Padma Bhushan for Vizzy and not even a Padma Shri for Vijay Merchant, Subhash Gupte and Mohinder Amarnath!

Rahul Dravid, whose greatness is almost in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar is conferred the Padma Bhushan — the third highest civilian award that includes the likes of Chandu Borde (3061 Test runs at 35.59 and 52 wicket at 46.48) and, hold your breath, Vijay Ananda (Test batting average of 8.20). Considering the fact that cricketing colossus like Vijay Merchant, Subhash Gupte and Mohinder Amarnath were not even given the lowest-ranked national award [Padma Shri], the entire logic of the Padma Awards has to be questioned.

Rahul Dravid, whose greatness is almost in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar is conferred the Padma Bhushan — the third highest civilian award that includes the likes of Chandu Borde (3061 Test runs at 35.59 and 52 wicket at 46.48) and, hold your breath, Vijay Ananda (Test batting average of 8.20). Considering the fact that cricketing colossus like Vijay Merchant, Subhash Gupte and Mohinder Amarnath were not even given the lowest-ranked national award [Padma Shri], the entire logic of the Padma Awards has to be questioned. Arunabha Sengupta analyses how farcical the Padma Awards have been with respect to sports.

After years of sterling service to Indian cricket, his peerless willow holding sinister foreign attacks at bay season after season, Rahul Dravid has been honoured with the much-deserved Padma Bhushan Award.

Dravid is now a member of the exclusive club of 10 Indian cricketers. In 2009, Sachin Tendulkar had become the first cricketer to be bestowed with the Padma Vibhushan — the second-highest civilian award. Apart from these two pillars of Indian batting, there have been eight others who received the Padma Bhushan for their services to cricket.

And, by becoming a one of this league of extraordinary gentlemen, Dravid stands shoulder to shoulder with men decorated for their unmatched feats on the field such as … well … an average of 8.50 with the bat!

To put it bluntly the list is bizarre.

It does contain the august names of CK Nayudu, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Vinoo Mankad — a veritable Who’s Who of greatness.

After that we wade into progressively murky waters.

There is Lala Amarnath. Well, it makes sense in a way — going by the obscuring effect of time which reduces the value of numbers and lends credence to legends.

And then comes DB Deodhar, well …Chandu Borde … hmm. And who was Vijay Ananda — made Padma Bhushan in 1958?

The list of 10 greatest cricketers of India looks unquestionably ridiculous.
A detailed look at the list

Sunil Gavaskar was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1980, Kapil Dev in 1991 — grandmasters of the game both, who changed the position of Indian cricket on the world map.

Back in 1956, we find CK Nayudu, the first cricketer to be thus honoured, the man whose gallantry on the cricket fields was instrumental in getting India Test status. He also went on to lead India in their first Test match. The first two sporting names on the list indeed ensured a supreme start for the category, Nayudu along with the hockey wizard Dhyan Chand.

In 1973, the honour was conferred on Vinoo Mankad, the greatest all-rounder produced by India before Kapil Dev — the man who could walk into any World XI in his prime. It was a title that fit the great man to perfection.

Lala Amarnath received it in the same year as Kapil Dev. Not exactly possessing a fabulous record in international cricket, he [Amarnath] was nevertheless a towering figure in the toddler days of Indian Test cricket, and scored the first Test century for the country. After international cricket had lost some of his best cricketing years to the Second World War, Amarnath went on to lead India to their first Test series win in 1952-53. In spite his rather modest Test record, we can perhaps justify his inclusion. What is perhaps far more difficult to defend is the omission of his son, Mohinder — a cricketer far more accomplished and acknowledged as genuinely world class — from the entire list of Padma Awards. Surely, Mohinder Amarnath deserved at least a Padma Shri. Far lesser players have been awarded the same.

In the same year as Lala Amarnath and Kapil, another Padma Bhushan recipient was the grand old man of Indian cricket, Professor DB Deodhar. The venerable gentleman was on the verge of a magnificent milestone, just one short of his century of years on the planet. But, as a cricketer did he really deserve the third highest civilian award? He is another of the great names heralding from the obscure days of Indian cricket, whose feats are perhaps too complicated to measure against contemporary yardsticks. But, even then, does he really rank among the 10 best cricketers ever produced by the country?

And in 2002, the honour was given to Chandu Borde. A gutsy cricketer in his days, he boasted a batting average of 35.59 and a clutch of wickets at 46.48 apiece. Good enough for Padma Bhushan? We are already on wafer-thin ice.

When we consider Borde and Deodhar, and even Lala Amarnath, against the names of those who have missed out, the awards do seem ridiculous.

For a while, let us try to justify Deodhar and Amarnath through the principle of rosy retrospection. We assume that while we travel back in time the deeds are sprinkled with gold dust of memories. In that case, it is curious that Vijay Hazare and Polly Umrigar could not get beyond the Padma Shri. And it is astounding to say the least that Vijay Merchant does not even feature in the entire list of Padma Awards.

DB Deodhar and Lala Amarnath were indeed colossal names in domestic cricket, but it was Hazare, Merchant and, later, Umrigar who were universally considered as world class.

Proceeding to Borde’s era and later, the omissions continue to be glaring. We find all four of the famed spin quartet stopped at Padma Shri. The same fate has befallen the architect of the greatest number of Test wins for India — that indefatigable soldier called Anil Kumble.

Subhash Gupte, arguably the greatest spinner ever produced by India, was not considered good enough for even a Padma Shri. However, in 2009, Harbhajan Singh did end up with the award.

And when we look at the mysterious Vijay Ananda, things turn absolutely ludicrous. This gentleman Vijay Ananda — stretching the word to breaking point — played three Test matches in all, averaging 8.25, with the highest score of 19. In First-Class cricket, he managed five half-centuries in 47 matches, at an average of 18.60. A lot of these runs were scored off full-tosses and long-hops, gracious return gifts from bowlers presented with gold watches and jewellery. There are stories aplenty of the untold generosity of Sir Vijay Ananda Ganapathy Raju, the Maharajakumar of Vizianagram. Some of these anecdotes have been repeated by English county cricketers of repute. And, of course, his other contribution to Indian cricket — if it can be so termed  was to send his star player, Lala Amarnath, back to India after an ego tussle during the tour of England in 1936. And when this blot on the cricketing landscape was given the honour in 1958, his bio in the following day’s Indian Express read: “Better known as Vizzy, he has been largely responsible for raising the prestige of India in the cricket world.”

Perhaps the expensive watches and jewellery went beyond earning just a couple of boundary balls, extending the range of barter to the third highest civilian award in the country.

I do wonder how Amarnath felt in his last days, when at the age of 80 he found himself bracketed with this self-same Kumar who had hacked at his promising career with the rusty sword of privileged royalty.
The rest of the sporting fields do not fare much better

No one can dispute the claims of Sachin Tendulkar and Vishwanathan Anand to the Padma Vibhushan Awards. In their respective sporting fields, the accomplishments of these two legends leave little room for argument. Perhaps only Dhyan Chand’s mesmerising magic with the hockey stick, which resulted in a gamut of Olympic golds, could have found a place alongside them.

When it comes to Padma Bhushan, however, the list of sportsmen look extremely whimsical. Let us look beyond cricket and forget about Vizzy and Deodhar for a while.

Tenzing Norgay did make the list for his Everest exploits — and no peak is higher than the one he reached. However, in 1965 we find three mountaineers awarded together — Mohan Singh Kohli, Sonam Gyatso and Nawang Gombu. One cannot question the dauntless bravery of these men, climbing the highest and most dangerous of mountains. With the Himalaya towering above the northern and North-Eastern frontiers of India, it is natural that the country will be blessed with a number of supreme climbers.

But, if as many as four out of the first seven Padma Bhushan recipients for sports turn out to be mountaineers — one of the remaining three being the inimitable Vizzy — it leaves a lot of curious questions in the wake of the applause. What is even more surprising is that no other mountaineer has been honoured with Padma Bhushan after 1965.The standards perhaps got too steep after that year.

We do have some indisputable names in Mary Kom — incidentally the only lady in the group, Abhinav Bindra and, of course, Dhyan Chand. Mihir Sen was awarded for swimming across the English Channel and Palk Strait. One cannot doubt the credentials of Michael Ferreira either, but it has to be noted that he was conferred the title of Padma Bhushan only after he had refused to accept the Padma Shri.

Ramanathan Krishnan’s place is also well deserved for being a pioneering tennis ace. However, it is somewhat jarring that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have had to be satisfied with Padma Shri till now. Unlike Krishnan, the two modern stalwarts have actually won plenty of Grand Slam titles between them,

Going down the list to 1983, we find another member of the royal family honoured with the title. Raja Bhalindra Singh played a handful of First-Class matches, one for Cambridge University and the rest for Southern Punjab, with a rather remarkable lack of distinction. His father was the old patron of Indian cricket — Maharaj Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. His brother, Yuvraj of Patiala, was a pretty useful batsman who scored 60 and 24 in the only Test match he played. Bhalindra Singh’s contributions to the game were inferior even to his family members. However, he was one of the key figures associated with organising the first Asian Games in 1951. The award was supposedly bestowed because of his administrative achievements rather than sporting ones.

In 2006, we find another interesting entry. Vijaypat Singhania, the chairman emeritus of the Raymond Group, was awarded Padma Bhushan for reaching the highest altitude while travelling in a hot-air balloon. The aviator soared to this stratospheric height in 1998, at the age of 67. We can continue to debate whether travelling in a hot-air balloon qualifies as a sport, but it seems the adjudicating committee reached a thoroughly affirmative conclusion within eight years.

So, among the 22 awardees we have one businessman-turned-aviator, one scion of the royal family honoured for organising an event, and of course, the one and only Vizzy.

And,to detect the rather stark contrast, let us look at some of the names missing from the list. Prakash Padukone, Vijay Amritraj, Roop Singh and several other greats have had to be content with Padma Shri. KD Jadhav, the wrestler who won the bronze medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, found that past does not always have the aura of gold dust. He does not even make it to the Padma list. Badru Banerjee, the captain of the Indian football team that came fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics,also was not considered good enough for even a Padma Shri. Nor were the great Vijay Merchant, Subhash Gupte and Mohinder Amarnath.

No one can be more deserving than Rahul Dravid in receiving the honour. However, after his monumental deeds on the cricket fields, it is debatable whether he feels elated at becoming a member of such a motley group of sportsmen.
List of all Padma Awardees in cricket

Padma Bhushan

CK Nayadu (1956)

Maharajah of Vizianagram (Vizzy) -1958

Vinoo Mankad (1973)

Sunil Gavaskar (1980)

Raja Bhalendra Singh (1983) * For Administrative Achievements

DB Deodhar (1991)

Kapil Dev (1991)

Lala Amarnath (1991)

Chandu Borde (2002)

Rahul Dravid (2013)
Padma Shri

Jasu Patel (1960)

(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://twitter.com/senantix)

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