July 06 2007
No body witnessed a Sunset in Indian Cricket
As most of the great veterans of Indian Cricket bowed their head to pay homage to Dilip Serdesai, there was not a single current Mumbai Ranji player present there I leave apart the players from other states.
I strongly feel that that it’s high time that we should remind ourselves that it was the stories of Serdesia’s and Durrani’s that kept cricket alive in middle class homes. Had our past cricketers not played for 200 Rs. and traveled in a local train to play an international match the next set of players would never have got 10,000 Rs. and next would never have got more.
That generation gave a lot of hope to Indian Cricket. It was only in 1959 that we believed that Australia were beatable, we did not believe that England could be beaten in England until 1971. Till 1969 nobody even dreamt of India winning a test series overseas.
What a great opportunity it was to tell our Junior Cricketers who know about Gavaskar, Kapil, Kumble and Tendulkar’s but don’t know that Tiger Pataudi played with one eye and one leg before a disbelieving audience in Melbourne, Polly Umrigar once played a stirring Test match in Port-of-Spain bowling 72 overs for 124 runs and 5 wickets apart from making 56 and a second innings 172 not out in a little over 4 hours.
It’s time that we should stand up and start respecting our Heroes.
This is really awesome.
Nice post Anirudh. Dilip Sardesai, Salim Durani, Poly Umrigar everyone was a legend and played for the country only, not for any endorsement. You have missed another name here He is Bijay Marchent…I came to know from a Cricket Mag that He used to hooked West Indian Fast bowlers at ease…really we are missing such legends now.
Its a really nice post.we should respect our unsung heros.
But please dont take sachin’s name in the same bracket with kapil and sunny.he is an oridnary cricketer who goes after milestone.
Yes, this is very true Anirudh, we should respect our senior cricketers because they have made us proud and they are the real hero of Indian Cricket. It’s very sad to know that Dilip Serdesai is no more.
His Early Career:
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Sardesai made his first mark in cricket in the interuniversity Rohinton Baria trophy in 1959-60 where he made 435 runs at an average of 87. Picked for the Indian Universities against the touring Pakistan team he scored 87 in 194 minutes on his debut. That led to the selection for the Board President’s XI against the same team where he scored 106*, and the selection as a standby in the final Test of the series. He scored 202 against the Madras university at about the same time. It was after all this that he was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji Trophy.
Test career:
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Sardesai had little to show in first class cricket in 1961-62, except for a 281 against Gujarat in a university match, but made his Test debut against England at Kanpur. He toured West Indies later in the season and was the batsman at the other end when Nari Contractor was seriously injured by Charlie Griffith in match against Barbados. Contractor’s injury created a place for Sardesai in the team. He scored 31 and 60 in the Test at Bridgetown but was sacked after a pair in the following match. Sardesai scored 449 runs in the five Test series against England in 1963-64 with 79 and 87 in the final Test as the most notable performances.
Nice post Anirudh..
very very very very nice article. I haven’t ever seen before. I think you should carry on and give us many news.
Today its a very relevent post as we are looking for foreign coaches when we have so many stalwarts in our own country.
My dear friend how can you forget players like Mohinder Amarnath (Jimmy),Gundappa Viswanath(Vishi)…they are much better than Graham Ford and Co.
Really India team is going throw a bad times. BCCI makes a drama about India’s next coach. May be BCCI want to make India team best or destroy for ever.