Clayton Murzello: The unbeatable class of 1967!

The All India Schools team in England 1967 Standing from left M Mathur asst manager M Amarnath S Amarnath Laxman Singh Jasbir Singh Ajit Naik capt V Fernandez British PM Harold Wilson JK Mahendra SMH Kirmani Col H Adhikari manager AAS Asif BCCI secretary R Sriraman and S Sahu selector Sitting from left D Sarkar D Inder Raj R Tandon R Mukherjee Arun Kumar Avi Kamekar and J Bhutta Pic courtesy The Cricketer magazineSri Lankas neverending cricketing travails notwithstanding Virat Kohlis Team India did well to not lose a single game in the Test and oneday series in the Emerald Isle Not many teams have enjoyed such an unbeaten stretch on tour but theres one which did so 50 years agoIn the English summer of 1967 the All India Schoolboys led by the late Mumbai allrounder Ajit Naik and managed by exIndia captain Col Hemu Adhikari engaged cricket lovers with their attractive cricket which helped them win nine of their 17 matches Only once in their eight drawn games were they in danger of losing This was the same year in which the senior India team led by MAK Pataudi suffered a 03 loss to Brian Closes EnglishmenOn the junior tour were future India Test players Mohinder and Surinder Amarnath as well as stumper Syed Kirmani who was in the side as a batsmanMohinder recalled meeting Pataudi at a function during the tour but a truly unforgettable memory came in the form of his brother Surinders heroics at Lords Against Marylebone Cricket Club Schools on August 3 the Indians were faced with the task of scoring 11 in possibly the final over of the game to overhaul MCC Schools total 202 Surinder hit a six to get closer to his century He hit the next ball for the same result and reached the first of his two hundreds on the tour Apart from remembering how ecstatic the team was with his elder brothers display Mohinder revealed that Garfield Sobers watched those two sixes Suris performance was fantastic and he always played aggressively We needed 11 to win in two balls and he did it in style Sobers watched the game and when he visited us in the dressing room he was delighted to learn that we were Lalas sons Mohinder told me Its no secret that Sobers loved sixhitting The following summer he became the first player to hit six sixes in one over while playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at SwanseaThe All India Schools team in England 1967 Standing from left Jasbir Singh D Inder Raj JK Mahendra Arun Kumar Jitendra Bhutta Victor Fernandez Raja Mukherjee Dipankar Sarkar Avi Kamekar Rakesh Tandon AAS Asif and Laxman Singhgt Sitting from left Mohinder Amarnath Ajit Naik captain unidentified English official Col Hemu Adhikari managergt Unidentified English official Syed Kirmani and Surinder Amarnathgt Pic courtesy JK Mahendra collectionThere was another luminary watching at Lords apart from Sobers ndash celebrated commentator and writer John Arlott According to JK Mahendra the teams legspinnerbatsman from Kerala Arlott rated Surinders hundred as the finest innings he had seen in the last 15 yearsFor 17yearold allrounder Mohinder the English tour was a great experience away from home It was my first tour abroad and I had not travelled much alone in India Despite Surinders performance the biggest batting star of the tour was Rajasthans Laxman Singh whose run tally of 973 included five hundreds He averaged 7485 in 16 trips to the crease though he was not as lucky in life ndash passing away in 1988 aged only 35Raja Mukherjee who went on to play firstclass cricket for Bengal scored two centuries in 17 innings Legspinner Dipankar Sarkar who had already played for Bengal claimed 65 wickets while offbreak bowler Jasbir Singh sent back 52 batsmen No student of the game could tire of watching him Sarkar so markedly establishing his ascendancy over his opponents That Jasbir Singh did not take more wickets was due entirely to illluck with dropped catches but even he dismissed 52 batsmen at a remarkably low average of 909 A R Harris the then deputy chairman of the London Schools Cricket Association wrote in The Cricketer magazineAdhikari laid much emphasis on fielding and although the catching on the tour was not up to his satisfaction the ground fielding and throwing was splendid felt HarrisThe wicketkeeping duties were handled by Mumbais Avi Kamekar and Hyderabads AAS Asif Despite their impressive showing they did not graduate to Ranji Trophy ranks The late Kamekar paraded his skills for the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai while Asifs firstclass games were restricted to the MoinudDowla Cup in Hyderabad before he migrated to America Former India allrounder S Abid Ali told me that Asif was most unfortunate to miss out on an India cap After he played for the Indian Universities against the 196970 New Zealand tourists in Bombay where I believe he kept very well we in Hyderabad felt that he would be in the India playing XI in place of the injured Farokh Engineer for the Hyderabad Test in the following month Asif didnt get the nod and KS Indrajitsinhji played instead Its inexplicable that Asif didnt even represent Hyderabad in domestic cricket He was a fine wicketkeeper and a brave opening batsman But thats how things were in those days Abid Ali said to me over the phone from California yesterdayKirmani who would tour England with Ajit Wadekars team four years later excelled as a batsman on the 1967 trip The Englishmen called him a schoolboy Rohan Kanhai as he scored one century against Hampshire Schools at Southampton to start the tour on a winning note followed up with four 50plus scoresThat said the pretour activities were just as memorable Mohinder recalled having a onemonth camp in Delhi under Adhikaris watch There they were taught table manners and how to eat with a knife and fork apart from how to behave in the company of elders In Delhi the team members were made to interact with Air Force officers at a mess Those meetings held them in good stead as they were hosted by dignitaries like the Duke of Norfolk Lord Mountbatten and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at 10 Downing StreetWith Adhikari around there was armylike discipline If you were late for the team bus you were forced to spend your fivepoundsaweek allowance on getting to the ground in a taxi I remember a couple of teammates and myself missing the bus at Manchester We went out shopping on the presumption that we will leave late because of the rain But we were late and the Colonels orders of arriving at the ground in a taxi were followed The Colonel was also particular about us having short hair If he saw anything extra on our heads we were promptly sent to the barber recalled MahendraThis being the golden jubilee year of that immensely successful tour the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI would do well to recognise the Class of 1967s feat A gettogether for those players would be an apt way to say that while we laud the team of today we still have high regard for our past cricketing heroesmiddays group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom