Cricket with Dilip

Sardesai was at the height of his powers, having returned the previous year from the successful West Indies tour, after scoring 212 at Kingston,

Jamaica and a century at Port of Spain in a Test match India won — which, if I recall correctly, was the first Test series for India to win in the West Indies. It was also baptism by fire for Sunil Gavaskar, who scored 720 runs in that series in four Tests after having been dropped at zero in the first Test he played. We knew all about this as we used to listen to the commentary late at night and our lives were consumed by cricket.

Dilip Sardesai was almost as famous as the other Dilip — Dilip Kumar.

So, of course, we wanted to play cricket with Sardesai. But there was a slight hitch. We did not have a bat or a ball. Some of the older boys set out for the dusty market and after much effort got hold of a bat and a rubber ball.

Then we went to Dilip Sardesai’s room to persuade him to play cricket with us. It didn’t take more than a minute and soon we were out in the lawn drawing stumps on an oak tree. We formed two teams. Of course, Mr Sardesai would bat first. We took the field, Mr Sardesai the bat. We gave the biggest boy the ball. He ran up and bowled and Mr Sardesai hit the ball over where mid-wicket would have been on a cricket field. I noticed at least a hint of cross bat in the shot and the ball flew in an arc and disappeared in the distance. There was a stunned silence.

Soon enough some of us recovered and went looking for the ball. But where should we look? Maybe we should have looked in the Kodai lake. We searched desultorily for an hour and then gave up.

Of course little boys’ hearts mend fast and soon we were back to having fun.