‘India needs a manager like Lala’

For this series, I sincerely believe we need to appoint a manager who commands respect in Pakistan. When we went in 1954, our manager was Lala Amarnath. He was a legend there; he commanded so much of authority and respect, he could have his way at all times. He could scold people on matters of cricket and people would listen. We need somebody like him on the forthcoming tour.

And some help with our bowling

I am a bit worried about our bowling. They could swing the ball in Australia and got good bounce but things would be different in Pakistan. They wouldn’t get so much help on Pakistan pitches. It is obvious our batting would be our strength and for them it would be their bowling.

That first tour

It was a historic trip and, even though its build-up wasn’t anything compared to the present times, we knew its relevance. Before we left, we were called by the board president who emphasised the need to avoid tantrums and to conduct ourselves in sporting manner. It was our first trip to Pakistan after Partition

Dinner with Badshah Khan

Hospitality is a thing which comes readily to mind. The food in Karachi was exceptional. I remember the dinner we had with Frontier Gandhi. In one tent, you had only badams, in another only pistas. The spread was lavish — we had only seen such things in movies. There were also cots around in case you wanted to rest!

In Lahore, people wanted us to stay with them. Since Partition was a recent happening, there were quite a few of us who looked to visit their ancestral homes in Pakistan. There was no shortage of volunteers wanting to be our escorts.

Tension cut into the cricket

It wasn’t an entertaining series. The players were too tense and didn’t take undue risks. The scoring rate was tardy — 2-3 runs per over. A score of 160-170 at the end of the day’s play was common. We had two outstanding spinners in Vinoo Mankad and Subhash Gupte but they were not very successful.

Not only were the wickets of not much help but the Pakistan batsmen were no novices. Hanif Mohammad was an established batsman, a world class performer who was immensely patient and very good on the onside. In bowling, Fazal Mahmood was at the height of his powers. He was a good cutter of the ball — and I mean in the real sense. You could actually see the ball cut away. Along with Alec Bedser, he was one of his kind in those days.

I remember my century in Peshawar. I batted with the intention of not getting out and only attacked when I was absolutely sure. I remember the wicket at Lahore as damp. As I said, nobody wanted to perform badly. It made for boring cricket. Both the teams were defensive.

There were moments when you could pick on umpiring mistakes but then men in whites have erred since the time the game has been played. They tended to favour home batsmen at times but this happens everywhere. It wasn’t something you could term as cheating. There was no sledging though we did speak a few words on the field — arre tu kaise bat karta hai.

Crowd trouble? Actually, they were great

In most of the matches, the spectators came in hordes. The grounds were invariably filled. But we never experienced any crowd trouble. I don’t remember even a pebble being thrown inside the boundary. There was no hai hai or that sort of thing. People in Karachi though never clapped when we hit a good shot. However, when a local player did well, the house would come down. Things improved as we moved towards north of Pakistan. We were applauded on good performances in places like Lahore.

Meeting up with Fazal

Most of us couldn’t speak Urdu — and they couldn’t speak English! But we still shared a good rapport. Quite a few of us had played together in pre-partition days. I was quite close to Fazal Mahmood and when I met him in Sharjah a few years ago, when both of us were joint beneficiaries, we embraced each other like long lost friends.

(Cricket News)