Cricket’s heads and tales

Launch functions not only provide go-and-buy-it signals to literature-loving cricket enthusiasts, they also contribute to enriching the anecdotal side of the willow game

Book release functions or events related to the promotions of new books throw up gems that embellish cricket folklore.

Last week, a compilation of articles—titled ‘The Sardar of Spin’—celebrating the 75th birthday of Bishan Singh Bedi, was launched in New Delhi. From friends in attendance, I hear that there was no shortage of stories revolving around Bedi to amuse the audience, including the birthday boy—who has recently recovered from a stroke.

While I shouldn’t have missed the mention of it in Fortune Turners (the book on the great Indian spin quartet, written by Aditya Bhushan and Sachin Bajaj), it was exciting to learn only the other day how former India opener and coach Anshuman Gaekwad got his nickname Charlie.

Gaekwad, who was on stage for Bedi’s function in the Capital, recalled to his audience the day he wasn’t in the mood to leave his room and join captain Bedi and his teammates in a Christchurch bar on the 1975-76 tour of New Zealand. Bedi cajoled him to come and when he arrived, an elderly lady serving the drinks asked Gaekwad, “Charlie, what can I give you?” Bishan’s laugh brought the bar down in Christchurch and Gaekwad has lived to tell his birth-of-a-nickname story.

Talking of bars, Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about his playing days during a promotional event for Timeless Steel, a book on Rahul Dravid, released nearly a decade ago. “When we finished playing cricket [for the day], we used to all turn up at the bar and listen to Ravi Shastri talk.” Manjrekar said this while wanting to know from Dravid whether there was less post-day cricket talk among the players than what he saw during his career. Dravid said he thought so and pointed to how professional the game has become. After play, players need to go to the physio, have ice baths etc. Also, there is so much more to do in terms of entertainment than to hang around in “smelly” dressing rooms, Dravid reckoned.

Dravid may not be dramatic and flamboyant behind the microphone but he can tell a story well, which will attract a fair share of amusement— just like he did at the book release function of Sachin Born to Bat, a book that Khalid A-H Ansari put together on Sachin Tendulkar in 2012. Dravid recalled a story that Manjrekar had told him about Tendulkar’s passion for the game. According to Dravid, the West Zone didn’t have enough spinners for a match against South Zone at Chennai and while the senior pros, Shastri and Manjrekar, deliberated on whether they should summon a spinner for the turning track, Tendulkar in his squeaky young voice said, “Mein daalega.” The CK Nayudu Banquet Hall of the Cricket Club of India cracked up.

Tendulkar himself has been entertaining at book launches and always manages to tell his audience something that is not old hat. Just like he did while talking about his 1989-90 debut in Pakistan during the launch of Shadows Across the Playing Field, written by Shashi Tharoor and Shaharyar M Khan, at the Taj in August 2009.
Tendulkar spoke about his first day of Test cricket—November 15, 1989 —when he was so knackered that he slept through the evening on his return from the ground. The following day he walked out to bat and remembered facing four bouncers in a row from Wasim Akram when each time he expected yorker length deliveries. “Four in a row, which was the welcome I got to Test cricket,” Tendulkar revealed.

Sunil Gavaskar, who shares space with Tendulkar in the pantheon of batting greats, decided to give his audience a taste of what happens at West Indian grounds, while launching former opener Madhav Apte’s book—As Luck Would Have It—at the Wankhede Stadium in May 2015. Apte, it can be recalled, scored a mountain of runs on India’s 1952-53 tour to the Caribbean.

On the 1982-83 tour, India had to contend with Clive Lloyd’s fast bowling quartet for four of the five Tests—Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall.  In one of the games, said Gavaskar, Marshall bowled a few deliveries, which missed the bats of himself and Gaekwad. This caused one of the spectators in the crowd to remark, “Hey Maco, hey Maco…enough of foreplay…enough of foreplay…let’s have some penetration.” Just before that ‘delivery’ from Gavaskar at the function, he spoke about how a spectator yelled at Eknath Solkar just as he was about to take a catch on the 1970-71 tour: “Hey Solkar, hey Solkar…if you drop that catch, you can have my sister.” Solkar held on to it and was asked by his skipper Ajit Wadekar whether he had heard what the spectator told him. “Yes, I heard, but I haven’t seen the sister,” retorted Solkar.

Two years ago, at a book launch in Mumbai, former England captain Mike Gatting related how his career was given a fillip by his skipper David Gower before the 1984-85 series in India. Gatting hadn’t scored a century in 30 Tests. “David asked what number I would like to bat at. I said I would be happy to bat at three. Not only did David agree, he also told me that I would play all the Tests.” Gatting went on to get his maiden Test hundred in the opening Test and although that effort went in vain, his 207 in the fourth Test in Chennai ensured England couldn’t lose the series.

Despite the pandemic, there has been a steady flow of new books and I can’t wait for an opportunity to attend a launch that will lead to the further enrichment of cricket’s reservoir of anecdotes.

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

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