.by Sumit Gangopadhyay

A few days ago, at a function, a number of former Indian cricketers spent some time with the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. One of the cricketers was asked how it felt? The answer was “I have had very little opportunity. He spent most of his time with Borde.”

The fact was that as soon as Amitabh entered, he approached Borde. And then he reminded him of two incidents.
In a Bombay Test, the spectators shouldered Borde on the edge of the boundary. The same incident once again took place in Calcutta.

Borde was surprised to hear that there was someone ‘common’ in the two cases. The common man was the most uncommon of men—Amitabh Bachchan himself.

Borde scored 3061 runs at 35.59 from the middle order and captured 52 wickets at 46.48 with his leg-breaks in 55 Tests. That included five hundreds and a five-wicket haul.

In first-class cricket he scored 12,805 runs with 30 hundreds and the highest score of an unbeaten 207. He also captured 331 wickets, with 14 five-fors and a best of 8 for 52.

Very few Indian cricketers boast a double hundred as well as an eight-wicket haul.

Chandu Borde was born on 21 July 1934.

Translated from Bengali by Arunabha Sengupta