BOOK EXCERPT: Twice Upon A Time In India

As the Indian team returned home from their successful tour to the West Indies, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was in discussions with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) about England’s reciprocal visit in 1971.

The BCCI wanted England to play three matches against assorted sides along with five zonal games and the five tests. However, the MCC only agreed to the five tests and five zonal matches.

They also refused to play a festival match, which was intended to be a benefit game for some of India’s retired cricketers. The MCC believed it would be a huge workout for the players after a busy summer at home with tests against both Pakistan and India. Thereafter, they were to host Australia in 1972 for the Ashes.

For years, the tours to the sub-continent hadn’t been taken very seriously by the Englishmen as they generally sent in second-string sides on previous visits. “Will the same experiments be continued? The answer will depend on how we fare on the coming tour of England, beginning in June,” a report in Sportsweek noted in May 1971.

Eventually, the MCC visited only in 1972-73 and played the five tests, five zonal games and one match against the Board President’s XI.

However, despite India’s test series win in England in 1971, the MCC did not send their full-strength side. That the captain Tony Lewis made his test debut during the tour to India reflects that fact. The Indian tour was a part of a sub-continental sojourn which also took them to Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) and Pakistan.

Rohan Kanhai was one of West Indies’ finest batsmen. A genial man, Kanhai was respected by the opposition. Ahead of India’s visit to the West Indies in 1971, one of Kenia Jayantilal’s greatest worries was food.

For an Indian vegetarian, travelling to other countries can be challenging and the opener was making his first trip to the Caribbean. In Rohan Kanhai, Jayantilal found a saviour.

The West Indian great assured him that vegetarian food wouldn’t be a problem. “In Guyana, I got a lot of vegetarian food like bhindi masala, puran poli, biryani, baingan ka shaag. Every day there was some change,” Jayantilal recalled.

Most of the groundsmen and those who worked on the grounds were of Indian origin and they helped out Jayantilal on Kanhai’s suggestion. “Rohan knew everybody and he told me ‘Don’t worry. You will get vegetarian food’,” he said.

Jayantilal continued to get vegetarian food throughout the trip. Some of his teammates then told him, “Thoda zyada mangao. Hum non- veg kha kha ke bore ho gaye. (Order some more. We are bored of eating non-veg)."

Kanhai was known to be friendly with the opposition and was particularly encouraging of youngsters. This was yet another example of his gregarious nature.

He also encouraged a young Sunil Gavaskar during his first series. In reverence and tribute to the great man, Sunil Gavaskar named his son Rohan.