Dilip-s autobiography would-ve been an essential part of Indian cricket literature, but the -Renaissance man- chose not to tell his tale
Dilip Sardesai-s famous son Rajdeep has written a cricket book.
Book lovers like me are delighted to see him take the plunge in the world of cricket books because he is a good story-teller and knows the nuances of the game.
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Apart from age group tournaments for Bombay, he played first-class cricket for Oxford when he was there in 1987, never mind if he didn-t read leg-spinner Abdul Qadir when the Pakistanis played against Combined British Universities.
Dilip Sardesai bats during a match against Essex at Garrison 'A' Cricket Ground, Colchester on India's 1971 tour of England. Pic/Getty Images
Rajdeep was no slouch with the bat. On the opening day of the 1990 Kanga League, he carried his bat for 19 out of Jolly Cricketers- second innings total of 40 against New Hindu, a B- division debutant team which ended up winning by an innings and 13 runs that day at Azad Maidan.
Rajdeep-s father Dilip ought to have written a book with his son-s help and it would have been a big hit considering he had such a wonderful story to tell...
About arriving as a 16-year-old in Bombay in the 1950s from Goa and impressing the right people in city cricket through his exploits in college and club cricket.
About making his debut in first-class cricket that came about even before he wore the Bombay Ranji Trophy cap. For, he was part of the Indian Universities team which played the 1960-61 Pakistani tourists in Poona where he scored with 87. Dicky Rutnagur, the distinguished cricket correspondent, noted in the Indian Cricket Field Annual 1961-62: "Sardesai played some meaty and handsome drives to cover and midwicket, besides pulling short, leg-side deliveries with great severity. Bouncers sometimes troubled this fine batsman – probably due to his lack of inches – but he scored 87 without giving the vestige of a chance." Sardesai missed his century and Rutnagur put that down to the young batsman being forced to take risks since he was running out of partners.
About getting picked for the Kanpur Test against Ted Dexter-s Englishmen and then India-s Caribbean tour of 1962 where he was asked to open the innings after a Charlie Griffith delivery knocked captain Nari Contractor out of Test cricket in the Indians v Barbados game at Bridgetown.
About accepting the challenge to open the innings but imploring the men who mattered that he shouldn-t be dropped in a hurry if he failed. He scored nearly 100 runs in the Barbados Test and India found a new opener for the series.
About scoring An unbeaten Test double century in the second innings against New Zealand as an opener in front of his home crowd in March of 1965 after the Kiwis, aided by Dick Motz and Bruce Taylor, bowled out India for 88 on a greenish Brabourne Stadium track. The Test ended in a draw with the New Zealanders gasping at 80 for eight.
About coming up with another three-figure score in the next Test at Delhi to help India win the Test and the series.
About agreeing to captain MAK Pataudi-s request to open on the 1967-68 tour of Australia and then managing to score only 18 runs in four innings. It resulted in him being benched for the subsequent Tests in New Zealand where India won its first ever overseas series.
About Vijay Merchant-s committee dropping him from the Indian team that played the 1969-70 New Zealanders, an opponent against whom he averaged 120 in three Tests.
About proving Merchant wrong by scoring centuries against Baroda and Gujarat while leading Bombay in the last two league games of the season.
About being recalled for India-s 1971 tour of the West Indies. Had it not been for GR Viswanath-s knee injury, he wouldn-t have played the opening game of the tour against Jamaica where he sealed his place in the first Test XI through his 97.
About supporting Ajit Wadekar-s decision to put the West Indies in at Barbados in 1971 only to see the opposition score 501 for 5 declared. He took responsibility and scored 150 to avoid the follow on and thus save the Test. He rated this as his finest knock.
About being superstitious on that 1971 West Indies tour where he insisted on having room numbers which totaled eight, the reason being that he was born on the eight day of the eighth month of 1940. Sunil Gavaskar revealed in a 1973 article that Sardesai-s room number in Kingston was 53 while in Trinidad it was 314. However, he didn-t have this superstition on the 1971 tour of England where he was not as successful as in the Caribbean.
About how despite being hailed as the renaissance man of Indian cricket by Merchant after his 642 Test runs in the West Indies, he didn-t hold Merchant in high regard. When I first interviewed Sardesai in 1990 for a series on veterans, I asked him about his career-s lowest point and he had no hesitation in pointing to his exclusion from the Indian team in 1969. "Thanks to Vijay Merchant... please write it," he urged me.
About making up for his disappointing tour of England by coming up with fine knocks of 54 and 40 in the Oval Test which India famously won.
About being dropped after only one Test failure against the 1972-73 MCC team at New Delhi. He had planned to call it a day at the end of the series on a high. But it was not to be. When Tony Greig caught him at silly point off Underwood for 10, he had played his last innings in Test cricket. Indian cricket-s renaissance man surely deserved better.
About being in a Bombay team that went on to win 13 Ranji Trophy titles in a row. The streak was broken in the season after his 1972-73 retirement. Bombay won 15 consecutive titles in all from 1958-59 to 1972-73.
And about his love for good things life can give. I am reminded what actor Tim Robbins of Shawshank Redemption fame said about Johnny Cash at a memorial concert for the iconic musician: "He was a man who knew how to enjoy life, music and joys of friendship and family."
The same holds true for Dilip Narayan Sardesai.
mid-day-s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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