Brooding over the loss in T20 World Cup,
Vividly recalled Indian Cricketing Greats,
Truly, Indian Cricket was nowhere up to fifties,
Were still learning to compete in the sixties,
Pataudi became a craze then,
A performer par-excellence,
Bouncer from Griffith, fiery West Indian,
Injured Indian Captain Nari Contractor,
A tour match in Barbados then;
Pataudi the New Captain at 21 in 1962,
Expected to revive the sagging fortunes of his team,
A thought, each time he arrived on the crease;
Transistors glued to ears, could he do it again?
Such was his credence.
Honoured in 2013 by BCCI!
“Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial lecture”,
Keeps alive his fabulous contributions!

Spinning quartet spun a web,
Bedi, Chandra, Venky and Prasanna,
The famous four, differing styles;
The best failed to survive,
A combination dreaded by most,
Bedi slow left-arm orthodox bowler;
Could bowl at a point, over and again;
Such was his pin point accuracy,
Oft’ an opening bowler with shadows lengthening,
Bowling, more overs, towards end of the day,
‘Bedi begins from Feroze Shah Kotla Gate end’-
Oft’ heard commentary on AIR, expecting change of fortune,
Threatening an early wicket or two!

Chandra, a Right arm-Polio afflicted, leg spinner;
Wisden cricketer of 1972,
Six wickets for 38 at the Oval in 1971,
Got first Test series win for India vs. England,
Prasanna, an off spinner, beat the players in the air,
Became the fastest to get 100 wickets in 20 tests,
An Indian record, now broken by Ashwin,
Venkatraghavan, another off-spinner, 1965 to 83;
Captained two World Cup competitions in 75 and 79,
An elite member of International Umpire Panel for long!
Eknath Solkar, an acclaimed fielder of his times,
“The diver” stood firmly at forward short-leg,
The “Spinning Quartet” owed much success to him,
See the bowler, batsman play, react a few feet away;
Not an easy task anyway, risking getting hit;
Without helmet then, a suicidal position;
Many a batsmen ill at ease with him in front,
Caught Solkar, kept everyone on edge.

Flurry of champion players came forth in 60’s,
Sardesai, Wadekar, Vishy, Gavaskar, Engineer-ed their success,
Prolific batsmen each one of them,
Sunny, “The little master”, stood tall amongst all,
Considered greatest opening batsmen of all time,
2749 runs and 13 centuries versus Windies!
Indian record, stands tall till date;
Broke Bradman’s Test centuries record of 29,
Seemed unsurpassable then,
Set a new record of 34, stood 19 years;
At 10122, the highest scorer of his times!

Vijay Merchant, Chairman of Selectors, called Dilip Sardesai–
‘Renaissance man of Indian Cricket’.
For a series victory against Windies in 1971, later against England;
Brought turnaround in Indian Cricket,
Vanburn Holder and Shillingford seemed to him useless pacemen in 1971!
Comparing to Hall and Griffith he faced in 1962,
Gavaskar and Vish‘, rookies then, acted as shot in the arm;
Succeeded in bringing confidence amongst team members,
India five down at 75, scored 212 at Kingston Test in 1970-71;
642 runs, series record, stood for five days, as Gavaskar went past him!
On the Airport asked to declare by Customs-
Sardesai quipped, “I have come here with runs and go back with more”.
Scorer of first double century outside India,
One of India’s best batsman against spin attack!

Vishwanath’s famous square-cut endeared him.
His knocks got many victories to India.
Vengsarkar, stylish batsman, a match winner;
Proved his mettle, batting one down;
With three successive centuries in Tests at Lords,
Even Gavaskar and Sachin failed to hit one on this ground,
Indian cricket had reached prime time!

Then was “Jimmy”exceptionally able Mohinder Amarnath;
Best player facing express pace,
Hero of the finals of World Cup 83,
“Man of the match” in semis and finals,
Most economical wicket-taker as and when it mattered,
Prodigious son of Lala Amarnath!
Outspoken and a warhorse, “Like father like son”;
Dared call selectors “a bunch of jokers”,
“Comeback man of Indian cricket”,
For times dropped from Indian team, scaled back in;
Declared out “handling the ball” and “obstructing the field”,
Only International player to have been so!

Of the famous cricketer of the yore;
Cricket in India in its early age then,
Lala Amarnath, First Test Captain of Independent India;
His test century on debut, first by an Indian,
Sharp tongued, expert commentator;
To Lala … for expert comments, spoke hard at leisure;
Could bring smile on the face of listeners on a dull, insipid days play.
Possibly irritated with unfair advantage-
“Backing up” out of crease at non-striker’s end-
Paused and broke the wicket at non-striker’s end before delivering,
Mankad ran out Bill Brown in 2nd Test, vs. Australia 47-48 series,
“Mankading” a legal term to bowl out this way,
First Indian to score 1000 runs and 100 wickets.

Merchant, Hazare, Mankad, Manjrekar;
Unparalleled players of their days,
Cricket with Vijay Merchant-on AIR,
Much sought after program of 70’s.
Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji, Iftiqar Ali Pataudi players of bygone era,
“Ranji Trophy” and “Duleep Trophy” after famed cricketers,
Played for England before representing India,
C K Nayudu, Mushtaq Ali and Iftiqar Ali Pataudi,
Much playing years lost in World War II!

Kapil then soared the ladder,
Huge World Cup success in “83” waited,
A firm foundation stone had been laid,
A movie ‘83’ released with success,
Revives the story of success,
Broke Hadlee’s bowling record of 431,
Declared Cricketer of the Century by Wisden in 2002!

In mid 80’s, a mad cricket race began in the Middle East;
The deserted pockets began filling ,
With muck in 90’s, problem of few;
In the news for wrong reasons,
Cricket mafia had started meddling hitherto clean game!
The dust having settled, big time money dug into cricket.
Sehwag, Dravid, Saurav, Sachin;
From North, South, East and West;
Four amongst greatest in World cricket,
Formidable was their combine,
Cricket comes of age, enters period of sublime;
Sachin, “The Master blaster” the highest scorer;
Centurion with Century of Centuries,
The greatest batsman in World cricket,
Brilliance of Saurav, “Tiger of Bengal”, the south paw;
Nicknamed “God of off side” by Dravid.
For square cuts and cover drives,
Dravid, “The Wall”, made the defence strong;
A treat to watch his copy book batting style!
Not to forget, Kumble, the perfectionist;
Highest wicket-taker for India, ‘Perfect-ten’ in an inning!

With turn of Century, came a force;
M S Dhoni, Wicket-Keeper batsman;
“MS” washed away the dreams of many,
Competitors left far behind,
With no one left in front,
All the Cups from ICC in their cupboard,
Passed the baton to an energetic force.
Virat was his demeanour,
Who flew like a hawk,
Decimated one-by-one, one and all;
Flew higher than could,
Ran out of energy.

Favourites to win T20 World Cup 2021,
Alas! that was not to be,
History of Indian cricket behind,
Performances well below par,
Thoughtless, a little dysphoric;
Went down in a hurry,
Sank deeper than they could,
In a to-be forgotten Cup,
Played in the Middle East,
Bewilderment of 80’s in full force again,
Completely off colour the team this time,
The loss, an abject failure, time to rethink!

Nothing succeeds like success,
Failure guides to weed out problems,
To ride success back again,
Root out favouritism-nepotism and cronyism,
The two enemies at the helm,
Leading the heavy slide seen,
Victories been always limited in true sense.

Is the dream run over?
No, no, not as yet,
With ‘Tiger’ at the helm now,
Recreating the team foremost in mind,
Changes to make dream continues,
History, an on-going process;
“Pataudi Trophy” and “Border-Gavaskar Trophy”
With seven of them in ICC Hall of Fame-
Bedi, Kapil, Sunny, Kumble, Dravid, Sachin, Vinoo Mankad,
The Greatest of Indian Cricketers of all times!
Cricketing greats immortalised,
Much to remember and share!

~Dr. Rajesh Chauhan
New Delhi, India