SPORT
Wizard of the willow
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`Few Indian cricketers, or perhaps only a handful in the history of the game, have had such an enriching experience of encountering so many hurdles to overcome ... .'
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IN the incident-filled, eventful labyrinth of Indian cricket, the life and times of Lala Amarnath are a fascinating chapter laced with shades of fantasy. He was a charmer with the willow who spontaneously elevated the art of batsmanship into the realm of romance that, in a way, defined the nation's sporting ethos.
For the multitudes from Lahore to Patiala, from Bombay, Calcutta to Madras, Lala symbolised the urge and passion of freedom which the nation was thirsting for from its British rulers. Ever a non-conformist to the point of being termed an iconoclast in thought and approach, he was distinctly different and differently distinctive.
Born as Lal Chand in Kapurtala and renamed by the doting mother as Amarnath ("Amar" meaning immortal and "Nath" lord), the flowering of this gifted all rounder into a giant of a personality, is the theme that his third son, Rajender, seeks to convey in this biography.
Always in the news for deeds on and off the field, Lala confronted challenges with an admirable sense of fortitude, Quite conceivably, he is projected as one more sinned against than sinning. Portrayed as brash, arrogant, and egoistic by critics, Lala, as Rajender avers, had a human side too. "No doubt, he is remembered as a short-tempered person, but he did not carry a grouse after expressing his feelings. Amarnath was misunderstood most of the time. He was not a sycophant but an honest man with integrity."
Nursed in the tradition of Lahore, where he went to live with his grandparents after the death of his mother, Lala began his career as a wicket-keeper batsman in the 1930s. So passionate was he about reaching the higher echelons as a player that he gave up university education at Aligarh. The Australian coach, Frank Tarrant, in the retinue of the Maharaaja of Patiala, discovered that trace of class and character in Amarnath. He wrote to the board pointing out the "brilliance" of the young boy who was fit enough for consideration for the first official tour to England in 1932.
Undaunted by the disappointment of not getting a response from the board, Lala chased the goal with passion and won the cap against the MCC team led by Douglas Jardine in 1933. An astonishing innings of 117 on Test debut in less than two hours at the Bombay Gymkhana against the attack of Nichols, Clark and Verity proclaimed to the world the arrival of a classic batsman, whom one essayist described as "the Byron of Indian cricket". From then on, Lala was a household name.
Few Indian cricketers, or perhaps only a handful in the history of the game, have had such an enriching experience of encountering so many hurdles to overcome. Truly, Lala was a multifaceted personality — player, captain, selector, manager, coach and administrator, weathering challenges at every stage. Late in the day, Lala even toyed with the idea of entering politics, joining the Congress Party. He met Jawaharlal Nehru in this regard and also Lal Bahadur Sastri, but the turn of events did not help him to realise that dream.
A cult figure to the masses, controversies dogged him after that fantastic debut. Sent back home in the middle of the tour in 1936 from England for an alleged misdemeanour, he was exonerated by the Beaumont Committee.
World War II intervened to curtail this genius as it did many across the globe, but Lala regained his place for a successful tour of England, again in 1946, under the Nawab of Pataudi (Sr). By then, Lala not only proved his credentials as an all rounder but also the dynamism required to lead. He has a unique record of being the captain in the first series against Australia in 1947, the West Indies in 1948 and Pakistan in 1952. His competence in reading the nature of pitches is legendary, said to have been acquired during his days with the Lanchashire League.
Not everything however was smooth sailing as Lala had to face and survive many a back room manoevure and intrigue to unseat him. Some players actively participated in these games as did administrators like Antony de Mello, with whom Lala had a love-hate relationship to the point of taking the board to court to fight the ban imposed on him after the West Indies tour of 1948-49. How Lala mobilised support to get the punishment revoked forms an interesting narration.
It is but natural that the author should take a very sympathetic view of whatever impediments Papa Amarnath had to face in life. There is a clear attempt to paint the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram (Vizzy), Britton Jones, Antony de Mello and Abdul Hafeez Kardar as villains in the life of the hero. "With little knowledge of captaincy, let alone its intricacies, he made one blunder after another," he writes about Vizzy, captain of the 1936 team. It must be revelation to many that Amarnath as manager in Pakistan came to blows with the home captain, Kardar. However, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, under whom Amarnath worked, gets a warm tribute for his contribution to Indian cricket.
In the endeavour to showcasing the greatest showman of Indian cricket as an idol who rebelled against officialdom to championing causes he deemed righteous, the author has successfully woven a very readable, and enjoyable, biography. The details, anecdotes, such the visit of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to his hotel room in Bombay for a complimentary pass, and supporting picture gallery go to enhance this effect.
S. THYGARAJAN
The Making of a Legend: Lala Amarnath — Life and Times, Rajender Amarnath, Rupa & Co, New Delhi.
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