found that he had left for the station. Mysteriously, they left the idea of pursuing with Ramchand after that.
Lt Col Hemu Adhikari, not having played a Test in two years, was posted in Dharamsala. For some reason the selectors approached him to take up the job. He refused, and it took a direct order from his Army supervisor to make him lead India.
India drew the Test, mostly due to Chandu Borde’s 109 and 96. The selectors rewarded him by dropping him from the England tour that followed. Neither Mankad nor Ramchand was picked either. Datta Gaekwad, all of 6 Tests, was named captain. And when Gaekwad went down with bronchitis after the first Test, Roy led India, thus making it 6 captains in 7 Tests.
4. Mutilating Fergie, 1961-62
Gupte had missed the first Test of the England series of 1961-62 at Bombay, but came back with 5 for 80 at Kanpur. The third Test at Delhi fetched him a solitary wicket. He was mysteriously on a turner at Calcutta (as was Kripal Singh), to the confusion of everyone.
Kripal’s omission did not startle everyone, for he had not done much of note — but Gupte?
The news surfaced after the Calcutta Test when captain Nari Contractor announced that both Gupte and Kripal have been left out on disciplinary grounds.
The teams had been put up at Imperial Hotel in Delhi. Once the Test got over, Gupte helped his roommate Kripal pack before the latter left.
After Kripal left, Gupte was summoned by Contractor: apparently someone from the room had asked a receptionist out for a drink. A confused Gupte rushed to the airport, Ramakant Desai in tow, and found Kripal, who owned up to the incident.
But the officials were not convinced. They dropped Gupte on the grounds that he had not stopped Kripal from asking the receptionist. A confused Gupte tried to defend himself, but in vain: “He is a big man. How can I stop him? … Kripal had not raped the girl or assaulted her; he just asked her out for a drink.”’
Gupte never played another Test. Bose later wrote that his career ended because “he happened to share a room with a man who wanted a drink with a girl,” adding that “only in India could it have happened.”
Indian cricket has seen its fair share of sad exits, but Gupte’s was probably the saddest.
5. Fire in the Garden of Eden, 1966-67
Once again India were up against a superior cricket team, or rather, fearsome fast bowlers. Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith reduced India to 10 for 3 at Bombay before they recovered to 296. West Indies responded with 421, but this time the spinners did the trick.
Defending 192, India fought hard, reducing West Indies to 90 for 4 when debutant Clive Lloyd joined Garry Sobers. There was no more wicket. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar bowled his heart out, adding 4 for 78 to 7 for 157, but all that went in vain.
West Indies finished the day on 212 for 4 at Calcutta. Day Two, New Year’s Day of 1967, never happened.
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Perhaps CAB did not take the threat of fake tickets seriously. The (then) capacity of 59,000 was in no shape to accommodate the extra 20,000 who had clambered inside. The fact that tickets, even VIP passes, were sold in the black-market, merely added to the confusion of the buyers.
The spectators crossed the fence and sat on the ground, just outside the ropes (there was no net separating the gallery and the ground in those days). As moods turned sour the police took to lathi-charging, injuring many including a veteran called Sitesh Roy, who went down bleeding.
Bamboo poles were uprooted. Fire was set to the canvas. The police retaliated with tear-gas. And as time passed, things only got worse.
The cricketers panicked. There have been rumours that Sobers and Hall were spotted running on Red Road, outside the ground. A policeman climbed up, risking his life amidst fire, trying to retrieve the West Indian flag.
Note: Rumour has that Conrad Hunte had retrieved the flag himself. However, Hunte has dismissed the theory in his autobiography.
The fraudulent officials, running for their lives, turned to Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi for shelter. They lived to see the next day. There was no play possible that day.
As for the Test, West Indies scored 390 and wrapped up India for 167 and 178, Sobers and Lance Gibbs sharing 14 of the wickets.
6. Seven in a row, 1967 and 1967-68
India did not win a single tour match before the 1967 Test series started. Geoff Boycott scored 246 not out in the first Test at Headingley and was dropped for slow batting, but India lost nevertheless despite Pataudi’s second-innings 148.
At Lord’s they sank without a trace, losing by an innings and 124 runs, Tom Graveney scoring 124 and Ken Barrington 97. Ray Illingworth mopped things up with his second-innings 6 for 29.
With frontline seamers Subrata Guha and Sadanand Mohol both down with injuries, India went to Edgbaston with one fit seamer, Venkataraman Subramanya, and all four spinners — Bishan Singh Bedi, Chandra, EAS Prasanna, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan — for the only time in their careers. Reserve wicketkeeper Budhi Kunderan shared the new ball.
India, bowled out for 92 in the first innings, plummeted to a 132-run defeat. The four Indian spinners took 18 wickets between them at 23 apiece. Their unheralded English counterparts, Illingworth, Robin Hobbs, and Brian Close, shared 15 wickets at 18.
Things looked gloomy for India. In their previous two series outside the subcontinent they had been routed 0-5 in West Indies in 1961-62 and 0-5 in England in 1959.
This was followed by 0-4 in Australia. India put a fight only in the third Test at Brisbane, where ML Jaisimha almost stepped out of a flight and scored 74 and 101. India lost by 39 runs. In the other 3 Tests the margins were 146 runs (Adelaide), innings and 4 runs (Melbourne), and 144 runs (Sydney).
Barring Jaisimha, Pataudi was the only Indian batsman to show some pluck, playing dazzling knocks of 75 and 85 at Melbourne despite nursing an injury (these were the famous “on one eye and one leg” performances). Of course, Prasanna put up a good show with 25 wickets at 27 in a country that has traditionally offered little help to finger-spinners.
But in the end, it culminated in a 0-17 run outside the subcontinent for India.
7. Summer of 42, 1974
Things could not have gone better for Ajit Wadekar. While the weak West Indian side of 1971 was not much of a challenge, beating an Ashes-winning England home and away was. With three series wins in three, Wadekar had every reason to be confident.
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Unfortunately, things took a massive U-turn in 1974. Sunil Gavaskar scored a hundred at Old Trafford, but England, riding on hundreds from Keith Fletcher and John Edrich and an excellent pace-bowling show from England, won by 113 runs.
Fletcher scored another hundred at Lord’s, as did Dennis Amiss and Tony Greig. England put up 629 before Chris Old and Mike Hendrick bowled out India for 302. Mike Denness asked them to bat again. It took Old (5 for 21) and Geoff Arnold (4 for 19) 17 overs to bowl them out for 42.
Things got worse that evening. The Indians were invited by the High Commissioner for dinner. They were asked to leave after a ruckus of sorts. Later on the tour Sudhir Naik was accused of shoplifting.
The nightmare came to an end at Edgbaston, where India were bowled out for 165 and 216. Between the two innings England hammered 459 for 2, David Lloyd slamming 214 not out.
But that was not all. The Indians back home were enraged. The Vijay Balla (Victory Bat) erected at Indore to commemorate the twin victories of 1971 was defaced.
And Wadekar never played another Test in what was perhaps the most unceremonious exit for an Indian Test captain.
8. “Do not mess with us, maan”, 1983
Consider this. You are, without a doubt, the best side in the world. You are set 184 in a World Cup final (that too, in 60 overs). You end up losing the match. And you visit the same country that winter. How would you have responded?
West Indies blew India away 5-0 in the ODIs. In the Tests they were relatively lenient, winning 3 out of 6. As for the other 3, the tracks were relatively flat…
It was not even about the margins. It was about the utter humiliation of the world champions. India had put up a fight of sorts earlier that year in West Indies. They even won an ODI at Berbice. Mohinder Amarnath, hero of that series with 598 runs at 66, was also named Man of the Match in the final.
West Indies were clinical in their approach. They targeted Mohinder, dismissing him for 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0; the rest of the team followed suit.
Gordon Greenidge scored 194 to take West Indies to 454. Malcolm Marshall, warmed up after his 92, knocked the bat out of Sunil Gavaskar’s hand (he scored 0 and 7) and ran through India with 4 for 19 and 4 for 47.
Delhi saw Gavaskar score a 128-ball 121 (it put him at par with Don Bradman); Vengsarkar got 159; and India somehow managed to lead by 80. But West Indies hit back, and it took another Vengsarkar effort and a gritty ninth-wicket stand to bail them out.
India mysteriously went in with four specialist batsmen at Ahmedabad (including a debutant). Kapil Dev bowled unchanged in the third innings to take 9 for 83, but despite Gavaskar’s first-innings 90, India were no match against the West Indian fast bowlers and sank without a trace.
Another Vengsarkar hundred gave India a 70-run lead at Bombay, but there was no escape in Calcutta. Reduced to 63 for 6, India somehow recovered to 241 and even reduced West Indies to 213 for 8, but Clive Lloyd’s 161 took them to 377. India were bowled out for 90, Marshall taking 6 for 37 after 3 for 65.
Indian fans had something to cheer for at Madras when Gavaskar lit up a rain-affected draw with 236 not out, setting a new Indian record. The result, however, was too embarrassing.
9. Ducks against Donald, 1996-97
Sachin Tendulkar had passed his initial assignments as captain with distinction, winning the one-off Test against Australia and the 3-Test series against South Africa. The real test, however, awaited him in The Rainbow Nation.
It was a green, green pitch, the kind of which, according to Wisden, “most of the Indians had never seen before.” There was vicious bounce; there was intimidating movement off the seam; and South Africa had, in their line-up, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, and Brian McMillan.
The thousands of fans back home were optimistic when South Africa were bowled out for 235 on Day One, Venkatesh Prasad taking 5 for 60. Andrew Hudson (80) was the only one to cross 35.
Nothing epitomised the Indian innings more than Donald’s peach to dismiss Tendulkar that pitched on off and came back in at astonishing pace, hitting timber. India were bowled out for 100 inside three hours, Donald leading the rout with 5 for 40. They had just about managed to beat Hudson’s 80.
Hudson was at it again, scoring 52 and adding 111 for the second wicket with Adam Bacher, virtually sealing the match. Prasad took 5 for 93, but the match was as good as gone. Whatever hope India had at 185 for 9 was lost when McMillan and Donald added 74 for the last wicket.
India were chasing an impossible 395. They managed to get one-sixth of that, and were bowled out for 66, Dravid being the only one to reach double-figures. Once again Donald (4 for 14) was the wrecker-in-chief. Once again they just about managed to outdo Hudson.
Somehow, in a remarkably low-scoring match, India had managed to lose by 329 runs.
10. Twin whitewashes, 2011 and 2011-12
Nothing could get wrong for India and MS Dhoni in 2011. They had won a World Cup. They had drawn a series in South Africa. And they had scaled the slope to achieve that coveted No. 1 spot in Test cricket.
Things started to go wrong at Lord’s when Zaheer Khan hobbled out of the Test — and series — after taking two quick wickets on Day One. England piled up 474 for 8 (Kevin Pietersen getting 202 of them). Dravid (103 not out) helped India save the follow-on, but with 14 wickets between them, James Anderson and Stuart Broad sealed it for England.
India were already without the services of Virender Sehwag. Now Gautam Gambhir, injured while fielding, was ruled out of the second Test at Trent Bridge. Zaheer had already been ruled out of the series.
Despite that India reduced England to 124, but Broad thwarted them, taking the score to 221. Broad also took 6 for 46 including a hat-trick, but India still led by 67. Unfortunately, Ian Bell’s 159 (helped by a recall from Dhoni) helped England set India 478. The tourists were bowled out for 158.
Alastair Cook amassed 294 alone at Edgbaston as England piled up 710 for 7. Cook outscored India in each innings, who were bowled out for 224 and 244. On his comeback Sehwag made a royal pair.
England almost equalled their Edgbaston effort at The Oval, putting up 591 for 6, Bell getting 235 and Pietersen 175. Dravid carried his bat in the first innings, but it did not help: once again India lost by an innings.
India lost their No. 1 rank, but there was always the Australia tour to look forward to. Sadly, India managed to do nothing beyond stretching the 0-4 margin to 0-8.
The first Test at Melbourne resulted an acceptable battle, Australia winning by 122 runs. In fact, despite a 51-run lead, Australia were actually reduced to 27 for 4 before they consolidated.
Nothing of the sort happened at Sydney, where India were bowled out for 191. Australia had a poor start yet again (37 for 3), but Michael Clarke (329*) added 288 with Ricky Ponting (134) and an unbroken 334 with Michael Hussey (150*).
He declared on 659 for 4. Four Indians went past sixty, but nobody got a big score, and 400 was not enough.
The Perth Test was as good as decided on Day One after India were bowled out for 161 and Australia, riding on David Warner’s belligerent hundred, reached 149 without loss. Australia secured a 208-run lead and bowled out India for 171, winning in just over three days.
Dhoni was suspended for the fourth Test at Adelaide. Under the new captain Sehwag, India reduced Australia to 84 for 4 — before Ponting (221) and Clarke (210) put on 386. The only twist in the rest of the Test was Clarke opting to bat for a second time despite a 332-run lead: were Dravid and Laxman still playing on his mind?
The two men, unfortunately, batted for the last time in Test cricket. India lost by 298 runs as India lost 0-4 twice in less than a year.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
