by Kalyanbrata Bhattacharyya
The Renaissance Man of Indian cricket
This sobriquet was conferred on Dilip Sardesai by none other than Vijay Merchant, the Chairman of the Selection Committee, following his stupendous achievement in the 1971 series against the West Indies.
The appellation is quite appropriate and Sunil Gavaskar’s record-breaking debut performance with 774 runs at an average of 151.80 would have been of little utility had it not been for Sardesai’s string of incredible performance in dire circumstances in that series.
Sardesai was born on 8 August 1940, the only Indian cricketer born in the Portuguese ruled Goa. When he was 17 his parents moved to Bombay and he was admitted to Wilson College where his talent in the game of cricket was soon evident.
Rajdeep Sardesai, his son, an esteeemed news anchor and author, wrote that in one of the matches for his college Sardesai scored 90 out of a team total of 120 against the Hindu Gymkhana led by legendary Vinoo Mankad. Mankad was impressed and told him, ‘I am making you a member of the Gymkhana; from now on, you will play with us.’ Thus, Mankad rendered great service to Indian cricket, not only as a cricketer but also by virtue of realizing the potentials of Sardesai. Incidentally, Mankad also backed a young Salim Durrani.
Two years later, Sardesai played in the Rohinton Baria inter-university cricket tournament in 1959-60, and his aggregate was 435 at an average of 87 runs.
Called for the selection trial for the Combined Universities Team against the Fazal Mahmood led Pakistan side in 1960-61, he was tested along with Ajit Wadekar, Hanumant Singh, and others. His technique impressed Lala Amarnath, Chairman of the Selection Committee, and he made his First- class debut at Pune.
Sardesai grabbed the opportunity with both hands and scored 87 in his only innings in the match.
He played his next match for Board President’s XI and scored an unbeaten 106.
In the inter-university match against Gujarat in 1961, he scored a mammoth 281 and his consistent batting prompted the selectors to include him for the second Test match against Ted Dexter’s visiting MCC team at Kanpur.
On Test debut he scored 28 in 108 minutes before he was hit-wicket trying to cut Surrey left-armer Tony Lock.
He was ignored for the remaining three Test matches in that series, with Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi replacing him in the third Test match at Delhi.
First Tour
Sardesai toured the West Indies under the captaincy of Nari Contractor in February 1962. It was the fateful series in which Contractor sustained a near-fatal head injury against Barbados to the bowling of Charlie Griffith. Captaincy was thrust upon the young Nawab of Pataudi.
Sardesai started with 118 in the opening match against the Trinidad Colts. Batting at number 4 in the first Test match at Port of Spain, he scored 28 and 2.
West Indies won and he was dropped for the second Test. Called back, he had to open in the third Test match at Bridgetown in place of the injured Contractor. He did well enough, with 31 and 60. This was the first instance where he was sent to face the new ball.
He bagged a pair in the next Test match at Trinidad, was dropped for the final Test at Kingston Jamaica. It was a horrendous tour for India, the result 0-5.
Mainstay
India played the next series at home in 1963-64 against Mike Smith’s visiting MCC.
It was a thoroughly dull and insipid encounter where the scoring was awfully slow and all the five Test matches were drawn. Sardesai played in all the Tests, batting mostly at No 3. His scores of 65, 66, 54, 36, 44, 79 and 87 were consistently impressive.
His 87 in the second innings at Kanpur is of particular relevance since defeat had been staring in the face of India. England piled up 559 for eight wickets, their highest innings aggregate in the series, and India responded with 266.
As India followed on, Pataudi in a master-stroke promoted Nadkarni, already well-adjusted to the bounce and turn of the wicket through a long first-innings vigil, to bat at number 3. Sardesai, 79 in the first knock, joined him at the fall of the next wicket. Nadkarni scored 122 not out in 418 minutes, his only Test century, and Sardesai’s contribution of 87 helped India to save the match which at one point in time seemed all but lost.
Though not much of a success against Bobby Simpson’s visiting Australia in 1964, Sardesai was highly impressive against the visiting New Zealand team under the captaincy of John Reid in the next year.
He opened in this series. His score of 200 not out in the second innings at Bombay, following-on being bundled out for 88 in the first innings, saved India from defeat. His breezy106 in the next match at Delhi, the fastest hundred by an Indian till that time and studded with brilliant strokes, was largely instrumental for an Indian victory.
Opener
India was terribly short of competent openers. Contractor was indisposed, Pankaj Roy had long since moved away from the scene, and Vijay Mehra, the youngest batsman to play in Test cricket from India at that time, was not played too often.
Middle-order batsmen of proven credentials, like ML Jaisimha, Budhi Kunderan, Farokh Engineer, Ramesh Saxena, Ashok Mankad, and Sardesai were forced on different occasions to open. This was much to their disadvantage, since none of them was technically and temperamentally suited for that specialist role.
Sardesai’s form slumped suddenly in the following three series against the visiting West Indies in 1966-67 and in the subsequent tour to England in 1967, and Australia in 1967-68.
Before travelling to England, Sardesai opened the innings for Bombay and scored a classic 199 in the Ranji Trophy final match against Rajasthan.
The English season was notoriously interrupted by rain in May, most of the county matches were washed out, and the cricketers were badly affected by inadequate match-practice. To add to many o miseries before and during the first Test match at Leeds, Sardesai tripped and injured himself in the staircase of the Lord’s pavilion. He had totalled 92 in the previous matches, and was thus not in the team for the first match at Headingley.
It was reassuring that in the next match against the Cambridge University at Fenner’s he scored a hundred. But. in the second Test match at Lord’s, John Snow fractured the middle finger of his left hand. He scored 28, opening the innings with Farokh Engineer.
‘Tiger’ Pataudi in his autobiography, Tiger’s Tale, wrote ‘Incidentally, while Sardesai was attempting to bat on, we requested that some ice might be taken on the field. Applied to his injured hand it might have given him some relief from the pain he was obviously suffering. Brian Close the English captain, true to his reputation for toughness, refused our request on the grounds that it would waste time. He was, of course, strictly within his rights to do this, but I thought he might have shown a little sympathy without jeopardizing England’s chances to any great extent.’ It meant the end of his tenure in England and he was forced to return home.
Sardesai met his Waterloo six months later during India’s tour to Australia. The hard and bouncy tracks turned into his nemesis and he reached the nadir of his career. A natural middle-order batsman, his vulnerability against quality fast bowling was exposed explicitly and embarrassingly. He scored 1 and 11 in the first Test match at Adelaide, and 1 and 5 at Melbourne. The story goes that Dave Renneberg, the Australian fast bowler, who operated in tandem with Graham McKenzie and dismissed Sardesai in both the innings at Adelaide, remarked humorously that they had little opportunity of meeting before, since his senior partner consumed him in the opening over! Additionally, he sustained an injury and was dropped for the subsequent matches.
He was not in the team for the tour to New Zealand from Australia.
Phoenix rising
However, Sardesai’s performance in domestic cricket continued to be impressive and he was included for the first Test match at Bombay against the visiting Australian team under Bill Lawry in 1969-70.
Once again he opened the innings, was felled by a rising delivery from McKenzie. With scores of 20 and 3, he was dropped for the rest of the series.
With Gundappa Viswanath making a century on debut at Kanpur, the general feeling was that Sardesai’s chequered Test cricket career had come to an end.
Partab Ramchand wrote, ‘His cricketing obituary had already been written and the general tenor of it was a cricketer of immense potential who did not live up to this promise’
Around this time in 1969, a change in selection policy of considerable import took place under the chairmanship of Vijay Merchant.
India was scheduled to tour West Indies in 1970-71 and Merchant was insistent that young players should be blooded in and older players rested. He felt that and a balance between youth and experience would be the ideal combination for the Indian team.
This novel policy led to the inclusion of Gundappa Viswanath, Ambar Roy, Ashok Gandotra, Ashok Mankad, Eknath Solkar, Chetan Chauhan, Ajit Pai, and Mohinder Amarnath against the visiting New Zealand and Australian teams.
Moreover, in his opinion, Pataudi’s series of failures to win a series over the years necessitated a change in stewardship.
In keeping with the new policy Sunil Gavaskar, Kenia Jayantilal, Pochiah Krishnamurthy, Rusi Jeejeebhoy, and Devraj Govindraj were the new entrants. Salim Durani, resurrected from oblivion after five years, and ML Jaisimha were recruited from the old brigade.
The committee had selected fifteen cricketers and Sardesai was not in the reckoning. Ajit Wadekar was appointed as the captain by the casting vote from Merchant.
According to Mrs. Nalini Sardesai, his wife, Wadekar, the captain, was given the liberty of choosing the 16th candidate from Pataudi, Borde, and Sardesai.
Pataudi had already informed the Cricket Board of India that he was not available, citing personal reasons. Wadekar and Sardesai enjoyed a cordial relationship by virtue of their playing together in their college and university days, for Bombay, and also for the country. So the new skipper opted for Sardesai.
And that is the story behind Sardesai’s most unexpected inclusion in the team when everything seemed but lost for him and virtually none had given him any chance. In fact, his selection aroused much astonishment and annoyance among the followers of the game in India and some were even vociferously critical about his entry. His tally in the last six innings was a mere 41 runs.
High Noon
The tour started auspiciously for Sardesai.
With Viswanath suffering from an injured knee, in the opening match against Jamaica, he played as a last-minute replacement. The result was a flawless 97.
The first Test match started about a week later and since Viswanath was still indisposed, Sardesai was selected.
As was the recurring feature in those days, India was soon reduced to 75 for 5. It was now time for Eknath Solkar, the only recognised batsman in the team, to join Sardesai at the crease. The two of them registered an invaluable partnership of 137.
After Solkar departed for 61, Venkataraghavan and Krishnamurthy, the wicket-keeper, were soon dismissed. Prasanna joined Sardesai and for the tenth wicket, they added 122 runs before Sardesai was finally out for 212.
Thus, he registered the highest individual score by an Indian batsman on foreign soil. The Indian innings amounted 387.
His nimble footwork against the spinners was exemplary and he faced the pacers with equal facility. The West Indies were forced to follow-on and the match ended in a draw.
Sardesai had played his most defining innings in his life and a new chapter in Indian cricket was written with the portent of things to follow in the rest of the series.
The second Test match at Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad marked the arrival of a young batsman who was to take the cricket world by storm. His name is Sunil Manohar Gavaskar.
Sardesai scored 94 in the tour match against Trinidad and in the Test match registered a classic 112. Jack Noriega, an aging off-spinner, playing only in his second Test match, captured 9 wickets in the innings. However, Sardesai negotiated the turn, often jumping out to smother the spin with the kind of foot-work which was an object lesson for everybody.
Gavaskar hit the winning stroke and India won the match by 7 wickets.
In the third Test match at Georgetown Guyana, Viswanath joined the team and batted at his customary number 4, Gavaskar scored 116, his maiden Test century, and Sardesai scored a modest 45, batting at number 6.
In the following fourth Test match at Bridgetown Barbados, The West Indies batted first and put up an impressive 501 for 5. India’s response was disastrous, to say the least, and very soon they had been tottering at 70 for 6, even worse than their state at Kingston Jamaica in the first Test match. Gavaskar was out for 1, his only failure in the series, and the middle-order caved in, till Solkar joined Sardesai once again in the middle.
They stitched a partnership of 186 runs and thus bettered their previous performance at Kingston. Solkar was out at for 65 and this time it was Bishen Singh Bedi who partnered Sardesai for the last wicket and added 62. Finally, Sardesai was the last man out for 150 and in terms of criticality of the prevailing conditions, this stellar performance was even more crucial than the one in Jamaica.
Thus he rescued the crumbling Indian innings, again almost single-handedly from an utterly ruinous situation. In the final Test match at Port of Spain, Gavaskar scored 124 and 220 in the two innings, but Sardesai’s s insatiable gluttony for runs continued and he scored 75 in the first innings. He batted all along with rare panache and thus India won the series. Thus, it was a significant milestone in Indian cricket.
Sardesai’s aggregate was 642 at an average of 80.25 runs. On every occasion he was the rescuer, pulled the Indian side out of the quicksand, proved that age could not wither him, and he was not the kind of man to throw in the towel. Hardly had any batsman scored so consistently in critical moments and that too, at a time when he was virtually written off.
Within a few months, India visited England, bubbling with enthusiasm and confidence, after their magical performance in the West Indies. However, the playing conditions were vastly different and they luckily escaped defeat in the first two Test matches at Leeds and Lord’s due to incessant rain.
They arrived at the Oval for the final Test match. Contrary to the heavy scoring in the West Indies, not a single century was registered in this series by the Indian batsmen, and the superlative form with which Sardesai and Gavaskar performed, deserted them.
Nonetheless, in the final match, Sardesai played two pivotal knocks of 54 and 40 and the latter innings was an exhibition of how to handle spinners on a turning track.
Gavaskar wrote in his autobiography Sunny Days, ‘On a wicket which was yielding considerable turn, particularly to the crafty Illingworth, Dilip repeatedly stepped out and drove through the covers... Dilip has such quick footwork that the moment the ball is flighted a couple of inches more than normal, he is down the wicket and crash goes the ball. Towards his later years, he developed a cross-batted swish against the off-spinners which often sent the ball soaring over the mid-wicket boundary... his stepping out to the spinners, particularly whenever Underwood threw up his slower one, was as good as ever.’
India won the match by 4 wickets and registered their first-ever victory in England.
Final Days
The Indian spirits were high and in 1972-73, the MCC team led by Tony Lewis visited the shores. The first Test match was played at Delhi where Sardesai scored 20 and 10. This turned out to be his last outing for his country and Salim Durrani replaced him in the next match at Calcutta.
Sardesai’s Test career thus came to an abrupt end. He continued to play in domestic cricket till 1973 and in 13 years of his career in Ranji Trophy, including 10 finals, he was never a member of the losing side.
It is a trifle difficult to assess the contribution of Sardesai precisely in the context of Indian cricket. As Raju Mukherjee, the one-time captain of Bengal and the East Zone, wrote in his book, Cricket in India: Origin and Heroes’, ‘... the real Sardesai is neither the all-conquering hero of the Caribbean tour nor the abject failure Down Under. The real Dilip Sardesai is lurking somewhere in between the two distant poles.’
To a large extent, it is true. Apart from the Caribbean tour where the selectors finally decided to take a punt on him at the insistence of Wadekar, he was a success against New Zealand in 1965, where he scored a back-to-back double century and a century, and his consistent performance in 1963-64 against MCC can’t be glossed over easily.
Style and the Man
A technically equipped batsman, particularly adept against spin bowling, his foot-work was nimble and his wrists were supple.
In his obituary, Wisden recorded that Gavaskar once said, ‘He showed us how to play fast bowling, and in doing so gave us the confidence we needed to beat the West Indies. One of his great strengths was that he was always very positive, and he spread that through the team.’
[Editor’s note: There was no fast bowling to speak of in the West Indies team of 1971. They were the weakest attack assembled in the long history of the country’s cricket with Uton Dowe and Grayson Shillingford opening with the new ball. Even the Caribbean home crowd used to chant “Dowe shalt not bowl.”
Hence, Gavaskar’s words need to be taken with a pinch of salt, bearing in mind that reminiscences, unless backed by facts, generally emerge coloured beyond recognition. The past prowess of West Indies often get merged with the post-1976 attacks that the team rolled out one after the other, but in 1971 they had been in the midst of a slump, having no series win for 7 years between 1966 and 1973]
According to Wadekar, ‘As a batsman, Dilip was really superb. He could face any attack. At the start of his innings, though, he was a bit susceptible, which is the case with any batsman since they are new to the crease...Once he settled down, he faced no problems except that he was not great when it came to running between the wickets... He was absolutely perfect when it came to leaving the ball.’
Not an opening batsman by choice, Sardesai was promoted owing to the lack of competent players, and thus in a way, it was an injustice meted out to him. His form as an opener fluctuated between the extraordinary and thoroughly indifferent. But he was so consistent in domestic cricket that it was no easy task for the selectors to turn a blind eye towards him.
Whenever he was asked to bat lower down, he was a great success.
H Natarajan, the noted cricket columnist described his batting as ‘limpet-like’. Indeed, he was dour, steady, tenacious, preferred discretion to valour, and he valued his wicket dearly, a typical Bombay trait inherited from Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, and Vijay Manjrekar, among others.
He hardly ever preferred to play to the gallery. But his paroxysms of sky-high success contrasted heavily with his abysmally poor performances for some unfathomable reasons. Raju Mukherjee summarized him with the most succinct comment, ‘... this stroke-maker never allowed himself the luxury of gaiety while batting. He appeared too cramped at times, too defensive, too intent. If only he had put bat to the ball more often and more vigorously. A mark of interrogation seemed to haunt his mind at every turn. He gave every indication of a man not in harmony with himself.’
His fielding left a lot to be desired and in his most dismal series against Australia in 1967-68, he dropped a couple of vital catches during Ian Chappell’s 151 at Melbourne. He was sluggish and was often run out owing to his lack of speed between the wickets. The Trinidad Guardian wrote in his obituary, ‘It was this contradiction that Sardesai was never able to shake off. Was he an under-achieving major batsman or an over-achieving limited one? He was never the fastest man on the field, and the story is told of Sardesai chasing the ball in Adelaide when he turned around to see the batsmen going for their fifth run. With remarkable presence of mind, he kicked the ball over the boundary to save a run. It doesn't matter if the story is true...’
Popularly known as Sardee-Singh, Sardesai played in 30 Test matches and scored 2001 runs at an average of 39.23 which contained 5 centuries.
In 179 First-class cricket matches, he scored 25 hundreds, with an aggregate of 10,230 runs at an average of 41.75.
He suffered from chronic disease of the kidneys, was on dialysis for a long time, and died on 2nd July 2007 from multi-organ failure.
The Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Goa, instituted the Dilip Sardesai Sports Excellence Award in 2009 which is awarded to the sportspersons from Goa who represented India in international sports competition during the preceding year.