by Abhishek Mukherjee

1930-31.

Vizzy had reecruited Hobbs and Sutcliffe to play for his XI. In the match against Madras, they were up against a fast-medium pacer. He did not do much (2/24 and 2/72 are not exceptional figures), but he dismissed Hobbs in each innings.

Hobbs had been playing Test cricket less than a year ago. With Bradman still new at the highest level, there was little doubt that he was the greatest batsman to have played Test cricket till that point.

In the next match, this bowler landed one on leg-stump. The leg-cutter beat Hobbs's bat and hit off-stump.

MJ Gopalan had arrived. The next year he took the first hat-trick at Chepauk, then converted it to four wickets in five balls.

Gopalan played a solitary Test, at Kolkata in 1933-34. He took 1/39. He also had 194 wickets at 24 (and 2,916 runs at 25). He would have played significantly more – but then, he was also a centre-back at hockey. In fact, he was good enough to break through to the Indian team when they were going from strength to strength in the 1930s.

Gopalan handled the balance efficiently. On weekdays, he would play a full day's cricket at the Madras Cricket Club, then cycle his way to MUC or SIAA for a game of hockey. On weekdays it was cricket in the morning, work during the day, hockey in the evening.

India toured Ceylon, Australia, and New Zealand in 1934-35, winning all 48 matches and scoring 584 goals (12.17 per match). Gopalan played in 39 of these. When they first met on the field, Dhyan Chand's initial reaction was that Gopalan was a hockey player who also played cricket.

Gopalan faced a dilemma in 1936, when he was picked for both the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the Indian cricket squad that toured England. He chose the latter. This backfired.

Gopalan did not play a Test and had an ordinary tour. India had a miserable summer thanks to Vizzy, his conflicts with Nayudu, and Amarnath's controversial return home.
On the other hand, not only did the hockey team win the gold, they scored 38 goals and conceded one. He would have won a gold medal.

But then, he achieved something on the 1936 tour that none of his colleagues managed to, not even Merchant: he got the two key men on that tour to agree for probably the only time.

Nayudu: "His modesty may not have attracted the heights of advertisement in sports jargon, but like solid gold, which in comparison to copper makes less noise, he always did the best."

Vizzy: "Modest by nature and unassuming as he is, scores and analysis never figured in his thoughts. All that mattered was unalloyed loyalty, and whenever called upon to play, either in India or abroad, he gave his very best."

According to his school documents, MJ Gopalan was born on 7 June 1909, though he later clarified that he was born in 1906.