Woodcock’s world of words

John Woodcock at his home in Longparish, Hampshire in 1989. Pic/Mark Ray

February 3, 1992. Sachin Tendulkar, 81 days short of turning 19, blazes away to a century on a fiery Perth track against Australia.

The accolades flow in and around the portable typewriters. Tendulkar was still a few years away from being compared to Don Bradman, but an English writer says to his fellow professionals: "Tendulkar is the best batsman I have seen, and unlike all of you, I have watched Bradman bat." The writer was John Woodcock of The Times (London).

He saw Bradman as a young man and marvelled at Tendulkar at a time when he was known as the Sage of Longparish in journalistic circles. Woodcock had been the newspaper's cricket correspondent from 1954 to 1987.

Longparish is a village on the banks of River Test in the north of Hampshire. My Sydney-based friend Mark Ray, then reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald, was invited to Woodcock's home in July 1989. It was a visit that provided Ray a much-needed break from the drudgery of reporting on an Ashes series. It was also a visit on which Ray learnt that Woodcock was the man some England captains turned to when they required advice. Like Mike Gatting did when he was involved in that ugly row with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana in 1987-88.

Some of England's opposing captains liked Woodcock too. Ian Chappell, who led Australia in three full Ashes campaigns, told me from Sydney on Wednesday: "Sad news [of Woodcock's demise] indeed. He was a gentleman with a great sense of humour."

India had a special place in Woodcock's heart, probably because his father was born in Allahabad. There were other probable reasons. The first Test match he saw involved India - against England - at Lord's in 1936. The first Test he covered for a national newspaper (Manchester Guardian) featured India - at Leeds - in 1952.

In October 1976, he undertook a 46-day London-Mumbai road journey for the India v England series in a 1921 Rolls-Royce with fellow journalist Henry Blofeld and three others for company.

He loved watching the elegance and skill of India's cricketers. He was in Jamaica when Ajit Wadekar's team provided an early glimpse of what they could do in the 1970-71 Caribbean Test series. And while he wrote glowingly of BS Chandrasekhar for his role in the 1971 Oval Test win, Woodcock was pained to see a similar Wadekar-led team being reduced to 42 at Lord's in 1974, India's lowest Test score before last year's 36 all out in Adelaide.

Woodcock was amazed that India gave it away after being 131-0 in response to England's 629. Thereafter, 19 wickets fell for 213 runs. He wrote in The Cricketer: "India were carried away, I thought, by their successful start and enthusiasm of their supporters. I am all for adventure, but it needs to be tempered by judgment."

The next India v England Test series in England was held five years later and Woodcock rejoiced in the batting of Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar.

Viswanath and Vengsarkar carved hundreds in the Lord's Test. "There are too many gifted batsmen in the Indian side for England's bowlers to have things their own way. Vengsarkar, still only 23 and taller than the average Indian, is fast becoming a high-class player. His 103 at Lord's was his third century for the year," Woodcock wrote in The Cricketer International. On Viswanath's knock, he observed: "To bat as well as Viswanath does and yet to be so very small requires a genius for the game."

He credited Gavaskar for getting India close to victory through his 221 in the fourth and final Test of the series at The Oval. The game was drawn, but England won the series by virtue of their opening Test triumph at Edgbaston. "To say that no one gave more than a passing thought to India reaching so remote a target [438] is probably wrong. I expect Gavaskar did. Gavaskar had won many new admirers," Woodcock wrote. India fell nine runs short.

Woodcock was the editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack when India won the World Cup in 1983. He paid Kapil Dev's men a fine tribute in the Notes by the Editor section: "The World Cup was a great success and India's victory a splendid surprise. They brought warmth and excitement in the place of dampness and depression. In the early years of limited-overs cricket no-one, themselves included, took India seriously. Their strength lay much more in waging battles of attrition."

Gavaskar too was praised for going past Bradman's record 29 Test hundreds: "The tribute which Gavaskar must have valued most of all came from Bradman himself when he referred to him as ‘a great little player.' "

Woodcock was asked by the BCCI to write a piece on Indian cricket for their Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume 1929-79. In it, he listed his Best Ever Indian XI. Gavaskar and Merchant would open the batting. Syed Mushtaq Ali would be sent in at one-drop followed by MAK Pataudi, the captain. Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad would be next. Wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer would come in before L Amar Singh and Mohd Nissar. The last two spots would be any two from Bishan Singh Bedi, Chandresekhar and EAS Prasanna depending on form and conditions.

"If the next 50 years of Indian cricket yields another side as good as this one, no one will complain," is how he ended his piece.

Woodcock was wise and experienced enough in 1979 to believe that India would be blessed with more great players. But would he have imagined then sitting in an Australian press box and declaring like he did at the WACA ground in 1992, that he has seen a player better than Bradman? We'd never know and we won't be able to check with him. Woodcock, 94, left us on Sunday.

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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