On Sunil Gavaskar’s 67th birthday, a flashback to his momentous debut Test series. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

Gavaskar’s arrival was indicative of the fact that Indian cricket had come of age. The spin quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi were at the height of their powers. Gavaskar showed that fast bowling could not only be tackled but also scored off, in a prolific if not dominant fashion. Before him, Indian batsmen, with some notable exceptions, had the dubious reputation of stepping away to leg when confronted with genuine pace, and floundering against swing. Gavaskar changed it all.

There was a new captain at the helm, Ajit Wadekar, on that path-breaking tour of the Caribbean in 1971, ending at least for the time being the Pataudi era which had also begun in the West Indies nine years earlier. The signs were ominous as India won the second Test at Port of Spain by 7 wickets. It was India’s first victory over the West Indies in six series, home and away, and helped clinch the rubber, with the other four Tests drawn. Gavaskar scored 65 and 67 not out on debut, and gave solid starts in both innings along with Bombay (now Mumbai) colleague Ashok Mankad.

Two other Bombay stars made it a habit of pulling India out of troubled waters. In the first Test at Kingston, with India tottering at 75 for five, Dilip Sardesai (212) and Eknath Solkar (61) put on 137 runs to help raise a respectable total of 387. With no play on the first day, the follow-on could be enforced in the four-day Test with a lead of 150 runs, and Wadekar in his maiden Test as captain inflicted this ignominy on the hosts. The ageing Rohan Kanhai and skipper Garfield Sobers brought back memories of their halcyon days in a match-saving fourth-wicket partnership of 173 runs. Kanhai scored 56 and 158 not out, and Sobers 44 and 93. It seemed that the experienced middle-order would have to see the West Indies through, for the bowling was depleted, with Sobers having to bowl long stints.

It was not to be. Sobers and Kanhai did not fire in the second Test, and Clive Lloyd was a disappointment through the series. India won the Test with ease, heralding one of the happiest phases in their history, and marking the beginning of the end of Sobers’ days as leader. The brilliant side that he had inherited from Worrell, and which flowered under him in the mid-sixties, had all but disintegrated. In that triumph at Port of Spain, after Gavaskar’s promising debut, once again Sardesai (112) and Solkar (55) added 114 for the fifth wicket to give India a handsome first innings lead. Then as Wadekar, in a master-stroke, brought on the tall left-arm spinner Salim Durrani who castled Lloyd (15) and Sobers (0), India were on the road to victory. Gavaskar ultimately brought up the win in the company of Abid Ali.

That was the point when Indian cricket earned its self-respect, and emerged from the shadows onto the world stage. The man to show the way was the little opener. Rarely has one man done so much to change the fortunes of a nation’s sport. Inevitably, Gavaskar’s maiden Test century came in the next innings. He scored 116, once again laying a solid foundation to the Indian innings along with Mankad, and helping India take the first innings lead. It took an unbroken 170-run fourth-wicket stand between Charlie Davis and Sobers, unbeaten with 125 and 108 respectively, to save the day for the West Indies. Sobers’ declaration provided the opportunity to Gavaskar to score his third sixty. This time he clocked up an unbroken century stand with Mankad, worth 123 when stumps were finally drawn.

The only innings in which Gavaskar failed in the series was at Bridgetown when he was caught at mid-wicket off debutant paceman Uton Dowe for 1. Yet again Sardesai (150) and Solkar (65) retrieved the situation, this time from an even more abysmal 70 for six, faced with a huge West Indies score of 501 for five declared. Sobers had scored a monumental unbeaten 178 and put on 167 for the fourth wicket with Davis. On this occasion Sardesai and Solkar were associated in a 186-run partnership. The tailenders held on with Sardesai to save the follow-on. Sobers set India a target of 335 to win in a little over five hours. The run chase was never on and Gavaskar, in his own words, played “purely a defensive innings” of 117 not out, though he did fire a few rousing shots including a hooked six off Dowe. The Test was saved.

On the eve of the six-day final Test, again at Trinidad, Gavaskar developed severe toothache and spent a sleepless night. He had to wait for his troublesome tooth to be extracted till the Test was over and was denied pain-killers even at night on the plea that they would make him drowsy during play. Mankad had fractured his right wrist fending off a Dowe snorter in the second innings at Bridgetown, and his replacement Kenia Jayantilal broke his thumb in the intervening match at Dominica. As a result Abid Ali accompanied Gavaskar at the top of the order. Sobers, under pressure to square the series, opened the bowling, sending down a torrid spell. Abid Ali fell for 10 and Wadekar for 28. Gavaskar and Sardesai then put on 122, the little opener batting through the pain to score 124.

Sobers was indeed a determined man. He hit up 132, putting on 183 for the fifth wicket with Davis (105). West Indies piled up 526, a lead of 166. The pressure was on India. Gavaskar was now weak and worn out, still in pain, unable to eat or sleep properly, and having fielded for long hours in hot and humid conditions. Sobers was again sharp with the new ball, trapping Abid Ali early. Wadekar, though, helped Gavaskar add 148 runs.

The battle lines were drawn on the fifth day as Gavaskar soldiered on. He completed his second century of the Test to a huge ovation, with some of the spectators invading the pitch. He began the final day on 180, in very poor physical condition. And when he cover-drove Dowe to bring up his double hundred, all hell broke loose. The delirious crowd hoisted him high and literally played around with the little fellow. It was only the second time in Test history, after Doug Walters’ 242 and 103 against the West Indies in 1968-69, that a hundred and double hundred had been scored in the same game. Gavaskar had progressed to 220 when he finally chopped a ball on to his stumps. The next highest was Wadekar’s 54. Now at last Gavaskar could get his tooth extracted. It was a painstaking effort, literally, that ensured a landmark series triumph for the country. 

The West Indies needed 262 to win with time running out. In the end their ninth-wicket pair hung on precariously to eke out a draw. Such was Gavaskar’s memorable, and phenomenal, initiation in Test cricket. No one had scored so many runs, 774, on first appearance. That was in just four Tests, and his average of 154.80 would have made Bradman proud. The entire cricketing world was now talking about this 21-year-old. Over the next sixteen years Gavaskar earned the admiration and respect of players, critics and fans alike, and came to be rated as one of the greatest opening batsmen ever.

It might not have been a top-class West Indies bowling attack and Sobers may have dropped him on a couple of occasions, but Gavaskar displayed a wonderful technique, a wide range of strokes, patience, determination, resilience and a tremendous will to battle on in the face of acute physical discomfort. Surely, this little young man was out of the ordinary.

His great predecessor Len Hutton paid Gavaskar the ultimate tribute, naming one of the chapters of his book Fifty Years in Cricket, ‘Gavaskar and Other Greats’. Hutton wrote: “I have the feeling that if he had been born English or Australian, many of the better judges would have been tempted to bracket him with Bradman. Gavaskar is not as good as Bradman, but very close, which automatically puts him in the very highest class of batsmen of all time. He is a small, compact man, thicker set than Bradman, but of a similar height, and, like all the true champions, can play off both feet with equal facility. He uses a medium-weight bat and hits the ball hard enough with precise accuracy to beat the fieldsman, but not hard enough to knock it out of shape. He cuts, pulls and drives the half-volley beautifully, often through mid-wicket, and to back his natural accomplishments, he has the concentration, willpower and temperament of a record-breaker. I admire too, the positive and quick movements of his feet and the almost feline grace with which he gets into position to deal with the bouncer.”

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com

Follow Indra Vikram Singh on Twitter @IVRajpipla).

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0, Fully Illustrated

French Fold 21.5 cm x 28 cm, 188 Pages

Price Rupees 995

Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:   

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6   

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3   

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0   

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

Distributed in India by:  Variety Book Depot, AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001, India. Tel. + 91 11 23417175, 23412567.

How good were the South African star batsmen Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards? Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

Graeme Pollock

Barry Richards

The South African Graeme Pollock was also a top-class left-handed strokeplayer like Sobers, but that is where the comparison ended. In almost every other way Pollock was different. Tall, strongly built and seemingly laboured, he was not athletic, unlike Sobers, and it showed in his running between wickets, and fielding, where he was at best a safe catcher. Stooping low into his stance, with legs spread apart, the power in his shots came from timing, quite the anti-thesis of Sobers who had a big backlift and played his shots with a flourish.

Pollock was also considered primarily an off-side player, like another big man Wally Hammond, but could get the ball away on the on-side, particularly with his short-arm pull shots. His 3 lb bat, very heavy for those times, was like a club as he drove and cut in awesome fashion. Inzamam-ul-Haq was perhaps, in some ways, a mirror image of Graeme Pollock for their laidback style, but that was an illusion because they spotted the ball early and had plenty of time to play their strokes. That explained their unhurried movements. The Pakistani batsman though was more aesthetic, with footwork quite nimble for a burly physique, and apt to hit straighter.    

Prodigiously talented, one of Pollock’s finest innings was at Nottingham in 1965. With the ball seaming around, South Africa were reduced to 80 for five. He put on 98 with skipper Peter van der Merwe, whose contribution was 10. Pollock slammed the English bowlers for 21 boundaries all over Trent Bridge, clocking up 125 runs off 145 balls.

His finest hour came at Durban in 1970. In the company of Barry Richards, he flayed the Australian attack. Pollock went on record the highest Test score for South Africa, a tremendous 274 that demoralised the opposition. At 26 years he was at the height of his powers when, soon after, South Africa were banished from Test cricket for their policy of apartheid. It was a cruel blow, for Pollock had aggregated 2256 runs in only 23 Tests for an average of 60.97, the best-ever barring Bradman, among those who have played at least 20 innings.

Barry Richards suffered an even worse fate. That was the only Test series he got to play. In those four games he scored 508 runs, averaging 72.57, with two hundreds. His highest of 140 was in that scintillating stand with Graeme Pollock at Durban when they blasted 103 runs in an hour after lunch on the first day. Richards reached his century in the first over after lunch off just 116 deliveries. Several observers have rated him among the best batsmen ever. Brian Johnston watched him at close quarters, not only in that 1969-70 home series against Australia, but for long years in county cricket for Hampshire, where his opening partner was a West Indian named Gordon Greenidge.

Johnston wrote in It’s Been a Piece of Cake: “He had, and played, every stroke off the front foot and the back. With a high backlift he played beautifully straight, and used his feet far more than the others I have mentioned (Sobers, Hutton, May, Cowdrey, Greg Chappell and Viv Richards), with the exception of Bradman, Hammond and Compton. He would even dance down the wicket to the fast bowlers. Barry’s technique was backed by his supreme confidence in his own ability, and an insolent contempt for all bowlers.” The little master himself, Sunil Gavaskar, made a telling observation in The Times of India in 1995: “Barry Richards was the first batsman I saw playing the lofted shot over extra-cover. This was in the Sunday League in England in 1971. Till he demonstrated how to do it, batsmen tended to hit the ball over the infield on the legside if they wanted quick runs. The inside-out shot over extra-cover is more difficult, for one has to really get to the pitch of the ball to be able to hit it away from the fielders. Since there used to be no fielders posted on the extra-cover boundary, it was easy to pick up boundaries there and soon this shot was being copied by other batsmen effectively and is now a normal shot in all kinds of cricket.” That is a stamp of genius.  

In his very first season for Hampshire in 1968, Richards topped their run chart with 2395 runs. The next highest for the county was by Barry Reed with a tally of 990. He scored heavily each year in county cricket, though he had moderate success for the Rest of the World, who replaced the banned South African team, for the 1970 tour of England. Richards went Down Under to play in the Sheffield Shield, and he was sensational. In 1970-71, he hit up 356 for South Australia against Western Australia, 325 of which were scored on the first day of the match. In 1977 he signed up for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Even though he was past his prime, Richards performed exceedingly well, confronted as he was with quality opposition once again.

It is, therefore, not altogether a surprise that Bradman chose him to partner Arthur Morris in his All Time XI. For a man of Richards’ calibre it became increasingly difficult to motivate himself to continue playing the inferior trundlers at the first-class level. He walked away from it all, frustrated at being kept out of Test cricket.

Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards were part of a brilliant South African team that continued the process begun by the supremely talented West Indies teams led by Frank Worrell and Gary Sobers, and finally and emphatically did away with the supremacy of England and Australia for the first time in the 90-year history of Test cricket. Under Peter van der Merwe and Ali Bacher, South Africa defeated England 1-0 in 1965 in an away series, and then trounced Australia twice at home, 3-1 in a five-Test series in 1966-67, and a 4-0 whitewash in 1969-70. Coming off a comfortable 3-1 triumph in India, Bill Lawry’s Australian side was handed a mauling of frightening proportions by the South Africans. The margins of defeat were 170 runs, innings and 127 runs, 307 runs, and 323 runs. It was humiliating, to put in kindly, and a far cry from the heady days of Bradman. South Africa could now justifiably claim to being the no. 1 Test team in the world, even as their apartheid regime resulted in prevention of face-offs with the ‘coloured’ nations.

The nucleus of the 1965-70 South African teams comprised the allrounders, former skipper Trevor Goddard and Eddie Barlow, arguably the greatest-ever cover fielder Colin Bland, wicketkeeper-batsman Dennis Lindsay, pace duo of Graeme’s elder brother Peter Pollock and the wrong-footed in-swinger Mike Procter, who was also a tremendous batsman, and two star rungetters Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards. It is such a pity that their Test careers had to be halted abruptly in their prime.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com

Follow Indra Vikram Singh on Twitter @IVRajpipla).

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0, Fully Illustrated

French Fold 21.5 cm x 28 cm, 188 Pages

Price Rupees 995

Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:   

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6   

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3   

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0   

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

Distributed in India by:  Variety Book Depot, AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001, India. Tel. + 91 11 23417175, 23412567.

Books by Indra Vikram Singh published between 1992 and 2015

Indian Spring

This definitive collector’s edition celebrates India’s win in the cricket World Cup 2011, a tournament that was a colourful commercial extravaganza.

ISBN 978-81-901668-7-4

Published by Sporting Links, 2015

Format:  Paperback

Pages:  216

Dimensions:  11 inches x 8. 5 inches x 0.4 inch

Fully illustrated with 60 colour photographs.

Write-ups on 10 Classic Matches and 12 Memorable Performances in different matches.

Hall of Fame section featuring 29 stars.

Scorecards of all the 49 matches.

Batting and Bowling Averages of all the players who appeared in the event,

Sidelights and trivia.

Detailed Records and Statistics of all World Cup tournaments from 1975 to 2011.

Curtain raiser to the ICC World Cup 2015.

Crowning Glory

A 44-page fully illustrated supplement on India’s win in the cricket World Cup 2011.

ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

Published by Sporting Links, 2011

Format:  Paperback

Pages:  44

Dimensions:  11.25 inches x 8. 5 inches x 0.25 inch

Crowning Glory brings forth the highlights and the stars, statistics and records, and colour photographs. The tenth edition of One-day cricket’s biggest show returned to the sub-continent for the third time. Never had the hosts won on home soil, but in 2011 the favourites India, despite a few stutters, jubilantly lifted the glittering ICC World Cup at Mumbai on 2nd April. This was not only the crowning glory for an Indian team that had striven hard to reach the no. 1 spot in Test cricket the previous year, but also the missing jewel in the amazing career of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. It was a fairy-tale come true, the real significance of which will be understood in the years and decades to follow. Crowning Glory replays the highlights of the ICC World Cup 2011 and its stars, complete with colour photographs and records. This special supplement is also available complimentary with The Big Book of World Cup Cricket (ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3).

Don’s Century

Biography of Sir Donald Bradman and a panorama of batting from the 1860s to present times.

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Published by Sporting Links, 2011

Format:  Paperback French Fold

Pages:  188

Dimensions:  11 inches x 8. 5 inches x 0.4 inch

Weight:  0.5 kilograms

Written in 2008, the year of the birth centenary of the peerless Don Bradman, the book takes a relook at his cricket career, relives the trial and tribulations of his personal life, and assesses the merits of other great batsmen from the 1860s to the present times. The questions still asked are: how great was Bradman actually, was he just a run-getting machine or was he truly the best there has ever been, have there been other batsmen as good or better than Bradman. Don’s Century analyses Bradman’s batting technique, brings forth his amazing achievements with the willow, aided by comments from the finest writers and players down the ages, supported by comprehensive statistics, and illustrated by classic photographs in sepia brown from the top photographers and agencies of the world. The panorama of batting presents many other legends from Grace, Ranji, Trumper and Hobbs to Richards, Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting, and so many more, focussing on their contribution, and in fact tracking the evolution of the game over the last century-and-a-half. The vicissitudes of Bradman’s own life, his persona and quest for excellence, the detractors, friends and family are all featured in this tribute to the unquestioned king of kings of the crease.

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

A 544-page definitive, fully illustrated hardbound collector's edition on the cricket World Cup from its inception in 1975 till 2007, with a preview of the ICC World Cup 2011.

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Published by Sporting Links, 2011

Format:  Hardback

Pages:  544

Dimensions:  11.5 inches x 8.75 inches x 1 inch

Weight:  2 kilograms

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket is a definitive, fully-illustrated all-colour collector’s edition that contains virtually everything about all the cricket World Cups from 1975 to 2011.

Beginning with a story of every tournament from 1975 to 2007, including the commercial facet, sponsorship and prize money, logos and mascots, it carries a preview of the 2011 event as well. There are highlights and sidelights, drama and controversy, and the stars of the biggest event in One-day cricket.

Featured are 49 classic matches, those nail-biting encounters and stunning upsets, and 51 memorable individual performances by players in different matches. The Hall of Fame section showcases 93 top players in the World Cup and also comprises interviews with Cup-winning captains Kapil Dev, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

The statistics sections comprise a wide range of records, and performances of all the 19 teams that have appeared in the first nine editions of the World Cup, detailed scorecards of all the 303 matches played from 1975 to 2007, and batting averages, bowling averages and fielding data of all the 823 players who turned out in the premier event.

The tailenders bring forth the lighter moments and trivia. As many as 250 photographs, mostly in colour, from the world's leading agencies and photographers Patrick Eagar, Getty Images and Pradeep Mandhani embellish this mammoth effort.

The piece-de-resistance is a handwritten letter of Sir Donald Bradman received by the author in 1999, which led him to dedicate the book to The Don.

A special 44-page fully-illustrated colour supplement Crowning Glory (ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7, Sporting Links, 2011) published at the conclusion of the ICC World Cup 2011, capturing the highlights and focusing on the stars of the tournament, and updated records, is available complimentary with The Big Book of World Cup Cricket.

A Maharaja's Turf

A fully illustrated hardbound collector's edition on the triumph of the author’s grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla in the Epsom Derby of England in 1934, his horse Windsor Lad finishing first.

ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

Published by Sporting Links, 2011

Format:  Hardback

Pages:  148

Dimensions:  8.75 inches x 11.5 inches x 0.6 inches

Weight:  1 kilogram

This collector’s edition brings alive the exhilarating triumph of Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla in the Epsom Derby of England in 1934, the only Indian owner ever to win the blue riband of the turf in its history dating back to 1780. The dapper Indian prince’s horse Windsor Lad left the hitherto undefeated favourite Colombo trailing in third place in the presence of royalty led by King George V and Queen Mary, and a multitude of an estimated quarter to half a million people on that damp afternoon of 6th June. This extensively researched story written by the Maharaja’s grandson, embellished with rare photographs, captures the era between the two World Wars, of imperial times and a royal lifestyle, also going back centuries into history, connecting the past and the present and depicting the march of time, even as the thrilling race remains the central theme.

The Little Big Book of World Cup Cricket, edition II

A handy guide to all the cricket World Cup tournaments played from 1975 to 2007, with a preview of the ICC World Cup 2011.

ISBN 978-81-731422-0-8

Published by Media Eight, 2011

Format:  Paperback

Pages:  288

Dimensions:  7.6 inches x 5 inches x 0.75 inches

Weight:  500 grams

The Little Big Book of World Cup Cricket, edition II 2011, is the updated version of the 2007 edition of the book with the same title.

Attractively designed in a manner that reflects the modern game, the book narrates the story of all the nine cricket World Cups from 1975 to 2007, and carries a preview of the 2011 ICC World Cup which was staged in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Like the shorter version of the game, the book gives a snapshot of the tournament, thereby affording brisk, easy reading.

There are 49 classic matches from the exhilarating one-wicket victory of the West Indies over Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1975 to another nail-biting one-wicket triumph by England at the expense of the West Indies in Brian Lara's swansong at Bridgetown in 2007.

The 51 amazing individual performances include the blitzkrieg by Vivian Richards and Collis King in the 1979 final and the onslaught by Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn in the 2003 final.

The exploits of 50 legends of the World Cup comprising the likes of Kapil Dev and Lance Klusener are chronicled in precise words.

To sum up this showpiece event is the 80-page records section that brings to the aficionado all the highlights and the glorious achievements of superstars like Sachin Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath. It is a handy book that provides a panoramic view of cricket's ultimate test in One-day cricket.

The Little Big Book of World Cup Cricket

A chunky and comprehensive guide to all the cricket World Cups played from 1975 to 2003, and a preview of the ICC World Cup 2007.

ISBN 81-901668-2-4

Published by Sporting Links, 2007

Format:  Paperback

Pages:  656

Dimensions:  4.5 inches x 7 inches

Weight:  500 grams

Story of every tournament from 1975 to 2003, including the commercial facet, sponsorship and prize money, logos and mascots, and a preview of the 207 event.

Write-ups on 41 Classic Matches and 40 Memorable Individual Performances.

Hall of Fame showcasing 74 top players in the World Cup, and exclusive interviews with World Cup-winning captains Kapil Dev, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

Sidelights (lighter moments and trivia).

Full scorecards of all 252 matches.

Performances of all the 17 teams that appeared in the first eight World Cups.

Detailed records and statistics.

Batting and bowling averages, and fielding records of all 684 players.

World Cup Cricket

Illustrated preview in the run-up to the cricket World Cup 2003

ISBN 81-7167-947-1

Published by Rupa & Co., 2002

Format:  Hardback

Pages:  184

Dimensions:  8.5 inches x 11 inches

Writer Indra Vikram Singh, book designer Peter Murray and statistician Rajesh Kumar got together to produce an illustrated preview embellished with crisp write-ups and comprehensive statistics about cricket World Cups played from 1975 to 1999 and all its stars, assessing the prospects of all the teams participating in the 2003 event.

Test Cricket – End of the Road?

Debating the future of Test cricket in the 1990s and beyond.

ISBN 81-7167-080-6

Published by Rupa & Co., 1992

Format:  Paperback

Pages:  141

Dimensions:  8.5 inches x 5.5 inches x 0.375 inches

In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a raging debate whether the era of Test matches was over and whether One-day Internationals were the future of cricket. Young Indra Vikram Singh explored the subject in detail, and not only came up with his verdict but also offered suggestions to make Test cricket more attractive for spectators and television audiences. The book brought forth the ethos of the game and the lessons youngsters could derive from it. Test cricket has evolved from the Victorian era to the 21st century but it remains largely the same game, and carries on serenely despite the frenetic march of time and the prophesies of the cynics. That is what makes this book relevant even in the age of Twenty20.

Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com.

Indra Vikram Singh's books published by Sporting Links are distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi – 110 001, Phones + 91 11 23417175 and 23412567.

The blossoming of boy Bradman. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

Don Bradman practising with stump and golf ball.

This is indeed an amazing story of a simple country boy who traversed from a slab hut on his father’s small farm in the village of Yeo Yeo in New South Wales to become the biggest name that the game of cricket has known. His mother Emily (nee Whatman) travelled twenty-five kilometres to give birth in a small nursing home run by a lady by the name of Mrs. Scholz in a by-lane of the town of Cootamundra, around 380 kilometres south-west of Sydney. Baby Don was born in the front room, with a log fire to keep the Australian winter away. The cottage on 89 Adam Street became a museum, drawing hordes of cricket fans, His parents were Protestants, second-generation immigrants from Suffolk, England, the original surname believed to be Bradnam.

In 1911, when Don was two-a-half years old, the family shifted to Bowral, now a ninety-minute drive from Sydney, in order that his mother, who was keeping indifferent health, would find its salubrious clime refreshing. The other reason, of course, was that destiny beckoned the boy to come and chart the path laid out for him.

The youngest of five children - brother Victor, sisters Islet, Lillian and May - Don helped father George with his woodwork, and as a young lad thought he would turn into a house painter. Picturesque Bowral at 2000 feet in the Southern Highlands, about 110 kilometres south of Sydney, did indeed suit the Bradmans. Its equivalent in India might be Dehra Dun, a valley nestling at a similar altitude between the Shivalik Hills and the foothills of the Himalayas. But this Dehra Dun would not be the present capital of Uttarakhand, or even the earlier bustling town of western Uttar Pradesh. It would actually be the Dehra Dun that was a pensioners’ retreat and institutional haven of the first six decades of the twentieth century, of grey hair and green hedges, of canals, monsoon rivers and Irish bridges, of hills and forests, located equidistant from the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna. The Bradman family’s fortunes rocketed at Bowral, and George Bradman became a builder in his own right. Within a decade they were living in their three-bedroom bungalow on Shepherd Street, just across a large park. All of Don’s siblings carved out good lives for themselves.

Naturally gifted as he was, lonely Don found refuge in sport. The way he practised with a stump and golf ball is part of folklore, and it revealed from a tender age the single-minded dedication that he was admired, and at times loathed, for. He became reclusive and focussed, and as he grew his goal was to excel at cricket. Success was for him paramount. It came to him in such abundant measure that he left an indelible mark in the annals of the game. In the pantheon of greats, the first name etched in letters of gold is Don Bradman, probably forever.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com

Follow Indra Vikram Singh on Twitter @IVRajpipla).

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0, Fully Illustrated

French Fold 21.5 cm x 28 cm, 188 Pages

Price Rupees 995

Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:   

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6   

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3   

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0   

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

Distributed in India by:  Variety Book Depot, AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001, India. Tel. + 91 11 23417175, 23412567.

Gipsy Lee, and her uncanny forecast relating to the win of Windsor Lad owned by Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla in the Epsom Derby 1934

Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla leading his horse Windsor Lad after winning the Epsom Derby 1934

I wrote in my book ‘A Maharaja’s Turf’ about an uncanny forecast made by Gipsy Lee 66 years earlier:

“Way back in 1868, a young lady by the name of Mrs. Boswell, popularly known as Gipsy Lee, made a forecast that no horse with a ‘W’ in its name would win the Derby until a year after her death. The story goes that a peer, as he walking past Gipsy Lee just as the Derby of 1868 was about to start, asked her to predict which horse would win. She was wearing a blue dress and replied, “Look at my frock.” The brusque lord told her to write it down, and she scribbled, “Blew Gown”. As it happened, Blue Gown won that Derby.

Just as he was passing by again, the aristocrat threw a sterling at Gipsy Lee and scoffed, “Go learn some spelling.” Miffed at this condescending behaviour, the furious soothsayer shot back, “You will not live to see another Derby and no horse with a ‘W’ in its name will win the Derby till the year after I die.”

Gipsy Lee lived to a ripe old age and during her lifetime no horse with a ‘W’ in its name was able to wrest the Derby, even though Orwell and William IV were heavily fancied. She died in 1933.

This is no apocryphal tale, for 1934 being the year after her death and Windsor Lad being one of the fancied horses, though not the favourite, there was incredible excitement all around. Everyone from the racegoers to the mammoth media contingent was abuzz with the prophesy of Gipsy Lee. Would her prediction come true, was the question? And so it came to pass that Windsor Lad did indeed triumph. The non-believers were nonplussed, the believers were jubilant.

Whether this was a quirk of fate, or whether Gipsy Lee was actually psychic, it is hard to say. The fact is that her prophesy did come true.”

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Who exactly was Gipsy Lee? The website romanygenes.com/ states: “Rainie (Urania) Boswell, nee Lee, was the famous 'Gipsy Lee' - often mistakenly called Gypsy 'Rose' Lee - the fortune-teller whose national fame for that skill was at its height in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Urania Lee was born in June 1851. Her father was Abraham Lee (born 28 May 1830), a travelling brazier tinker of Charlton. Her mother was Mary Smith (alias Sarah 'Pol' Lee) of Devil's Dyke.

Urania and her husband Levi, sometimes referred to as the 'King of the Gypsies',

settled in Farnborough, Kent. In the early years in North Kent, Levi owned several donkeys which he used to hire out for rides. The 1891 Census records him with such an occupation:

Caravan & Tent Crofton Road Orpington Kent

Levi Boswell, head, 47 years, lets out donkeys and ponies for hire, born Wanstead, Essex

Rainie Boswell, wife, 44 years, born - not known

Georgina Boswell, daughter, 14 years, born Kensal New Town, Middlesex

Nora Boswell, daughter, 12 years, born Dulwich

Levi Boswell, son, 9 years, born Chislehurst

Indeed for over 70 years Levi's family had a stand for donkeys on Blackheath, just opposite the main gates of Greenwich Park. Every morning the donkeys were driven there, and in the evening back to wherever they were staying - in later years in Farnborough, Kent. Charles Dickens lived in North Kent, and in his 'Sketches by Boz' wrote of such a donkey ride by two Victorian misses. Levi Boswell was known at every horse fair and fete in the county (and others) and was reputed to be without equal as a horse dealer.

Urania Lee Boswell or Gipsy Lee had a nationwide reputation as a palmist and fortune teller. Among her patrons were people from all classes of society, from the poorest to the greatest in the land. Lords and dukes were not ashamed to listen to her advice, and throughout the district she was a familiar figure … She owned property in many places, and spent six months of the year at Ramsgate, where she had a home, Margate, and other resorts. The other six months were spent as a rule in her cottage at Willow Walk, Farnborough.

Gipsy Lee, Mrs. Urania Lee Boswell 

Like all her family, Mrs. Boswell was an expert horsewoman, and she used to drive and break horses for her husband. She met with many accidents from time to time, and some 40 years ago when the wheel of a trap in which she was driving broke she fell and was dragged for a long distance by the runaway horse. Seven years later when driving a mule she was again thrown, and her face was badly cut, but she walked nearly half a mile to Farnborough hospital, bleeding profusely. Scarcely had she recovered from this accident when a branch of a tree under which she was sheltering fell on her.

The website romanygenes.com goes on to say: “A nephew of theirs, Len Dighton, was interviewed for an article, which appeared in the Orpington local press on 2nd September 1976. An extract states:

"Levi Boswell owned acres of land at Tugmutton Common, Farnborough, and his 300 thoroughbred horses ranged over what is now Farnborough Hospital. Lords and ladies from all over the world used to visit his stables, stocked from the best horses from Ireland and Wales. After buying their horses they would visit Gipsy Rose Lee who would tell the ladies what sort of man they would marry and the men what horse was going to win the Derby.

"Rose Lee and Levi did not really get on that well - she lived in a bungalow and he lived in a thatched cottage just down the road," Len recalled. "But they were both the best in their field - if Rose Lee told your fortune you knew that was how it was going to be. She always wanted to tell mine but I was too scared of what she might see and always refused."

At the age of 12, Len witnessed an event which has stayed in his memory ever since - the death of his uncle, the 'King of the Gipsies'. In 1924, at the age of 77, the old man died - and all the gypsies in Britain went into mourning. The splendid black funeral carriage pulled by a team of six black horses, drove from Locks Bottom to St Giles the Abbot Church at Farnborough, followed by hundreds of gypsies and members of the gentry. Len said, "He was a hard man, but respected by everyone and his funeral was a sight I shall never forget.

I remember walking back to his cottage and seeing rows of his horses, with their heads bowed, facing towards his cottage, as if they knew."

The Times of 8th May 1924 wrote:

"The death has occurred at Farnborough, Kent, of Levi Boswell, the head of the Boswell tribe of Romanies, who have relatives in all parts of the world. His widow, Urania Boswell, known as the Gypsy Queen, is a descendent of the original Gypsy Lee. For 300 years the two great Romany tribes, the Boswells and Lees, have intermarried. Levi Boswell was formerly a widely known horse dealer, but for some years he had been living in retirement in a Farnborough cottage. The funeral at Farnborough this afternoon will be attended by Gypsies from all over the country."

The funeral was also reported in The District Times, on 9 May 1924:

"The passing of a Gipsy king - Death of Levi Boswell - Yesterday's funeral pageant

The passing of a great Gypsy King, Levi Boswell (whose spouse is allied to the famous Lee family, and is popularly known as 'the Gypsy Queen') occurred on Thursday of last week, at the age of 77 years. The great Boswell was known to every horse fair and fete in the country. As a horse dealer he was without an equal, and his aid was sought by many in search of a horse if not a kingdom - and they could always rely upon Boswell for a square deal. Then, what of his herds of donkeys - and such donkeys they were. Levi Boswell had acquired the property which he occupied at Willow Walk, Tugmutton Green, Farnborough, and here the family (and donkeys) thrived. Now, alas, there is a widowed Gypsy Queen, and all that remained of the famous Boswell was committed to mother earth at Farnborough churchyard yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. There was an attendance of nearly a thousand people, many of whom came from various parts of the country, and there was a large percentage of the Gypsy tribe amongst them…"

In early April 1933, Urania Boswell had a fall just outside her door, and when a milkman arrived to deliver there he found her lying unconscious. He roused the family, and she was got into bed, and she never got up again. For the last fortnight of her life her brother (Job ‘Joby’ Lee) was with her, and during the last few days he sat by her side night and day, never sleeping and hardly moving away to change his clothes.

She died on 24 April 1933 aged 82 years at 7 Willow Walk, Farnborough. On the death certificate she was the "widow of Levi Boswell, horse dealer". A full report appeared in The Kentish Times, on 28 April 1933:

"…..It was a queen, lying in state, for Mrs. Urania Boswell, widow of the late Mr. Levi Boswell, had been, since her husband's death, the accepted leader of the great clan of Lees and Boswells, almost the last great families of the Romany tribe.

The funeral takes place at Farnborough Churchyard this afternoon (Friday) and all this week members of the family and friends have been hastening from all parts of the country to be present. It is not every day that a queen dies, and Gypsy Lee will be given a royal funeral."

The traditional cortege with black horses and outriders, and the following of hundreds of her husband’s 'subjects' will be repeated today (Friday) at Mrs. Boswell's funeral. She leaves three sons, Herbert, Kenza, and Levi Boswell, and a daughter, who are also well known.

Now let her brother Job Lee tell his story of how she foretold her own passing. "On the morning before she died," he said, "a rain thrush came and sat on the tree behind the house. She said to me 'My time is getting near now. It is the first time that thrush has been here for three years. My time is getting near and we shall have rain now for a couple of days.' Then her death bird came over at night time. It is a bird we never see, and we don't know what it is. But it has a sweet noise. It sang 'sweet, sweet' and it came over three times that night. 'Now it is over' she said, 'tomorrow morning about six or seven o'clock I shall say adieu to you all.' The next morning about a quarter or half past seven, a minute before she died she said, 'Good bye to you all. I have finished,' and she died. She never lost her faculties from the time of her illness till her death, nor did she lose her courage, although she knew she was dying. There must be something stoical about the make-up of this family, for her brother told our representative that his sister had 'dated him' and he would die 'three years next March'. 'She told me so, and so it will be,' he said, 'and you will remember then what I told you.' And there was not a tremor in his voice, no more emotion than when he told us of his own life, of his triumphs in the boxing ring when he travelled the country with a boxing booth and 'beat all the champions at 9st 6lbs' or of his circus experiences, his falls and broken bones, or of the time when he was injured by a roundabout and lay with broken bones underneath it for an hour.”

*  *  *  * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Those are stories about Urania Lee Boswell, or Gipsy Lee. As she had foretold a horse with a ‘W’ in its name - Windsor Lad - won The Derby in 1934, the year after she died. Windsor Lad, owned by my grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla, beat the hitherto undefeated favourite Colombo who was considered almost a certainty to win the blue riband that year. Even so, Epsom was agog with Gipsy Lee’s prediction before the race, especially as Windsor Lad was one of the fancied horses. Windsor Lad won, making Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla the only Indian owner ever to win The Derby before a multitude that was estimated to be somewhere between a quarter and a half million, and the entire British royal family led by King George V and Queen Mary. Certainly, Epsom Derby 1934 is one of the most fascinating sagas in the history of racing.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh - grandson of Maharaja Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla - can be contacted on email teddy.rajpipla@gmail.com and singh_iv@hotmail.com. His other blog is singhiv.wordpress.com).

A Maharaja’s Turf  

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

Distributed in India by:  

Variety Book Depot, 

AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus,

New Delhi - 110 001.  Tel. +91 11 23417175, 23412567.

British Pathe video of the Epsom Derby 1934 won by my grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla's horse Windsor Lad

Here is the link to the British Pathe video of the Epsom Derby 1934. My grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla is still the only Indian owner to win this blue riband of the turf, which began in 1780. His horse Windsor Lad triumphed on 6th June 1934, leaving the hitherto unbeaten hot favourite Colombo trailing in third place. There were an estimated quarter to a half million people on the Epsom Downs that damp afternoon, including the entire British royal family led by King George V and Queen Mary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO-Q51JsgFI

I have recounted the story of this exhilarating victory in my book 'A Maharaja's Turf'.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh - grandson of Maharaja Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla - can be contacted on email teddy.rajpipla@gmail.com and singh_iv@hotmail.com. His other blog is singhiv.wordpress.com).

A Maharaja’s Turf  

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

Distributed in India by :  

Variety Book Depot, 

AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus,

New Delhi - 110 001.  Tel. +91 11 23417175, 23412567.

“The straight ball was charmed away to the leg-boundary.” So said Cardus about Ranji. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

In the twilight of W.G. Grace’s long career dawned what came to be known as The Golden Age of Cricket. This was the twenty-year period before the First World War - 1894 to 1914. As Hartland explained in his The Balance of Power in Test Cricket 1877-1998: “This is largely because pitches had improved, but not too much, and the balance between bat and ball was just about right. In England cricket was at its highest level of popularity relative to other sports, notably football. Another reason is that England and Australia were more evenly matched than at any time. (Test) Matches in England were still limited to three days, while those in Australia were played to a finish.” Vic Marks added in The Wisden Illustrated History of Cricket, “Most of the innovations had already taken place, now was the time to lie back and enjoy the national game at your leisure. The Empire was secure; all that was to be feared was the possibility of a wet summer.”

Batting, having already been defined by Grace, saw its next two stars descend from distant lands. If Prince Ranjitsinhji, later the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, delighted with his artistry at the crease, the Aussie Victor Trumper provided the thrills with his panache. The very thought of Ranji conjures images of the leg-glance. He was the inventor of the shot, one that was patently his own and an early glimpse of the suppleness of wrists that characterised the batting of later Indian stalwarts Gundappa Viswanath, Mohammad Azharuddin and V.V.S. Laxman.

Ranji worked hard to hone his talent, hiring professional bowlers from Surrey while he was at Cambridge. Simon Wilde wrote in his biography Ranji A Genius Rich and Strange: “He practised with as much purpose whether he had just been out for 100 or for 0. He was a severe critic of his own game, and if he was indeed a genius it was for his infinite capacity for taking pains, not for becoming a superlative cricketer overnight. He enjoyed theorizing about the game and putting those theories into practice.”

The outcome was a batting style that was as unique as it was novel, and it perplexed the English. Cardus elucidated in Good Days (1934): “In the ‘nineties the game was absolutely English; it was even Victorian. W.G. Grace for years had stamped on cricket the English mark and the mark of the period. It was the age of simple first principles, of the stout respectability of the straight bat and the good-length balls. And then suddenly this visitation of dusky, supple legerdemain happened; a man was seen playing cricket as nobody in England could possibly have played it. The honest length ball was not met by the honest straight bat, but there was a flick of the wrist, and lo! The straight ball was charmed away to the leg-boundary. And nobody quite saw or understood how it all happened.”

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com.

Follow Indra Vikram Singh on Twitter @IVRajpipla.)

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0, Fully Illustrated

French Fold 21.5 cm x 28 cm, 188 Pages
Price Rupees 995

Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:   

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6   

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3   

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0   

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

Distributed in India by:  Variety Book Depot, AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001, India. Tel. + 91 11 23417175, 23412567.