My Life with Cricket - 18

In 1988-89, England was supposed to be in India, but the tour was canceled since the Indian government refused to grant visas to the players who had been to South Africa on a rebel tour. England's newly appointed captain, Graham Gooch, would not have been allowed, along with John Emburey, both of whom had been to South Africa in 1982. They had served their three-year international ban and were playing for England since 1985. In fact, in 1987, both were in India for the World Cup. I was left wondering what was so special this time that they were denied the visas. Perhaps the Indian board did not wish to rock the World Cup, but the bilateral series was expendable.

In November 1988, New Zealand came to India for a 3-test series and a handful of ODIs. Most importantly, Sir Richard Hadlee was part of the team. It would be my first chance to see him bowl in a test. I recall that Hadlee was very specific about his tours – he would not travel to the subcontinent, especially Pakistan. I do not know if it was his first visit to India or if he had played here before. I also did not know why Hadlee traveled to Sri Lanka in 1987 – the series in which a bomb exploded outside the New Zealand team and cricket was gone from Sri Lanka for 5 years. Maybe Hadlee wanted to ensure that he played in all test-playing nations. Either way, on the very first morning of the test series, Hadlee dismissed Srikkanth and Arun Lal and claimed the world record for most wickets from Ian Botham. He ended up with a fifer, but India won the test.

This series was decided by the spin duo Arshad Ayub and Narendra Hirwani. Since Martin Crowe had not come, New Zealand's batting was very fragile and depended upon John Wright, though there were talented players like Mark Greatbatch and Andrew Jones. New Zealand did win a Test, though, their last in India to date, aided by Hadlee’s 10-wicket haul. Another unsung player also had a big hand in the win, John Bracewell, who bowled Indian captain Vengsarkar for a duck en route to claiming 6 wickets in the second innings.

Hadlee went back after the Tests, and an unremarkable ODI series was won by India. In the fourth game, though, Azharuddin, out of nowhere, produced the then fastest hundred (62 balls) in ODIs, breaking Javed Miandad’s record. The final game, to be played in Guwahati, was supposed to be the debut game for Bhaskar Pillai, the talented Delhi batsman, but the game was rained off, and Pillai never got to play again.

Following this series, India did not host a Test match series for the next three seasons. Specifically, from January 1989 to January 1993, India played just one Test at home against a relatively weak Sri Lankan team in November 1990, which India won by an innings despite scoring only around 280 runs. In that match, Asanka Gurusinha scored 52 not out in Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 82, likely ranking among the top ten for the percentage of runs scored by a batsman.

From 1988-89 to 1992-93, India visited all test-playing nations except Sri Lanka. This global tour commenced with the West Indies trip in April and May 1989. It was their first face-off with a full-strength West Indies team since 1983-84. India appeared as vulnerable as any team ever has. Dilip Vengsarkar faced significant challenges as a batsman, while Srikkanth, Arun Lal, and Azharuddin also struggled. Mohinder Amarnath was out of the contention following a dispute with the selectors, to whom he referred to as "a bunch of jokers."

In the ODIs, which took place first, the West Indies were unbeatable. India couldn't post a respectable total except in the fourth match, where Vengsarkar scored a steady 88 runs. Although India managed to contain Viv Richards, the West Indies were too formidable for India to offer any real competition. A year earlier, England had defeated the same West Indies team 3-0, albeit in England, leaving us to question why India couldn't even compete.

The test matches were even tougher for India. In the first rain affected drawn test, Navjot Sidhu scored 146 not out but in the remaining three tests, India were blown away. One sparkle was the brilliant hundred scored by Sanjay Manjrekar in the second test. In my cricketing memory, no Indian batsman had played a superior innings than that hundred by Manjrekar. For all the unfulfilled career he ended up with, this innings stands out. Manjrekar looked not only comfortable against Marshall, Ambrose, Bishop, and Walsh but attacked them too. And this despite being hit on the face against the same team a year and half ago. If any innings has shown promise and generated hope for a faltering batting line-up, it was Manjrekar’s this knock.

Ravi Shastri too scored a hundred in another test, but it was a nibbling, chewing and painful innings that had little impact. For the WI, Richie Richardson scored a 190 and a 99 besides another hundred to subdue the Indian bowling.  It must be said however, that the umpiring was below standard. Even a bowler like Kapil Dev was left screaming in frustration in numerous vociferous appeals. Kapil Dev never did that in his career, except in that series.

This humiliation of India put in perspective by the strength of Imran Khan’s Pakistan team, who had nearly toppled the WI in their backyard a year earlier, suffering equally at the hands of the umpires. One umpire, Flyod Barker, was especially insensitive to the appeals by touring bowlers. Shakoor Rana, the notorious Pakistani umpire, seemed more neutral in comparison to Barker.  It leaves me wondering that if neutral umpires had come in the eighties, would West Indies be as strong? One can argue that they were blowing away opposition outside the West Indies too but in India and in Pakistan, they would have surely lost. In Pakistan due to home support of Umpires and in India because of the spin.

During the humiliation of India in the West indies, the popular magazine, the Sportstar, printed a poster of the menacing pace battery – Marshall, Ambrose, Bishop, and Walsh during that series. We put that poster on the door of our bedroom.

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