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Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
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13 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Kenia Jayantilal, one of the most unfortunate Indian Test cricketers, was born on this day, 1948.

He played only one Test, the first match on the historic 1970-71 tour of the West Indies.

He scored 5 before he tried to leave a ball from Grayson Shillingford.
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The ball still came into him, took an edge, and flew between second and third slip.

And Sobers did a Sobers by somehow emerging, laughing, the ball clutched to his chest.

In the pavilion was an uncapped cricketer named Sunil Gavaskar.
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He had been brought up on stories of the brilliances of Sobers and Kanhai.

Now he told a teammate: "Now all I want to see is Rohan Kanhai's falling sweep shot, and my tour is made."

Gavaskar replaced Jayantilal in the next Test match.
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When Gavaskar scored his first Test hundred, he was dropped thrice – by Sobers.

Jayantilal scored 506 runs on the tour, at 56.22.

He finished behind only Gavaskar (1,169 runs at 97.41) and Sardesai (883 at 67.92).

He was also part of the England tour that followed.
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An excellent home season also helped him win the Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year award.

But he never played another Test match.

The "why" eludes me, more so because India never found a proper opening partner for Gavaskar.

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Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
15 Jan
Raqibul Hasan Sr (also spelled Roqibul, Raquibul, Roquibul) was born on this day, 1953.

He was the first international captain of a representative Bangladesh side.

And his heroics in 1971 on a cricket field, in the face of fire, have been matched by almost no one.
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Let me provide the backdrop first. This was 1970-71. Threats of Civil War loomed over East Pakistan.

Yahya Khan was making a last-ditch attempt to have control on East Pakistan, and cricket was going to be his tool.

An International XI was touring Pakistan.
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Their second match was scheduled at Dacca.

In the 1970 Pakistan General Elections, Awami League had won 160 seats out of 300, but were still not allowed to form the Government.

And now Raqibul was roped in, probably as the ruling party's poster boy.
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Read 17 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
14 Jan
Richard Blakey, born on January 15, 1967, played for Yorkshire for almost two decades.

Of cricketers who debuted after Blakey, only five have more First-Class dismissals than his 835 (778 catches, 57 stumpings).

Blakey also scored almost 15,000 runs.
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But in Test cricket, he managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He played two Tests, both on England's disastrous 1992-93 tour of India.

He debuted as an emergency replacement, when Graham Gooch went down with food poisoning.
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With Alec Stewart leading, Blakey batted at six and kept wickets.

And he kept brilliantly, not conceding a bye in 165 overs.

But he failed miserably with bat.

When he walked out to bat in front of a packed Chepauk, his first thought was "how am I going to get a run?"
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Read 9 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
14 Jan
Benjamin Aislabie, born on this day, 1774, was probably the worst cricketer in the history of First-class cricket.

And a worse human being.

Aislabie averaged 3.15 with bat (3.90 in all recorded cricket).
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Even if you make allowances for the era, this still a rank tail-ender's average.

The problem was that he played 56 matches *as a specialist batsman*.

He did kept wickets, and did not bowl even one ball in First-Class cricket.

It was not that he was a great fielder.
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He only ever held seven catches, and seldom chased.

EW Swanton assessed that he was "much too fat to be any good" at cricket.

Aislabie's long career may be explained by the fact that he was the first Secretary (1822 to 1842) as well as President (1823/24) of the MCC.
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Read 10 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
12 Jan
January 12, 1956 was one of the worst on-field days for West Indian cricket, at par with their 25 all out against Ireland.

A reasonably strong West Indian side lost to – Fiji.

The picture is of Ratu Kamisese Mara, who led Fiji on that day.
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Mara later became Fiji's first Prime Minister.

The West Indians halted in Fiji en route to New Zealand.

They played a one-day, one-innings match against them, at Albert Park, Suva.

The West Indians were led by Atkinson.
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The side also featured Weekes, Goddard, Sobers, Collie Smith, Depeiaza, Ramadhin, and Valentine, among others.

Weekes and Goddard were rested that day, but the other stars all played.

The Apted brothers, Harry and William, opened batting.

Harry Apted top-scored with 33.
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Read 10 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
12 Jan
Regarding underarm.

In 1827, nine top English cricketers (including Fuller Pilch) refused to play a match. They signed the following letter:
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"We, the undersigned, do agree that we will not play the third match between All-England and Sussex, which is intended to be played at Brighton in July or August unless the Sussex bowlers bowl fair – this is, abstain from throwing".
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By throwing they meant roundarm ("using a roundarm action, the bowlers extend their arm about 90 degrees from their body at the point where they release the ball").

Think Malinga or Kedar but never above the shoulder. WG Grace bowled roundarm.
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Read 4 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
9 Jan
On this day, 1928, Wellington and Otago started an otherwise ordinary match at Basin Reserve (Wellington 363 and 413 beat Otago 269 and 344 by 163 runs).

But the match witnessed a world record, for it was the 81st birthday of William Bock, one of the umpires.

Eighty-first.
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He had stood in a match a day after his 80th birthday (already a world record), but here he improved on that.

His birthday was celebrated after the day's play.

Bock was 61 when he first stood umpire in a First-Class match, between Wellington and Hawke’s Bay.
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He officiated in eight matches, all at Basin Reserve.

The highlight came in 1913-14, when Wellington played the touring Australians.

The visitors included Trumper, Armstrong, Noble, Mailey, Collins, and Ransford.

But there was more to Bock than impiring.
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Read 9 tweets

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