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| The new look Green Park at Kanpur. Poor student's still sit on concrete. |
Being a protective parent, I don’t think I would have
allowed my children to venture into an unknown territory at the age of 15. Our
parents had more confidence in us. Travelling to Kanpur from Lucknow for test matches became
a norm for me once the parents allowed me to go and enjoy the stadium
atmosphere.
The Australian cricket team lead by Kim Hughes had a test
match scheduled for Kanpur in 1979. Lucknow was 80 km’s away from the venue and Kanpur was an established Test centre. Lucknow had hosted a Test match against Pakistan in 50's but it's stadium was not good enough for an important match now. The distance of Lucknow to Kanpur may not have been much but connectivity was
terrible. Being an ardent cricket fan it was my desire to watch the match. I
had never watched a proper Test match in a stadium. I insisted on going to Kanpur and parents relented. From somewhere I
managed to get 2 student’s tickets priced at a princely sum of Rs 12 each for
full 5 days of cricket ( I still have that ticket).
The match was to begin on 2nd October, which
was a national holiday . It was the 3rd
test of the series and the first 2 had been boring draws. The
Australians' third full tour of India (6
test matches) was of great interest as Australia was rebuilding it's team after the likes of Chappels, Marsh, Lillie had been taken away by Kerry Packer's 'World Series Cricket.' It so happened that after this series a compromise was reached between Australian cricket board and Packer. From India's viewpoint it was an important series because India had never won a series against Australia. With the
cream of Australian team being lured by Kerry Packer, this was a beatable young
side which did not have much experience. The two countries had previously
contested seven rubbers over 31 years, during which India had won only five
Tests to Australia's nineteen, with six drawn. The 1977 series in Australia had
been India’s golden chance but we narrowly lost it heart-breakingly by 2 matches
to 3. We had lost first test in Australia by 16 runs and second by 2 wickets. We won the next two but got beaten by a small margin at Adelaide. It was time for revenge.
The journey begins
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| The majestic Charbagh Railway Station |
My neigbour Raju and I left home at 4 AM in the morning and it had started
getting nippy. A 20 minute rickshaw ride got us to the majestic building of
Charbagh railway station . We bought our tickets and had a leisurely breakfast
of omelet and piping hot tea. The Gomti express brought us to Kanpur station
very quickly, in just about an hour at 6.30 AM. Another rickshaw ride and a 20
minute walk got us to the gates of the
students stand at the Green Park stadium. A queue was formed and soon the queue
started becoming long. We were quite ahead but as the gates opened around 8.30
for 10 AM start, the swell of humanity surged and we were pushed in by thousands of people.
Everyone wanted to be at vantage points to get a clear view. We got good seats at the top from where the entire arena was visible. The entire students’ stand comprised of cemented steps and one had to sit on
them as they were the official seats. You can imagine the condition of
our bottoms at the end of the day. There
was no covering so as the day progressed and the sun got stronger, it became
pretty uncomfortable. Even at that time there was huge wire mesh to prevent the
boys from jumping into the arena. I say
boys as even though it may have been a
student’s stand , not a single girl was to be seen anywhere.
A huge roar went up as son in law Gavaskar came out for some
net practice. The people of Kanpur adored Sunny Gavaskar as he had married
Kanpur’s daughter Marshneil a few years ago. Actually people adored Gundappa
Vishwanath more as Vishy had scored century on debut at this very ground and
had always done well here. His delectable wrist work and square cuts made
people swoon. They kept referring to him as babaji ……I still don’t know why.
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| Gundappa Vishawanth was a crowd puller |
Vishy had scored a duck and a century in the
same match on debut and in his entire career whenever he scored a century for
India, we never lost that match. He was Sunny’s hero as well and ended up by becoming Gavaskar's brother in law by marrying his sister. Sunny named his son after the 3 heroes he admired very much – Rohan Kanhai, ML
Jaishima and Vishwanath. Unfortunately this royal name of Rohan Jaivishv Gavaskar could not make Rohan a very
good cricketer and he just played a few ODI’s for India without doing anything
much. He did reasonably well in Ranji trphy and went on to captain West Bengal. The 3 year old Rohan was also around and was being pampered by the likes
of Karsan Ghavri. For the audience he was already a star. Each shot little Rohan
played on the sidelines with his little bat during the lunch break was cheered by everyone in the
stadium.
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| Kanpur treated him like a 'son in law' |
The Match Begins
Sunny won the toss and
made an elegant 76 but disappointed his ‘sasural’ as he could not make his
century. India got off to a great start but just before stumps lost a few
wickets in succession. All day we would
constantly look to our right and envy those who were sitting in VIP stands. It was a beautiful stand with colourful bucket seats and was elevated enough to give a great view of the pitch to the audience.It
seemed like a big luxury. They had proper seats and a roof over their heads. There were many girls also in those stands and many of the guys were more interested in them rather than the match as it was in that direction the binoculars was pointed most of the time. Someone told me that from that angle you could even see the ball turning. They
would constantly look towards us as the student’s stand had some action every
minute. People in our section would dance, sing and make a lot of noise. A guy sitting near us
had carried mithai boxes with him and each time an Indian batsman scored a
boundary, a little bit would be distributed to all his neighbours. There were a
few brawls as well and police was present in large numbers.I learnt several new abuses and slangs that day.
We were supposed to
go back the same evening as one had to attend the school the next day. Raju’s
relatives stayed in Kanpur so we went there for a cup of tea after the match.
His cousin convinced us that he would treat us to a good dinner , show us a
night show film and drop us to the stadium the next day if we decided to stay
back. This was too tempting. Call was made to Lucknow and permission taken to
stay back. Raju’s cousin kept his word and it turned out to be a fun evening as
dinner out and movie watching was a big entertainment those days.It had turned out to be a 21 hour of non stop action but we were hardly complaining.
India collapsed in no time the next morning but grabbed a few
quick wickets. We left when Alan Border got out and took a rickety state
transport bus back to Lucknow. We were stuck on Ganga bridge for almost 45 minutes. We were listening to commentary on transistor
and to our disappointment Yallop and Hughes dug in and took 1st
innings lead.
Once again Gomti Express took us to Kanpur on the last day of
the match which happened to be a Sunday. Match was poised in India’s favour as
Chetan Chauhan had played a dogged innings for India and Vishy played another wristy gem with great support from wicketkeeper Kirmani. As India’s new hero Kapil Dev and off spinner Shivlal Yadav ripped through the Australian top
order, the roar with each falling wicket became louder and louder. Alan Border
stuck on and when he was bowled by Yadav, the roar must have been heard in
Lucknow !India won by 125 runs and we came back very happy feeling as if we
had been responsible for the victory.
Eng Vs India - Jan 1982
I must have had some guts when I went to watch a match at
Green Park in 1982 just a month before my class 12 boards. By now I had become an experienced test match watcher at stadia. No one could believe
that I had gone to watch a match to Kanpur during the study leave as you were supposed to slog at that time. Thankfully I
did well in exams . England team here was being led by Fletcher and in the team
they had the mercurial Ian Botham. With
Fletcher and Gavaskar both very negative captains the 6 match series just had
one result. The Kanpur match was drawn with not even 3 innings completed . The match will be remembered for centuries by the two of the greatest all rounders in the world- Botham and Kapil Dev. When Gavaskar declared just 1 short of England's total of 1st innings, everyone was shocked. Now that moment is always referred to as the start of match fixing by several cricket writers. Sunny has never explained his decision even though taking a lead was always considered as half a victory in those days.
I was delighted to see the elegance of left handed
batsman Gower who made a sparkling 85. Just a month back I was in Delhi and had gone to watch a match of the same series at historic Feroze Shah Kotla as I had pavilion passes. David Gower was wrongly given out lbw for a duck in the match. As he had walked back fuming, a guy standing near the gallery from where teams went to pavilion patted him and said 'Gower well played.' Gower had turned around and caught him by his lapel and hurled abuses at him. I was right there and saw Gower's fair complexion turn deep red. David Gower had become the most hated man during that test match and each time he walked in or out there was slogan shouting against him.
But what I remember this Eng Vs India match at Kanpur is not for Gower's elegance or lusty hitting by Botham and Kapil but for something else.
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| Indians liked Gooch because of his mustache |
The Match Stopper
This time I had been accompanied by my sikh friend Mohinder.
He did not reach on time so we had to take the state transport bus which broke
down mid way. We reached stadium when match had started. The cops wouldn’t let
us go in and told us that all seats were taken. Somehow we managed to persuade
them to let us go inside. As we climbed the steps and the arena came into view
we saw Graham Gooch batting. Now my friend Mohinder was a tall sikh- around
6’2”. His shoes had heels and he wore a turban. This made him almost 6’ 6”. He
wore black and walked like Feroze Khan the actor, with chest forward and head
held high. As he walked in , he got noticed. Someone shouted “Sardarji has come
!” and suddenly the crowd erupted. Entire student’s section (around 12000 of them) stood up and
started cheering and clapping. The people in VIP pavilion wondered what had happened and
they rushed towards our side to check what had happened. The cops became alert and moved towards
us with alacrity as this was a known trouble zone. There was so much commotion
that the match stopped. The players gathered together and started looking
towards us fearing that a riot had broken out. The Umpires walked towards us to find out from the cops if it was
safe to carry on. Graham Gooch with his big Moustaches had a worried look on
his face, He was not used to all this in sedate Lord’s atmosphere in London where people politely clapped to show ther excitement. Mohinder had made a Test Match come to a
standstill for full 5 minutes ! The match carried on but thanks to Mohinder we
became VIP’s of the student section. Seats were offered to us in this full
house and gratefully accepted. People came to shake Mohinder’s hand as if he
was a filmstar. We got offered with food, mithai and soft drinks.The whole day it was party time.
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| The match stopper. Mohinder Singh |
I think for those who have not had the privilege of watching the match from stands , it must be amply clear that when you go for a cricket match in India and sit in student’s
section or the general stands– the match becomes secondary !
Rohin Arora
rohinarora@gmail.com
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