Final week, not simply English cricket however world cricket misplaced two fantastic gents. The passing of Raman Subba Row and Derek Underwood reduces the variety of gents within the recreation. Make no mistake, they had been hard-nosed professionals who by no means gave you an inch on the sector however had been the primary to applaud an opponent when he did effectively. That, by no means, took away their competitiveness or lessened their need to do effectively for his or her staff. Not simply that, however once they had been profitable, they had been humble and didn’t have fun in a wild means with expletives, screaming like a banshee, or leaping up and down as if the success was completely surprising. There was no ego, both.
Who can overlook Underwood applauding the beautiful century scored by G. R. Viswanath with a heat handshake after which saying to him, ‘Grasp, when you’ve got had sufficient, please give your wicket to this bowler’. Not that he was not going to attempt to get Vishy out, however merely an acknowledgement of a superior efficiency by an opponent. This was through the Delhi Check match in 1981, a recreation the place the little genius was to be dropped from the squad. The choice committee, headed by Polly Umrigar, considered one of India’s all-time greats, had already taken the momentous determination to depart out Chetan Chauhan from the staff regardless of him being the best scorer on the tour of Australia and New Zealand a couple of months earlier. Regardless of being a failure on that twin tour with only one 50-plus rating in each international locations, I had been appointed because the captain for the collection, so leaving Chauhan out was a shocker for me.
Chauhan and I had struck up a beautiful partnership on the sector, and my respect for his gutsy combating qualities as an opener was second to none. Nonetheless, he was overlooked of the staff even after I requested the committee to present him two Checks to fail. Usually you ask for 2 possibilities to succeed, however right here I requested the opposite means, so assured I used to be that Chauhan would stick with it his scoring, particularly after the boldness of getting achieved effectively Down Beneath on completely different pitches and circumstances.
Now, after two Checks, the committee needed to depart Vishy out. He had simply performed an important cameo within the first Check, which we had received narrowly, so this didn’t make any sense to me. After I noticed that the selectors had been bent on leaving him out, I stated that I didn’t need to be a part of the assembly and would go away. The assembly was held instantly after the second Check in Bengaluru had completed. I had scored 172 there earlier than being dismissed caught and bowled by Underwood, so I used to be rather more assured once I joined the selectors for this assembly.
Off-spinner Ghulam Ahmed, who had additionally captained India in a single Check, was the Hon. Secretary of the BCCI then and the convenor of the choice assembly. He was additionally a bureaucrat. He had additionally been a selector earlier than changing into board secretary. He subsequently may sense when he wanted to step in. He stated that if the captain feels so strongly about it, the choice committee ought to respect it, as in any case, he’s going to take the staff out within the center. The choice committee was made up of stalwarts; other than Umrigar, there have been the premium all-rounders, Dattu Phadkar and Chandu Sarwate, who was additionally a fingerprint skilled within the police.
Vishy not solely acquired the century, which I’ve simply written about however adopted it with a 200 in Chennai, the place he and the late Yashpal Sharma batted collectively for an entire day. To Umrigar’s credit score, after we sat down to choose the staff for the ultimate Check, he thanked me within the choice assembly for insisting on Vishy being chosen.
Thoughts you, because the captain, I used to be solely coopted to the choice assembly with no voting energy. That gesture from Umrigar as soon as once more confirmed that in terms of Indian cricket, there ought to by no means be any egos.
Raman Subba Row was like Chauhan, a gutsy opening batsman who later got here to India because the supervisor of the England staff and acquired alongside tremendously with the BCCI officers. In later years, he would journey to Mumbai each winter to spend time together with his good buddy Madhav Apte and stick with him. Little doubt the evenings could be full of reminiscing concerning the cricketers they each had seen and choosing all-time Greatest Elevens and World Elevens.
RIP, Raman and Derek. Thanks for exhibiting why cricket was known as the gentleman’s recreation.