Whenever India play at The Oval, I think of August 24, 1971 and Bella, the two-year old elephant from Chessington Zoo parading in front of the pavilion that day. Hemu Adhikari, the manager of the Indian team, sitting in the visitors’ balcony, seeing Bella with its forehead decorated in the traditional Indian white caparison said with astonishment, “Of all the things”, gesturing to Ajit Wadekar, the captain, to have a look. Bella had been brought to the Oval by Indian cricket supporters hoping that, with India requiring 97 with eights wickets in hand and a whole day to get them, the dream of beating England in England for the first time would finally come true. That day as Mumbai celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, our dream came true.

Abid Ali’s winning hit

I do not want to take any credit away from Bella, but I remain convinced that victory was possible because of me. I was an accountancy student in England then and had watched the series from its start at Lord’s. At The Oval, as Wadekar and Dilip Sardesai set out to get the runs at the start of play, I took up my position and until Abid Ali made his winning hit, did not move except at lunch and to go to the toilet. I am sure this generated the right cosmic forces for an Indian win. Before you dismiss this as hocus-pocus consider that cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Alistair Cook also believe in such mumbo-jumbo, not allowing their teammates to move from the position they are sitting in when a stand is in progress.