While images of a bruised Brian Close, Phil Edmonds and Mike Gatting have shocked us, what we didn’t get to view is Aunshuman Gaekwad’s battered body from Jamaica 1976. The ex-India opener’s bravado coming into focus again is a welcome reminder of how brutal the game was
The state of England’s Mike Gatting’s face and nose after being hit by a Malcolm Marshall delivery during a one-day international against West Indies at Sabina Park, Kingston, in 1986. Pic/Getty Images
You’ve probably seen an image of England’s Brian Close displaying his bruised upper body courtesy West Indies speedster Wes Hall at the completion of the Lord’s Test in 1963.
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You may also remember a photograph of England tailender Phil Edmonds’s ball-scarred body during his country’s 1985-86 tour of the Caribbean. And you have definitely seen photographic evidence of Mike Gatting’s bloodied face on the same tour; a broken nose while coping with a Malcolm Marshall thunderbolt.
What you have surely not seen is Aunshuman Gaekwad’s battered and bruised body courtesy Michael Holding & Co from the Jamaica Test of 1975-76.
Gaekwad’s story of courage came to the fore again last week during the launch of Guts Amidst Bloodbath - the Aunshuman Gaekwad Narrative, authored by Aditya Bhushan.
Kingston 1976 merited a recall. If anything, to remind some in this cricketing world that amidst the applause they give out for great IPL feats, there was a time when cricketers went out to bat with no helmets and other protective gear.
The fourth and final Test of India’s Caribbean Adventure—that’s what the late writer-broadcaster Kishore Bhimani called his 1976 tour book—changed the face of West Indies and world cricket for many years to come.
West Indians had always displayed a pleasing flair, distinctive art form, while pace terrors like Hall and Griffith added that spray of danger. But skipper Clive Lloyd’s decision to make fast bowling his chief weapon from that Kingston Test onwards meant that brutality of a different kind had well and truly been injected.
Like quite a few series involving India in the 1970s, the 1975-76 rubber was to be decided in the final Test.
On a helpful Sabina Park pitch, which some reports say had a ridge, the West Indians were not going to miss the opportunity to win their first home series since 1964-65.
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Fresh from their epic win in the third Test at Trinidad, India were going well in the first innings at Kingston. They ended Day One at 175-1. The new ball was taken on the second morning, when Gaekwad and Mohinder Amarnath had taken India one short of the 200-mark. That’s when Holding turned lethal. Tony Cozier, in his report for Sportsweek magazine, wrote that Holding got the ball to lift from a spot five yards from the batsman and Gaekwad suffered blows to his fingers twice. Then came a delivery on the stroke of lunch, which hit Gaekwad on his left ear. “That was a sad end to a very defiant innings as Gaekwad did not return to the crease,” wrote Cozier.
“Amarnath went fending off a rising ball. In Holding’s third over, Vishwanath, who earlier allowed one to go off his gloves, received an identical ball to the one that got Amarnath which brought an identical reaction and an identical result,” Cozier added.
Bedi declared the innings at 306-6 as there was no one save himself and BS Chandrasekhar fit to bat. West Indies managed an 85-run lead before India batted again.
Gaekwad, according to Bhushan, expressed his desire to go back and bat, but manager Polly Umrigar turned him down. At 97-5, skipper Bedi didn’t have enough fit batsmen to continue the innings and West Indies romped home by 10 wickets, chasing 13 runs for victory. West Indies took the series 2-1.
With multiple injuries to the Indians, bloodbath seemed to be an apt description. Gaekwad earned high praise for his brave innings of 81 in 450 minutes on a pitch and off a bowler (Holding) who Cozier felt bowled “as fast and as dangerously as anyone I have seen anywhere.”
Vishwanath caused some laughter at the book launch on Friday when he revealed how Gaekwad answered a “what happened with that ball?” question after a Holding delivery missed his face. “Sir,” said Gaekwad. “Since yesterday I have been batting. I too don’t know what’s happening.”
It was the same Vishwanath who was with rookie Gaekwad when the Test debutant walked in to bat at the Eden Gardens after Andy Roberts had cut open skipper MAK Pataudi’s chin in 1974-75.
Vishwanath tried to cover the blood on the pitch so that Gaekwad, who went on to score an invaluable 36, wouldn’t see it. Ironically, Gaekwad, who handled the West Indies quicks well, fell to the wrist spin of Roy Fredericks.
Vishwanath paid Gaekwad the biggest compliment when he told his CCI audience on Friday that the 81 at Kingston was the bravest innings he had ever seen.
Holding, who admitted in his book, No Holding Back, that he was uncomfortable with “the way we were asked to bowl” in the 1975-76 Jamaica Test, called Gaekwad “as gutsy a batsman as there has been.”
Bravado and run-making ability didn’t end there. Gaekwad played Test cricket for India till 1984-85 and was recalled to bolster India’s ODI batting against… you guessed right…the West Indies in 1987-88. He deserved more than just two three-figure scores in Test cricket.
Ravi Shastri reminded us the other day of Gaekwad’s two half-centuries during the latter half of the 1982-83 Test series in the Caribbean, when they started sharing a room.
Gaekwad has worn many a hat in Indian cricket and continues to serve the game as an administrator. Like Shastri said, his story needed to be told and “it was about time he [Gaekwad] was shown in true light.”
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper
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