Tail Quarter
A Test Match at the Eden Gardens: Quarter of a century ago
The immigration officer at the Dam Dam Airport (Calcutta) looked a bit too pensive for a new year’s day. Admittedly, the weather was unusually gloomy for this time of the year. As we had left Dhaka about an hour ago, we had seen clouds all around the sky. The weather worsened further during our short fly. Frequent bumping made my first ever plane journey feel like a nightmare. As we landed at Calcutta, we were greeted by light drizzle. It was very light indeed, but it was enough to make us feel uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings. More importantly (at least from the Immigration officer’s point of view) this light drizzle combined with poor light was enough to postpone the play after only 8 overs at the Eden Gardens. This was the 2nd day of the 3rd test (in a 5 test series) between the hosts India and England. Soon the drizzle became heavier, ending any remote chance of resumption of play for the day.
Of course, the young officer was not the only one upset about so little play. The England captain David Gower seemed extremely reluctant to come off the field. In fact, if anybody was happy to see dark clouds hovering all around the sky on a new year’s day, it was the England captain. He came to India following a disastrous summer, when his side was ‘White Washed’ 5-0 by the mighty Windies. A lackluster performance in the drawn match at Lord’s against SL, the new boys of world cricket followed. And here in India, they were quite predictably well beaten on the 1st test of the series, at Mumbai. After struggling badly to cope with the pace of Marshall and Garner throughout the summer, the English batsmen failed miserably against the leg spin of young Laxman Shivaramakrishnan. The leg spinner from Tamil Nadu took 12 wickets to ensure that Gatting’s brave hundred in the 2nd innings went in vain. Already, there were talks of another ‘White-wash’. Yet, the Englishmen fought back brilliantly to win the 2nd test at Delhi.
Here in Caclutta, they did well on the 1st day to restrict India to 168/4, 3 of the wickets falling to the left arm spin of Phil Edmonds. This might give the false impression that the ball was turning square on, actually it was a mixture of good thoughtful bowling mixed with not so good batting that resulted in England taking the initiative. Both Vengsarkar (48) and Amarnath (42) threw it away after looking set. At the close of play, debutant Azharuddin (13*) was at the wicket with in form Ravi Shastri (26*).
On the 2nd morning, as the conditions looked perfect for seam bowling, Gower relied on his faster bowlers Cowans and Ellison. Specially, Ellison, from Kent was ideally suited for such condition. Despite his impressive debut in the summer, at the Oval, he was considered a gamble for ‘The Passage to India’; mainly because the Indian conditions are never suitable for swing bowling. But, Ellison bowled well to take 4 wickets in the first innings at Delhi, and here, although he was wicket-less on the 1st day, he looked ominous on the 2nd morning, getting prodigious swing in both directions. Both Ravi Shastri and Azharuddin played and missed on numerous occasions.
While, it was not completely unfamiliar experience for Ravi, having toured NZ and England before, it was a new experience for the rookie Azza. A consistent performer in India’s domestic cricket for a number of years, he also impressed in the Zimbabwe tour with the India U-25 side (led by Ravi Shastri), during the 83-84 season. Here, he got his chance, after Sandip Patil’s technique against short pitch bowling looked extremely suspicious in the previous two test matches. Ironically, Azharuddin’s own technique against the short stuff would be questioned many times by the pundits during his long and eventful career. But, here on this gloomy January day, he faced little short pitch bowling. Instead, the England bowlers pitched the ball up leaving the conditions to do the rest.
And it did a lot. The England keeper Paul Downton (like Ellison, originally from Kent, but now playing for Middlesex), and the slip cordon waited in great anticipation as balls after balls whizzed pass the bat of the right-handers. There were plenty of ahs and uhs, and close shouts, but sadly for England no breakthroughs. Perhaps, the inexperience of the two England seam bowlers played a part. They tried to take wickets almost every ball. A more experience bowler like Willis or Botham would have tried a slightly different approach. They would have kept it nice and steady, and perhaps producing one or two effort balls each over.
Only 8 runs were added in the roughly half an hour’s play on the 2nd morning, but to their great credit, the two Indian batsmen survived this difficult period. Then the weather and the umpires came to their rescue. Gower, the England skipper, looked completely bemused by the decision to come off. To him, the conditions were good enough to continue. Here, perhaps, the cricketing culture of the nations conflicted. In England, it’s not uncommon to play cricket in dim light, even amidst slight drizzle. Here, in the subcontinent, before the days, of floodlit cricket, cricket was always associated with bright, sunny days. The fielders getting tired in the mid-afternoon heat, the bat shining in blazing sunshine, the spectators taking a soft bite at the ice creams, these are the traditional scenarios in sub-continent cricket. So, not surprisingly, the umpires Ganguly and Vikramraju quickly decided to call off the play once the light drizzle started to fall over Eden.
So, there was no further play on the day. The vast crowd waited, trying to find different ways to amuse themselves; only a very small portion of them deciding to spend their afternoon elsewhere. The players were confined to the pavilion. A photo appeared in the newspapers the next morning, showing the England Vice-Captain Gatting playing cards with the journalists. This picture perhaps told the story of the day. The first day of 1985, was just not suitable for test cricket at the Eden Gardens.
The weather remained pretty much the same the following day. Fortunately, Jan 2nd was reserved for the rest day. Yes, there used to be rest days in test matches in those days. (These were the days before the Mobile phone, satellite Channels, Internet Connections etc.. Things moved (or, at least appear to move) rather slowly). The game restarted on the next day amidst brilliant sunshine.
I was fortunate to be present at the Eden garden to watch this 3rd days play. Getting a ticket at the middle of a test match at Eden gardens was not easy. The tickets in those days used to be for the whole test match (5 days), and expecting someone to miss a day after buying a ticket was like expecting someone being invited in the royal wedding and missing it because his pet was unwell. Still, my dad used his connection at Calcutta, not only to get a seat for me. In fact I sat at the members’ pavilion, just adjacent to the players’ pavilion. Not only did I get a perfect view from behind the bowlers arm, I could get a pretty close view of the players themselves.
As England went out to field, Gower looked rather thoughtful, but his deputy Mike Gatting looked extremely relaxed and happy. This was understandable. Back in June, at Lord’s Gatting was out LBW to Marshall, playing no stroke. Many at the time thought this to be the end of his international character. More than 6 years after his test debut at Karachi, in Jan 1978, 81 remained his highest test score. It would possibly have remained his highest score if the selectors, in a surprise move, hadn’t picked him as the deputy to Gower, ahead of Chris Tavare. Tavare, possibly angered the selectors, with his slow batting at Lord’s against a depleted SL bowling, in August. But, perhaps the decision was made after the Natwest final, also at Lord’s, towards the end of the summer. There, Middlesex, led by Gatting, won a thrilling last ball victory over Tavare’s Kent.
Having got the verdict of the selectors, it was now Gatting’s turn to fully vindicate it. At Mumbai, he fought for more than 5 hours, in England’s 2nd innings. His 136 included 21 hits to the four. He dominated a 135 run 2nd wicket stand with Fowler, but after that there was little support. So, his brave effort went in vain, But, England came back at Delhi. Gatting again played his part in the 2nd innings, his quick-fire unbeaten 30, of just 32 deliveries, plus Lamb’s 37 of 38, took England home to a 8 wicket win on the final day.
Back at Calcutta, the England fielders were followed by the two Indian batsmen, Shastri and Azharuddin. Azharuddin played the first scoring shot of the day, a delicate late cut for 2, and the whole ground stood up. It took me a little bit of time to realise that the couple of runs had completed the fifty run partnership between the two. The two would eventually put on 214 runs for the 5th wicket, but towards the end of their effort, no one was bothering to cheer anymore. They had become tired watching boring cricket. India, for some reason or other was playing here for a draw.
This strange tactics by the home side might have something to do with their poor test record in the 80′s. Their victory earlier in the series, at Mumbai, was their first in almost 4 years. India might have won the WC in 1983; but 1983 was a season of darkness for the Indian test team. In January, they ended a disastrous tour of Pakistan, losing 3-0 in a 6 match. In the spring they lost 2-0 in the Windies. Worst was to follow. WI came to India in the autumn, with only one thing mind; revenge. They won all the limited over fixtures, and thrashed india 3-0 in the test series. This series against England was expected to be a morale-booster for them. But, after succumbing to the harmless spin of Edmonds and Pocock on the final day at Delhi, they looked awfully short of confidence here.
Gower, perhaps was a bit surprised to see the negative approach of the home team. With Botham opting out of the tour, his fast bowling resources were limited. Traditionally, the wicket at the Eden Gardens had always been very slow. Yet, some great fast bowlers of the 70′s and 80′s had made their mark at the Edens. Just a year earlier, Malcolm Marshall and Micheal Holding had destroyed the Indian batting here, as India lost by an innings with the match finishing on the 4th morning. Back in 1979/80, Imran Khan very nearly won a test match, bowling at a blistering pace on the 4th day. Going further back, Andy Roberts struck the head of the then Indian captain Pataudi, with a fierce bouncer in 1974-75. India was bowled out on the first day, but a brilliant 139 by Vishwanath on the 2nd innings led them to a memorable victory. Unfortunately, Gower didn’t possess same bowling talent in his side.
On the 3rd day of this test match, Norman Cowans opened the bowling from the High-Court end. The Jamaican born fast bowler had an excellent bowling action. While he lacked the hostile pace of another Jamaican, Micheal Holding, he certainly impressed me with his lovely approach to the wickets. One felt certain that the cricketing world would hear a lot about this young man, still in his early 20′s. I proved to be wrong. He would work hard during this tour, picking up 2/3 wickets here and there, (looking lively with the new ball, but proving ineffective with the old), to finish with 14 victims, still, not a bad return in slow pitches. But, then at Headingley, on the opening match of the Ashes series, he would bowl too short, and pay the penalty. That would be his last test match, although he would remain in the 1st class cricket for a number of years after that.
At the other end, it was Richard Ellison who started the bowling. He was accurate, but it was clear to him very early today, that his chance had come and gone couple days earlier. There was absolutely no swing for him today, and he didn’t have the pace of Cowans to make the batsmen hurry for their shots. Indeed Ellison would finish the match wicket-less and would lose his place to Neal Foster. Foster would be England’s hero at Chennai, in the 4th test, where his 12 wickets, combined with double hundreds from Fowler and Gatting would take England to a famous victory. To his great credit, Ellison would make a triumphant return to lead the England bowling attack in the last two Ashes tests in the summer.
After an hour’s play, the spinners were on. Phil Edmonds had bowled cunningly to take 3 wickets on the 1st day. Here, he was his usual self, not giving too much flight to his deliveries, waiting for the batsmen to take the risks. They never took any risk. Edmonds would eventually end with figures of 3/72 from 47 overs. He did bowl intelligently, but even his biggest fan would admit that perhaps these figures flattered him. At the other end, Pocock, the veteran off-spinner, never had the guile to trouble top class batsmen, and here he was happy to bowl a number of maiden overs, as Indian duo remained in their shells.
The only success for the English came late in the day, Gower catching Azza of the bowling of Cowans. But, not before the young man from Hyderabad had joined the list of debut century-makers in test cricket. This was not the vintage Azhar. His 110 took more than 7 hours, but then he followed the instructions from the dressing rooms.
After slow cricket for almost the entire day, the crowd would have loved to see some late flurry. But, sadly for them, the one man who could have provided that (Kapil Dev) was dropped from the Indian team for this match in fairly acrimonious circumstances (More about that later). Instead, it was WK Kirmani who came to the crease. He and Shastri played out the reaming overs safely, India finished the day at 348/5 (Shastri 108*). The day produced just 172 runs for one wicket. Not the most eventful day in cricket history.
I was there again the next day. But this time, I sat on the opposite side. As I entered the ground, I saw quite a few empty seats here and there. Obviously the slow batting of the Indian team had disappointed them. I was bit late in taking my seat, and just as I did so, Shastri was bowled by Cowans. Shahstri became another victim of the 111 hoodoo. Interestingly, his dismissal was greeted with great cheer by the crowd. This was Shastri’s 2nd ton of the series; but while his 142 at the wankhede had helped India win the match, this hundred saved the test match for india, although there never was any danger here for the home-side. Interestingly, just days after this match, Shastri would smash 200 for Mumbai against Baroda, lofting a slow bowler from Baroda for 6 sixes in one over.
Shastri;’s departure however, didn’t change the pattern of Indian batting, as all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar joined Kirmani. One could understand Prabhakar’s caution. This was his 2nd test match, having made his debut at Delhi. But, the veteran Kirmani disappointed us all. He looked hungry early on, lofting Pocock for a straight six. But, that was just about the only attacking shot in the morning session.
By lunchtime, even the England captain had had enough. So, immediately after lunch, he brought himself on. Gower, one of the most elegant left handed batsman ever seen in world cricket, bowled gentle right arm off breaks, or off cutters. But, such was the negative approach of the Indian batsmen that even his lolly-polly’s were taken seriously, and his 3 overs yielded just 13 runs. Finally, at the middle of the afternoon session, India declared, 437/7, they had batted for exactly 200 overs.
In the morning of day I felt slight pain in my teeth. The pain increased as the day progressed, and at the tea break I had to leave the ground to take rest at the hotel. Nevertheless, before leaving I saw a bit of England batting and Indian bowling. The England openers, Fowler and Robinson, both in pretty good touch, tried their best to entertain the crowd. They didn’t play too many big shots, but looked for quick 1s and the 2s. As for the Indian bowling, the opening pair of Chetan Sharma (4th Test) and Manoj Prabhakar (2nd test) was one of the most inexperienced new ball attack India had had for years. The problem was due to the absence of India’s greatest all-rounder ever, Kapil Dev.
During this match, there was possibly more discussion about a man missing the test match than the players playing in it. After the Delhi defeat Kapil was dropped ostensibly on disciplinary grounds, but the whole thing was shrouded in mystery. Over at Delhi, Kapil had come out to bat 2nd time with the Indian score at 207/5.With a slender lead of about 100 India were trying to play out the 5th day. Kapil, however, decided to play his natural game, and immediately after coming to the crease effortlessly lofted off spinner Pocock to the mid on fence. But, just minutes later he tried the same shot, but this time only lofted the ball straight to the hands of Lamb at the deep. A spectacular collapse saw India slumping to 235 all out and losing the game by 8 wickets.
Now, Kapil had both his critics and supporters. His critics said that the shot Kapil played was an act of sheer lack of commonsense, and hence came the chop. But, his supporters also had their points. Was Kapil alone to blame for the defeat? The Indian batting throughout the match was ordinary. In fact, in the 1st innings Kapil had top scored with a knock of 60. They also pointed out this was how Kapil had always batted, and it had worked pretty well for 6 years (since his debut in 1978), (and it would work pretty well for 10 more years). Just because he failed at Delhi didn’t seem a strong enough cause to drop him. Another point, his fans made was that, if the 2nd shot was a bad one, then the first was also not a responsible one, under the circumstances. But, wasn’t there a big cheer as the ball sailed over the ropes.? Kapil’s fans felt that there hero was treated rather unfairly, but the board’s decision stood, and Kapil was dropped for one match.
Both Chetan and Manoj tried their best. But, their resources were limited. Chetan bowling form the Club-House end had a bustling run up to the wicket. He diidn’t posses the build of a fast bowler, but he could be deceptively quick, as Mohsin Khan had found out, earlier in the season, getting out to Chetan in Chetan’s 5th ball in test cricket. Here Chetan looked ineffective with the new ball, but would eventually finish with the highly impressive figures of 4/38, cleaning up the England tail, the next day.
At the other end, Prabhakar had a long but fairly slow run up to the wicket. He was basically a swing bowler, but there wasn’t any swing on this day. Even when he could swing the ball late, his lack of pace meant that the batsmen could always play of the front foot, easily coping with the late movement and virtually nullifying any chance of LBW. His overall record of 96 wickets from 39 tests, having almost always taken the new ball, doesn’t sound impressive. He basically held onto his place for his useful batting. He was a lower order batsman, who could come up the order if necessary. In fact, for some inexplicable reasons, during the 1989 test match against Pakistan, at Karachi, Prabhakar was sent at No.5, ahead of the debutant Sachin Tendulkar, a story that the former rather than the latter is likely to share with his grandchildren.
Back to Calcutta, 1985, after some fairly accurate but harmless overs from the medium pacers, the spinners took over. For the Calcutta crowd, this was just like the old days in the 70′s, when the medium pacers (Madan Lal, Ghavri, Solkar and others) would bowl a few overs, just to take the shine of the ball before the spinners (Chandra, Bedi and Prasanna) would take over. Unfortunately, the spinners here, Yadav and ShivaramaKrishnan , were rather poor substitutes of their illustrious predecessors. Admittedly, Shiva had taken 12 wickets at Mumbai, but Gatting’s hundred there followed by Tim Robinson’s 160 at Delhi, gave suggestions that the English batsmen were starting to handle him a lot better. Indeed, he would prove to be largely ineffective in the 2nd half of the series. Like most leg spinners, he liked pace and bounce in the wicket, but there was neither bounce nor pace in the Eden Garden wicket.
Yadav, the off spinner, bowling from the other end, was given the unenviable task of replacing the great Prasanna in the Indian team in the late 70′s. This task would always be beyond Yadav, partly because he was a different type of bowler from Pras. Prasanna was aggressive, always trying to get the batsman out; Yadav was miserly, but never had the killer instinct of a match winning bowler. Here, he quickly settled into nice line and lengths, but sadly, there was no variation of flight. Unless, the batsmen took any risks, it didn’t appear that Yadav would get them. Still, he would finish with fairly impressive figures of 4/86, but after going wicket-less at Chennai would lose his place to Gopal Sharma.
England finished the day on 99/2, but the newspapers next morning focused less on the cricket played, and more on the attack on Indian captain Gavaskar and his wife by the angry supporters. A very indignant Sunil vowed never to play cricket at the Eden Gardens again. Indeed, he would opt out of the 1987 test against Imran Khan’s Pakistan, when local boy Arun Lal would replace him. With the 1987 WC final scheduled for Calcutta, there were speculations regarding whether or not he would break his vow. In any case, India lost in the semis making all such speculations irrelevant.
A small crowd of around 20,000 watched the final days play. I was not among them, as I travelled with my family to other interesting places of Calcutta. The England batsmen opted for some batting practice, Lamb top scored with 67, but it was once again Mike Gatting, with a quick-fire 48 of 48 balls (6 fours and one six) who gave the crowd the biggest entertainment.
The last act of India batting 2nd time, (29/1 from 18 overs) was a matter of interest only for the statisticians. Shastri opened the innings, joining the small band of cricketers to have batted on all the five days of a test match. Prabhakar opened the innings with him, thus for the 2nd successive test match getting the honor of opening both the batting and bowling for his side. And, finally, Prabahakar, fell for 21, LBW to Allan Lamb, giving the Northampton-shire player his only test wicket.
So., for most people this 3rd test match was a forgettable affair. The cricket was slow, the batting lacked aggression, the bowling from both the sides looked ordinary. To be fair to the players, the pitch didn’t encourage exciting cricket. Ad of course, the weather intervened badly on the 2nd day. Overall, it was a disappointing affair. But, I will never forget the experience of watching cricket at the Eden Gardens. The whole atmosphere was different from anywhere else. The crowd is extremely knowledgeable; aware of even the trivial facts. They are passionate supporters of India, but always ready to applaud good cricket by the opponents. In my opinion a cricket lovers appetite should never be fully satisfied until he watches a test match at the Eden Gardens Calcutta.
About the Author
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