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'Team India' certainly disappointed its fans by losing the
BCCI Platinum Jubilee game to Pakistan on the 13th of
November 2004. Incidentally, it was not the first time
India had failed to prevail in a game of cricket that
commemorated a historic occasion in their Board's history.
Close to 25 years ago, in February 1980 to be precise, the
English cricket team stopped over in Mumbai on their way
home from a disastrous tour of Australia, for a one-off
Test match, organized to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of
the BCCI. Those were the days when Test cricket reigned
supreme in Indian hearts and the one-day game was an alien
commodity. The Indians were the overwhelming favourites,
having just beaten Australia and Pakistan in consecutive
six-Test series at home. Of the four Tests they had won
from the twelve against the two sides, two had been played
at Mumbai on a brown, spin-oriented track. England on the
other hand had been steamrolled 3-0 by a rejuvenated
Australian team comprising the Chappell brothers, Dennis
Lillee and Rodney Marsh and other Packer rebels who had
returned to traditional cricket after the rapprochement
between the 'Cricket Establishment' and Kerry Packer
signalled the end of the World Series Cricket revolution.
Confidence in the English camp was low and Mike Brearley
and his teammates were clearly the underdogs.
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Ian Botham.
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There was an element of tumult in the Indian camp as
well. The home team was to be captained by the little
genius Gundappa Vishwanath, who had been elevated to
the top job after Sunil Gavaskar, his long-time
teammate and brother-in-law, stepped down at the end
of the fifth Test against Pakistan at Chennai, which
India won to take the series 2-0. Gavaskar had
requested the Board President to delay the team's
departure for the forthcoming tour of the West Indies
by a few days, to enable the players to relax after
seven months of non-stop cricket. But what he got was
a snub, and he responded by declaring himself
unavailable for the tour and abdicating from the
captaincy. Vishwanath was appointed for the final
Test against Pakistan and the Jubilee Test against
England.
Ultimately, the tour of the Caribbean was cancelled
as the West Indies Board was not sure about the
commercial viability of an Indian team sans Gavaskar.
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The BCCI had left no stone unturned to make the
Jubilee Test one to remember. Invitations had been sent
out to all the living Indian Test cricketers, and a bevy
of former captains graced the turf of the Wankhede
stadium on the first morning - from Lala Amarnath,
independent India's first cricket captain, to the
incumbent Vishwanath, they were all there with a couple
of exceptions. There were plenty of delighted faces all
around, but the members of the Indian team were certainly
not among those. They were shocked to see a wicket that
was as similar to the bare strip on which they had
thrashed Australia and Pakistan earlier in the season, as
Chennai was to the North Pole. It was green, and seemed
to have plenty of juice in it for the pacers. It was not
the first time the Wankhede wicket was the target of a
cricket team's wrath, and it certainly wasn't the last!
Vishwanath, in a bold move, won the toss and elected to
bat. The start of the Indian innings was even more bold,
as Vishwanath's predecessor, a man known for his
technique and discipline, left his peers and seniors
gaping by driving John Lever for a straight six in the
third over of the match. Gavaskar's 49 turned out to the
highest score of the innings, as Ian Botham exploited the
wicket brilliantly to take 6-58. Some impatient batting
aided him. Seven of the top eight batsmen entered double
figures, but not one was able to consolidate.
Those were the days when most Test matches had a 'rest'
day, usually after the third day of the game. But in this
case, the 'rest' day was scheduled after the very first
day's play, on account of a total solar eclipse in which
it was not advisable to play cricket.
India came back on day two, with Kapil Dev and Karsan
Ghavri, the best new-ball combination in their
spin-dominated history, leading the way. England were a
perilous 58-5 when wicketkeeper Bob Taylor came out to
join Botham. The pair dug themselves in and guided their
team past the triple-figure mark. At 143-5, Indian
supporters were cursing their team for taking their feet
off the accelerator for the umpteenth time when Taylor
played forward to Kapil. The ball entered Syed Kirmani's
gloves and bowler and wicketkeeper appealed
instinctively. The umpire raised his index finger and the
spectators went wild. But Vishwanath, a gentleman of a
cricketer, would have none of it. He walked across to
Kapil and asked him whether he thought it was really out.
Kapil was unsure, but Vishwanath wasn't. He informed the
umpire Hanumantha Rao that he was withdrawing the appeal,
and recalled Taylor to the wicket!
Taylor shook hands with the Indian captain and carried
on. He proceeded to add a further 86 with Botham, who was
in imperial form. The stand of 171 for the sixth wicket
took England to a position from where they could dictate
terms on a dicey wicket. Botham contributed 114 of
England's final total of 296.
The English all-rounder was in no mood to give the
Indians any respite. After he was through with the bat,
he set out to wreck havoc with the ball, and the Indian
batsmen floundered, to say the least. The wickets tumbled
one after the other and at the end of the third day, the
hosts were a hopeless 148-8. Botham hastened their demise
with a wicket off the first ball of the fourth day and
the Indians finished their second innings only 95 ahead.
England won by ten wickets.
Whoever coined the appellation 'Botham v/s India' to
summarize the game had hit the nail on the head. Botham's
match-winning 13-106 (6-58 and 7-48) with the ball and
114 with the bat, made it the greatest all-round
performance in a Test match. He became the first
cricketer to score a century and take ten wickets in the
same Test. There was an even greater honour in store, as
he was appointed captain of England after Brearley
'stepped down', only to return to the captaincy a year
later in that unforgettable Summer of '81.
Brearley's counterpart in the Jubilee Test was condemned
and villified for his noble gesture. Vishwanath's
magnanimity cost him the captaincy of the Indian team,
with Gavaskar being reinstated for the next season. 22
years later, Vishwanath received the 'Spirit of Cricket
Award' at the WISDEN Indian Cricketer of the Century
Celebrations in London. A familiar figure presented him
the award - Bob Taylor. A lot of good things were said
about Vishwanath at the function, as they have been over
the years, but he could have done with some praise in
February 1980, when all he got was brickbats.
That Golden Jubilee Test in 1979-80, as sad for India as
the Platinum Jubilee game in 2004-05, had a couple of
interesting sidelights. It was Geoffrey Boycott's first
Test on Indian soil. England had undertaken two full
tours of India since he had made his Test debut in 1964,
but he had not come on either of those, like most other
frontline English cricketers of his time, who regarded
India as an 'unhealthy' country. By February 1980, he had
become 'broadminded' enough to 'consider' playing in a
one-off Test in India. He liked Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel
so much that he returned to Mumbai and India with the
English team for a six-Test series in 1981-82. In the
third Test of that series at Delhi, he became the highest
scorer in Test cricket. In the next, at Kolkata, he
played a round of golf while his team was out on the
field. That was the end of his Test career. Over two
decades later, he is virtually a demi-god in India. How
times and people change!
That Jubilee Test was watched by a special duo, Greg
Chappell and Dennis Lillee, both of whom had an enormous
fan-following in India, and yet never played a Test on
Indian soil for the simple reason that a full-strength
Australian team did not tour India for the entire
duration of their international careers. They were
present at the ground, albeit not in their flannels.
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