Cricket rewind: India's Test debut is 85 years old

The 1932 Indian team in England Back row Lall Singh PE Palia M Jahangir Khan Mohammad Nissar L Amar Singh Bahadur Kapadia Shankarrao Godambe Ghulam Mohammad Janardan Navle Seated Syed Wazir Ali CK Nayudu Maharaja of Porbandar captain KS Limbdi vicecaptain Syed Nazir Ali Joginder Singh Front row Naoomal Jaoomal SMH Colah and Nariman Marshall Pic Courtesy Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home and Abroad by Peter WynneThomasJune 25 is a redletter day in Indian cricket a day when Kapil Dev and his team clinched oneday crickets greatest prize for the first time at Londons Lords Cricket Ground in 1983Indeed Indian cricket was never the same after the events of 25061983 Our cricketing heroes became somewhat rich extraordinarily famous and economics bludgeoned its way into the game like never beforeBut when and where did international cricket start for India It was on June 25 1932 when CK Nayudu led his Test team on the hallowed turf of Lords to do battle with Douglas Jardines EnglishmenIt is a coincidence that Indian cricket is presently facing stormy times just like it was exactly 85 years ago At 4 am on the morning of June 25 1932 a bunch of players knocked on the door of tour captain the Maharajah of Porbandar to express their unwillingness to play under Nayudu The matter was resolved by a cable sent from India by the influential Maharaja of PatialaIndias 1932 Lords Test captain CK Nayudu who dismissed five batsmen in Englands first innings PicGetty ImagesSome members of the team had taken exception to the fact that Nayudu threatened them with nonselection for the Lords Test if they didnt improve their discipline In his 1976 History of Indian Cricket Edward Docker wrote The reports reaching India told of drunkenness and late hours and alleged that when CK tried to call some of them to order and threatened them out of the Test match if they didnt improve fist fights had broken out and CK had been angrily abusedEarlier Porbandar who hadnt scored many runs in the tour games withdrew from the rest of the tour The media highlighted the fact that the only aspect he excelled in was making speechesDocker wrote He Porbandar had batted only three times in firstclass matches on the tour his innings of 0 2 and 0 giving him an average of less than one and inspired this remark that he was the only cricketer to have owned more RollsRoyces than scored runs on a tour of England Porbandar also declared that his doctors had advised him to rest after a bout of malariaIndias 1932 Lords Mohammad Nissar who dismissed five batsmen in Englands first innings PicGetty ImagesPorbandars brotherinlaw KS Limbdi who was vicecaptain suffered a back injury and thats how Nayudu became Indias first Test captain He had a fine reputation to be looked upon as Indias big batting hope for the oneoff Test at Lords to commence on June 25 In CK Nayudu the Shahenshah of Indian Cricket historian and Mumbais oldest living firstclass cricketer Vasant Raiji 97 wrote about how some English writers called Nayudu the Indian Don Bradman but celebrated writer Neville Cardus disagreed Unlike Bradman his skill is his servant not his master wrote CardusSmall crowd for startersA small crowd watched Nayudu and Jardine walk out to toss for the 1130 am start Jardine decided to bat first and out went the Yorkshire opening pair of Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe Only 10 days earlier they had put on a world record opening partnership of 555 against EssexAll present at Lords were set for another batting feast But when the scoreboard read eight Sutcliffes furniture was disturbed by Mohammad Nissar Three runs later Holmes offstump was sent cartwheeling by the same bowler Frank Woolley the charming lefthand bat who walked in after Sutcliffe departed misjudged his second run and was run out by the quicksilver Lall Singh who according to Docker glided over the ground like a snake and his pickup and return to keeper Janardan Navle just beat Woolley home In half an hour England were reduced to 18 for three Nayudus field was attacking and his fielders swooped on almost everythingLords fills upBy now cricket lovers in London started heading to Lords Jardine and Walter Hammond steadied the ship with an 82run stand but that was the best partnership of the innings as Hammond chopped an Amar Singh delivery on to his off stump and Jardine succumbed to his opposite numbers offspin snicking one to wicketkeeper Navle Jardine topscored with 79 but in Cardus opinion the most attractive innings was played by Les Ames who scored 65 before being bowled by Amar Singh Ames got a life even before opening his account when Navle missed a stumping chance and Cardus wrote If Ames had got out at once Englands position at the end of the innings would indeed have provoked much hilarity in the places of Melbourne Sydney and Adelaide Cardus praised Navle for attempting to stump Jardine before his benevolence towards AmesStumper Navle praisedI suggest that the man who seeks to stump Jardine is an optimist wrote Cardus Nissar ended up with 5 for 93 in 26 overs while his opening partner Amar Singh claimed 2 for 75 captain Nayudu 2 for 40 with his offspin as England were bowled out for 259 India ended the day with 30 for no loss Navle 11 Naoomal Jaoomal 11 in poor light and British Movietones news reel headlined their coverage with the words ENGLAND DISMISSED CHEAPLY BY INDIA ndash Youngest Test country at Lords acquits itself well in only representative match of tourThe next two days of the TestBy lunch on Day Two June 27 India reached 153 for four but their last six wickets fell for only 36 runs all in one hour England declared their second innings at 275 for eight and left India to make 346 for an improbable victory They collapsed to 187 all out with Amar Singh topscoring with 51 Skipper Nayudu was handicapped with the bat as he had bruised his arm while fielding England won by 158 runsDid you knowAlthough the Indian fielding and bowling were praised by the English pundits the team was not a united one In his book on the history of Indian cricket Edward Docker wrote that attacking batsman SMH Colah threatened to throw Nayudu off the ship while returning to India70 Onedrop batsman Wazir Ali scored the most runs for India in the Test