Published: Sep 11, 2014, 02:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 29, 2015, 01:42 PM (IST)
Born September 11, 1911, Lala Amarnath was one of the most colourful, controversial and charismatic characters of Indian cricket. Arunabha Sengupta lists 21 curious facts about the man which are not very widely known.
Lala Amarnath – charismatic, controversial and colourful. He remains one of the legendary characters of Indian cricket. Here are some facts about the legend which may not be very well known.
1. Amarnath was actually the middle name of Nanik Bharadwaj.
2. As a teenager, Amarnath had been involved in hockey and athletics – especially long distance running – before carving his niche in cricket.
3. Amarnath scored 109 against MCC for Southern Punjab in 1933-34 in his very third First-Class match. In the game he played as a wicketkeeper and opening batsman.
4. The Test debut at the Bombay Gymkhana – that saw Amarnath become the first Indian batsman to score a hundred – was just his fifth First-Class match. The century was greeted by wild celebrations in the crowd and the band at the ground struck up ‘God save the King.’ From the women’s enclosure jewellery was thrown at Amarnath as he left the ground.
5. Amarnath tasted his first major success as a Test bowler when he captured 4 wickets at Madras during the 1933-34 series
6. In 1934, Amarnath got a second innings hundred for the Retrievers against the Freelooters in a close victory in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Final. The bowling for the Freelooters in that match was opened by Learie Constantine.
7. The 2 innings of 33 and 41 Amarnath played against Jack Ryder’s Australians of 1935 in the unofficial ‘Test’ at Bombay were considered extraordinary. Later he scored 39 at Calcutta in a low scoring game which was hailed as one of the best innings he ever played.
8. Amarnath’s rift with his captain Vizzy saw him infamously sent back from the England tour of 1936. Before that he had played 12 matches on the trip, scoring 613 runs at 32 with 3 hundreds and picking up 32 wickets at 20 apiece. Before they fell out, during the first part of the tour, the captain had been extremely gracious towards him and had treated him to rides to the ground in his car.
9. During the 1946 tour of England, Amarnath the bowler was extremely economical. In the game against Somerset, he kept a six-hitting legend like Harold Gimblett quiet with several maiden overs. A frustrated Gimblett asked him, “Don’t you ever bowl a half-volley?” Quick as a flash, Amarnath replied, “Oh yes, I bowled one in 1940.”
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10. In his first Test in more than 12 years, at Lord’s in 1946, Amarnath captured 5 for 118 and scored a defiant 50 in the second innings. In fact, he got a magic haul of Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton and Wally Hammond, capturing all 4 while the England score reached just 70. That was before Joe Hardstaff Jr spoiled the equation with 205. In the following Test at Manchester, Amarnath got Compton and Hammond once again as he picked up another 5-for.
11. Amarnath led India to Australia in the absence of Vijay Merchant. Although the tour was a disaster, his centuries against the state sides made him extremely popular. After the 228 not out against Victoria and 172 not out against Queensland, one paper stretched the truth to a rather unrecognisable shape as it proclaimed, “People in Australia are flocking to the games not to watch Bradman bat but Amarnath.”
12. In 1949, Amarnath as caretaker captain fell out with Anthony de Mello, the Board President. In an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Board on April 10, 1949 de Mello charged Amarnath with serious breach of discipline, suspending him from playing any representative cricket for India or for any province in India. There were 23 charges against Amarnath.They alleged – among others – negligence by Amarnath in his duties as captain, reflected in his failure to organise net practice in good time before the first three Tests, through his comparatively late arrival in Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta, the venue for the Tests; a demand by him for additional payment as captain; out of pocket expenses in entertaining friends in his Delhi hotel; his last minute decision not to captain the states eleven against the West Indies side; failure to notify the Board President of his injury at Poona, which was subsequently a handicap to him and India in the second Test; his rude and arrogant behaviour towards De Mello, undisciplined utterances against the Board and its President at receptions and to the press and insulting disregard of the Board by not replying to two letters sent to him.However, the final and the most sensational charge was about his illegal acceptance of a purse of Rs 5,000 in return for promise to include Probir Sen in the in the final two Tests against the West Indies.In retaliation, Amarnath addressed a press conference in Calcutta distributing a 39 page, 27,000 word statement in an attempt to prove that De Mello was out to settle personal scores against him. In this booklet of sorts, he replied to each of the 23 charges, denying most of them in unequivocal terms.He specifically denied the allegation that he had accepted an illegal purse in Calcutta and stated that he had received Rs 5,000 from as part of the Amarnath Testimonial Fund, a scheme kicked- off by De Mello himself in 1947 when Amarnath had cancelled his professional Lancashire League contracts and the prospect of a contract with Sussex in the interest of Indian cricket. A compromise was reached, but did little to improve relations.In April 1950, just before leaving to play for Lancashire, Amarnath asserted, “De Mello has done me a lot of harm. But my reputation has been fully vindicated by no less a celebrity than Bradman in his memoirs. He had tried to drive me out of cricket, but without success. One day soon, I feel sure, he will come crawling to me, begging me to help him once again.”
13. Amarnath was reinstated as captain – somewhat ironically – by a committee of selectors led by Vizzy himself.
14. After his playing days, Amarnath was appointed as manager to the tour of Pakistan in 1954. He loved to recount the tale of his evening with the Pakistan captain when he was managing the Indian team in 1954. Having accepted Kardar’s invitation for a cup of tea, Amarnath occupied a sofa with his back to the door.“After a while, someone knocked on the door, entered and wished Kardar. He then said, ‘Any instructions for tomorrow’s game, skipper?’ I turned to see who it was. It was Idris Begh, one of the umpires named for the final Test in Karachi! ‘What kind of instructions do you want?’ I said. Seeing me, Begh rushed out, but the great plan to defeat India had been revealed. I looked at Kardar, who was visibly shaken.” When Amarnath protested to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Masood Salauddin, a selector of the Pakistan cricket team and the only available qualified umpire, officiated in the Test match with mutual agreement. It remains the only instance of a selector doubling up as an umpire for a home Test.
15. Amarnath was a near tyrant as a cricketing father, and forbade his sons to play anything but cricket. Games were played in their garden, and the encounters resembled military rather than family affairs. Amarnath senior planted pots around the field and the sons were thus instructed in the art of placement. And short balls were to be hooked, there was no other way of playing them.
16. Amarnath was the chairman of selectors when Australia toured India and trounced India by an innings and 127 runs at Delhi. He used his veto power to select the unheralded Jasu Patel for the second Test at Kanpur. Patel took 14 wickets, and India won the Test by 119 runs.
17. There are many anecdotes about Amarnath the strict father in the domestic circuit. This includes an unverified account of his walking into the dressing-room and slapping one of his sons for getting out to a poor stroke in a Ranji Trophy match.
18. In 1963, with the Sino-Indian War raging along the border, 5 Defence Fund Matches were organised showcasing the brightest cricketing talent of India. In the fourth of these games, Maharashtra Chief Minister’s XI took on Maharashtra Governor’s XI at Poona. 52- year old Lala Amarnath played for the Governor’s XI while 15-year old Surinder Amarnath turned out for the opposition. Both father and son managed an attractive forty plus innings apiece.
19. In 1976, Surinder Amarnath scored a century on debut against New Zealand. This made the Amarnaths the only father-son combination to achieve this feat.
20. In 1978, Bishan Bedi’s team landed in Pakistan to play the first series between the countries since 1961. Amarnath traveled with the team as a journalist. At the airport, the team was met by a coach and a Toyota waiting. The manager, Fatehsinhrao Gaekwad, was the erstwhile King of Baroda, Member of Parliament, ex-chairman of BCCI and an honorary life-member of the MCC. Naturally, he assumed that Toyota was for him. However, the chauffeur, informed him that the car was for “LalaSaheb“.
21. In 1982, India toured Pakistan and Amarnath went as a reporter for PTI. Veteran Pakistani journalist Qamar Ahmed tells the regaling story. “During the Lahore Test, I finished my Reuter’s copy and went to the telex room. When I was there, the telex operator came running with a piece of paper, and said, ‘Qamar-bhai, read this. Have you seen Lalaji?’ I read the message. PTI had sent across a message saying, ‘Lalasaab, these are agency reports. We don’t need comment pieces Please write a detailed match wrap up.’
“In the meantime Lala came in and I told him, ‘Lala-ji, please read this.’ Lala read it and became furious. ‘Ŧ&”£$~@ … at the desk they don’t know anything about cricket. I will write what I want …’
“I tried to explain, ‘Lalaji, this is a report for the agency, you have to do the full reporting of the entire match, fours, sixes and so on …’ And a fuming Lala turned to the telex operator and said, ‘You go ahead and write two paragraphs and send it.’
“The operator was in a fix. He mumbled, ‘I don’t know English, sir and I don’t know cricket. I only know how to type.’ I felt very sorry for both. I wrote the report for him.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twiter.com/senantix)
