by Mayukh Ghosh
A quick glance through Padwick is enough to learn that cricket tours, other than the Ashes, were hardly ever considered worthy of books.
Australian visits to India were no different.
In the early post-war years they were infrequent and, more tellingly, a series between two teams of unequal strength. So one can perhaps detect a reason why there were no tour books.
Also India didn’t have a dedicated historian or journalist who could have filled the gap.
Pakistan had Qamaruddin Butt. New Zealand had Dick Brittenden. South Africa had the likes of Charles Fortune, CO Medeworth, and cricketer-writers like Roy McLean.
But West Indies and India lacked the writer their team deserved. West Indies, though, at least did well enough to catch the British imagination….
Given the scenario, it was no surprise that an inter-war tour of Australia to India attracted zero attention. Three brochures were all it got.
It took almost 90 years to get the definitive book on those matches. It is a labour of love, of course, and the project demanded close to two decades of hard work.
Megan Ponsford always had the weight of that surname. One that gave her an identity pretty much from the time she was born. But Megan did things her own way and the story behind her writing this book is fascinating.
‘In 1977 my grandfather, Australian batsman, Bill Ponsford came to live with our
family in rural Victoria following the death of his wife. I’m the youngest in our family and was then the only child living at home as both my siblings were at boarding school. Both my parents worked so I spent a lot of time with Gramps and had a very close bond with him. Bill’s favourite sister Doll and brother-in-law Tom Leather were semi-frequent visitors. Around this time, cricket was going through a massive overhaul with an influx of big money and the professionalisation of the game. World Series Cricket was born. Bill was always being rung by the media when anything of note happened in the cricket world. Painfully shy, he’d always try to fob them off. I remember his reluctance to contribute to the Bodyline miniseries. Apparently, he was appalled watching the show when Mrs Woodfull went to the rooms to share a tipple with husband Bill – that never happened and would never happen according to Gramps!’
Despite Bill’s early influence, Megan’s career had nothing to do with cricket. She specialised in photography.
‘I studied Fine Art majoring in Photography at University and spent a number of years working as a documentary photographer. I didn’t photograph sport, but I was interested in urban architecture and sport stadiums. I liked the idea of documenting a space, that’s sole purpose was to accommodate the masses, when it was empty. I produced and published a number of photo essays. In 2003, my first book Home Ground was published. I’d spent a year documenting the MCG before it was completely redeveloped. My grandfather’s stand was demolished alongside everything built prior to the 1980s. After the publication of my book, I started photographing for a local newspaper and on a few occasions when a journo didn’t turn up, I gave writing a go. I loved it and as the photographic medium became increasingly digitised, I turned more to writing.’
And, then, from nowhere, she stumbled upon something that would eventually lead to her writing on cricket. ‘Whilst writing/photographing I simultaneously had a job developing content for the cricket section of the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Club during the setup stage. It was then that I came across the box of memorabilia which led to my next big research project on the first Australian cricket tour to India in 1935/36. My great uncle, Tom Leather, was a young bowler on the tour and had loaned the box to the club sometime in the 80s and later died. Tom was an only child and seemingly I was his closest family member as his two children and his wife had also passed away. One of the committee members suggested I have a look through the box to decide what I wanted to do with it. It was my lightbulb moment. Over the years, I imagine it had been passed around the various curators of the MCC museum and due to the non-official status of the tour and the casual nature of the contents of the box it was considered unworthy of display.
‘The box certainly didn’t look that impressive. It was one of those old indestructible waxy fruit boxes. There was no order in the contents: fading snap shots, signed menu’s, score cards, programmes, a couple of signed cricket balls, some framed official tour photographs and notes on paper were shoved in the box. Tom’s handwriting sprawled across almost every paper-based object. He’d acquired and collated the memorabilia and as the new custodian of the box it was now my job to make sense of these objects. I felt an overwhelming sense of familial obligation. I think I would have felt that I was intruding if I wasn’t a blood relative. I almost felt guilty about my own level of education when I read Tom’s notes as they were full of misspellings and grammatical mistakes. ‘Subsequent research at his alma mater, Caulfield Grammar, revealed that he didn’t excel in the classroom but did so on the sports grounds. He was even named in the Caulfield Grammar cricket team of the Twentieth century. I have a feeling that he was in awe of his brother-in-law’s reputation and may have secretly been jealous he didn’t have that talent nor the opportunity. I do know however that he would have been thrilled to learn that I would spend close to 15 years trying to get this story (his story) and the tour written into sporting history.’
And then began the long but fruitful process….
‘Knowing I had something special, I began thinking I could make a documentary about the tour. I’d been a relatively successful photographer and foolishly imagined that this step wasn’t so big. In 2007, I acquired Australia/India council funding and travelled to India armed with my video camera. It didn’t eventuate as a documentary, but the trip was invaluable as I loosely followed the tour itinerary and made some great research leaps and many friendships that have endured. I am so indebted to these contacts who kept my belief in the project alive. ‘I remained determined by the conviction that this was a story that needed to be told but I just wasn’t sure in what format. This led me back to University to enrol in a Master’s degree in the Australian History department, which then became a PhD. I largely based my research on the box of memorabilia and used photographic theory and visual analysis to support my arguments. I tried to contact and meet as many relatives of the players in Australia, India and Sri Lanka. Frequent research trips to the subcontinent were undertaken. Seemingly most of the Australians on the tour were pretty simple, knock-about fellows and my affection for them grew. I grew equally fond of the opposition too. Along the way I had a few articles published in the academic and mainstream media and presented at a number of conferences. I was also fortunate to be the recipient of the AGL fellowship at the State Library of Victoria. Aided by various grants and stipends from Federation University Australia, the research project jogged along.’
The project finally saw the light of day when Routledge (and later CricketMASH) approached her to rewrite her thesis as a book.
‘Following graduation, I was approached by Routledge to rewrite my thesis as a book which resulted in The 1935 Australian Cricket Tour of India: Breaking Down Social and Racial Barriers. One main argument in the book, and the thesis, questioned why the tour was largely ignored at the time and now is pretty much unknown.
‘At this time, I was approached by Arunabha Sengupta who rightly argued that the academic orientation of the book, alongside its exorbitant cost, would only lead to the further alienating the tour from mainstream sporting history. With Arun’s assistance CricketMASH came to the party and offered to publish The Has-Beens and Never-Will-Bes: A Boy’s Own Adventure of Australian Cricket and the Raj. Arun edited the book and I’m enormously indebted to his intelligence and patience. ’
It has been a rewarding experience for Megan and she realises that her book has successfully filled a significant gap ion cricket’s literature.
‘I now live with my family close to the MCG and go there most days walking, my beloved dog, Mary. We always have a chat to the statue of Grandpa Bill as we pass him. Yesterday, we went for the daily walk and unknowingly encountered the Indian ICC World Cup squad at their training session (October 2022). Many tens of thousands were there to watch their gods in training. I took a small delight in feeling like I was a tiny part of Indian cricket history. Although no one, either side of the nets, would have had any idea of the first cricket encounter between India and Australia nor how difficult it was to get the venture up. Hopefully my book will enable access to this story.’
Megan’s book is available from Cricmash (http://cricmash.com/cricbookstore) as well as from usual online outlets.
In UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9492203154
In Aus: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/9492203154