Cricket post 1947: More highs than lows
Updated On: 15 August, 2010 07:34 AM IST | | Ayaz Memon
Independence Day provides us an opportunity to analyse Indian cricket post 1947
Independence Day provides us an opportunity to analyse Indian cricket post 1947
How does Indian cricket fare in the 63-year sweep since Independence? Rather admirably I think. To highlight only the low points, which many (including sadly former players) are wont to do is being misanthropic. There are obviously several things that could have been different or better, but by and large the history of Indian cricket has panned out quite favourably.
Independent India's first international assignment was, of course, an unmitigated disaster where the scorebook is concerned, but not quite so when seen in perspective of what all had transpired only a few months earlier.
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Barely a few weeks after Partition, Lala Amarnath's team sailed to Australia to play a 5-Test series against Sir Don Bradman's powerful Australia team (subsequently termed The Invincibles after the Ashes triumph in 1948) and it would be fair to say that the division of the country, not cricket, could have been uppermost in their minds.
Obviously such distraction alone was not the reason for the defeat. Australia were just too good. But India were severely handicapped too. Key players like A H Kardar, Amir Elahi and Fazal Mahmood had opted to stay with Pakistan; stalwarts like Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali and Rusi Modi could not make the tour for one reason or the other. It was a beleaguered side, yet the players acquitted themselves superbly in spells.
Writing in Farewell To Cricket, Bradman acknowledges that " ufffd Had their (India's) full strength been available, it might have been a different story. If Australia or England should lose four or five of their best players it would seriously prejudice their efficiency. How much more so with India whose resources were much thinner''?
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