Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (10 page)

In the one over I bowled I picked up the wicket of Hughes and it was a big moment for me because it was my first wicket in Test cricket. He was caught by Prabhakar in the slips for 21 after playing seventy-three balls, and if we had got his wicket a little earlier, we might have been able to close out the game.

The fourth Test of the series started at Adelaide on 25 January 1992 and for the first time I was going to bat at the home ground of the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, the greatest batsman to have played the game. While I did not do much at the Adelaide Oval, the team played some good cricket. We lost the match by 38 runs in the end, but we remained competitive throughout and dominated the first two days of the match. Kapil Dev had a good match with both bat and ball and in our second innings Azhar played a wonderful captain’s innings, scoring 106. He and Prabhakar, who made 64, had brought us to the brink of victory, but we were eventually all out for 333 chasing 371. With a bit of luck, the series could have been 2–2 at Adelaide. Instead we went to Perth for the final Test 0–3 down.

I scored my second hundred of the series in the fifth Test, which started on 1 February, and I count it as one of the very best I have scored. It was a quick wicket and for the first time since my debut I was going in at number four in a Test. I relished the opportunity from the outset and hit sixteen boundaries in my 114. By that stage of the tour I had mastered a back-foot punch. While most batsmen favoured the cut shot at Perth because of the extra bounce, I used the back-foot punch at every opportunity and because I was able to do so against good-length balls, it was making the bowlers’ job that much more difficult. It would usually bring me at least a couple of runs and when I timed the ball really well it would even go all the way to the boundary.

Earlier, the Australian media had talked up the fast, bouncy WACA wicket and how difficult it would make it for us to cope with the Australian quick bowlers. But I never had a problem batting at the WACA. This was because I managed to adjust to the bounce. Every time the ball got big on me, I stayed on the back foot and played the ball with soft hands at the last moment, standing up on my toes rather than playing a flat-footed defensive stroke.

One incident at the WACA brought home the intensity and competitiveness of the game in Australia. I had just played a ball defensively and had no chance of a run. In what I thought was the spirit of the game, I was about to pick the ball up and throw it to Allan Border, the Australian captain, who was fielding at gully. When AB spotted me bending down he screamed at me, saying, ‘Don’t you dare touch the ball.’ After that I never tried to pick up the ball and throw it back to fielders. It was a lesson in how international cricket is played and I remembered it till the last day of my career.

It was on this tour of Australia that I first saw a batsman who had been my hero when I was growing up – though it wasn’t on the cricket field. I was in a hotel lobby in Adelaide with Sanjay Manjrekar when a cab pulled up outside. A guy wearing a cap got out and I immediately said, ‘I’ve seen him somewhere before.’ As he got closer I said, ‘I don’t believe it – that’s Viv Richards!’

When he walked past us and headed up to his room, I turned to Sanjay and told him that I just had to meet my hero. So we went to Reception and found out his room number and I made Sanjay call him – Sanjay had played a series against him in the West Indies in 1989 – and before long we were on our way to his room. That was my first meeting with Viv. I spent only three minutes with him, just to say hello, but it was a very exciting moment for me.

After the Test series we stayed in Australia, as the World Cup – my first – was just a few weeks away. The idea was to help us acclimatize to the conditions, not that this was necessary after being in Australia for close to three months. We had a few weeks to ourselves and with Vinod Kambli around there was never a dull moment. Vinod and I shared a room and one thing that always stood out about him was his dress sense. Vinod’s clothes were as colourful as they could possibly get and on one occasion our manager Ranbir Singh Mahendra even said to him, ‘
Arre India ke liye khel rahe ho, aise clown jaise dress kyun pehente ho tum? Kuch dhang ka kapda pehna karo.
’ (You are playing for India. Why do you dress like a clown? You should wear some decent clothes and dress sensibly.) Not that it had any impact on Vinod, though!

Those few weeks were relatively stress-free and we spent a lot of time relaxing in each other’s company. On one occasion the leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani and I were having tea in our physio Dr Ali Irani’s room. Ali used to make special tea for us, with a particular kind of sugar. In the middle of our conversation Ali got a call from Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who was a vegetarian, asking if he could get him some garlic bread. After the call Ali turned all philosophical and said, ‘There will come a time when you guys will be there and will think about old Ali Irani who used to take care of us and make us really nice tea.’

Hirwani and I found it funny that he had turned unnaturally thoughtful and Hirwani asked him to repeat what he had just said. Ali was reluctant to do so but when Hirwani insisted, he said it again. At this Hirwani jokingly said to Ali with reference to his efforts to keep Ranbir Singh Mahendra in good humour, ‘
Tu to har din 200 marta hai. India team mein tera naam pehle likha jata hai. Uske baad hamara naam aata hai.
’ (You score a double hundred every day by being in the good books of the manager. Your name will come first in an Indian team and only then will our names be listed.)

In the World Cup, India failed to make the semi-finals, despite being competitive in most of the matches. We lost to England and Australia by the narrow margin of nine runs and one run respectively and our second match against Sri Lanka at Mackay on 28 February was washed out because of rain.

The high point of the tournament for us was the match against eventual winners Pakistan on 4 March 1992 at Sydney. After two consecutive defeats, we were determined to turn things round against Pakistan. Batting first, we had to negotiate a hostile spell of fast bowling from Wasim Akram. At one stage he was bowling magnificently to Vinod Kambli and, batting at the other end, I just kept telling Vinod to nudge the ball and run. We put together an important partnership and I followed it up with another with Kapil Dev, who scored a valuable 35 off just twenty-six balls. I was unbeaten on 54 at the end of the innings.

Our total of 216 wasn’t a big score to defend, but we started well and Kapil Dev and Prabakhar picked up two early wickets for very little on the board. Our bowlers and fielders were charged up and there was a lot of chat out in the middle. We were cheering each other on and giving the Pakistan batsmen a hard time.

This match is often remembered for the tussle between our wicketkeeper Kiran More and Javed Miandad. Javed, if I remember right, was having back spasms and could not play his strokes freely. He was finding it difficult to bat but was performing an uncharacteristic job for his team, trying to anchor the innings and hold up one end. Behind the stumps, Kiran was constantly up and down, shouting out instructions to our bowlers, saying Javed was in no position to play his shots. Infuriated at the continuous chatter, Javed imitated Kiran’s actions by doing a frog jump. We were all stunned and amused at the same time and this tiff between Kiran and Javed made the eventual victory even sweeter.

I bowled my full quota of ten overs, conceding just 37 runs and picking up the vital wicket of opener Aamer Sohail. It was a satisfying win and by the end of the match I had completely lost my voice because of all the shouting. It was the first time India had played Pakistan in the World Cup since the inception of the tournament in 1975 and it was the start of a string of victories against them in World Cups. The 1992 victory was particularly pleasing because I was also Player of the Match.

When we returned to India at the end of March after four and a half months in Australia I was a transformed cricketer. The 1991–92 Australia tour undoubtedly had a fundamental impact on my career.

The story of the Australia tour is incomplete without a story that has stayed with me over the years. It involves Venkatapathy Raju, our left-arm spinner, and Merv Hughes. They were great pals and on a flight to Perth, which is a little under four hours from Sydney, we dared Raju, one of the skinniest cricketers in the team, to go and grab Hughes’s famous thick moustache. Merv, a huge man, was known for his volatile temper and most of us were convinced that Raju would chicken out in the end. To our surprise, he boldly went up to Merv and pulled his moustache, a feat of incredible bravery – or foolishness. Merv took it all very sportingly and the act was applauded by everyone on the flight, making Raju an instant hero.

1st Test. Christchurch. 2–5 February 1990

New Zealand 459 (JG Wright 185, KR Rutherford 69, AH Jones 52) and 2–0

India 164 (NS Sidhu 51, M Azharuddin 48,
SR Tendulkar 0
; DK Morrison 5–75) and 296 (f/o) (WV Raman 96,
SR Tendulkar 24
; RJ Hadlee 4–69
)

New Zealand won by 10 wickets

2nd Test. Napier. 9–13 February 1990

India 358–9 dec (M Prabhakar 95,
SR Tendulkar 88
, KS More 73; DK Morrison 5–98)

New Zealand 178–1 (JG Wright 113*, TJ Franklin 50)

Match drawn

3rd Test. Auckland. 22–26 February 1990

New Zealand 391 (IDS Smith 173, RJ Hadlee 87; AS Wassan 4–108) and 483–5 dec (AH Jones 170*, MD Crowe 113, JG Wright 74)

India 482 (M Azharuddin 192, AS Wassan 53, KS More 50,
SR Tendulkar 5
; DK Morrison 5–145) and 149–0 (M Prabhakar 63*, WV Raman 72*)

Match drawn

New Zealand won the series 1–0

1st Test. Lord’s. 26–31 July 1990

England 653–4 dec (GA Gooch 333, AJ Lamb 139, RA Smith 100*) and 272–4 dec (GA Gooch 123, MA Atherton 72)

India 454 (M Azharuddin 121, RJ Shastri 100, Kapil Dev 77,
SR Tendulkar 10
; ARC Fraser 5–104) and 224 (SK Sharma 38,
SR Tendulkar 27
)

England won by 247 runs

2nd Test. Old Trafford, Manchester. 9–14 August 1990

England 519 (MA Atherton 131, RA Smith 121*, GA Gooch 116; ND Hirwani 4–174) and 320–4 dec (AJ Lamb 109, MA Atherton 74, RA Smith 61*)

India 432 (M Azharuddin 179, SV Manjrekar 93,
SR Tendulkar 68
; ARC Fraser 5–124) and 343–6 (
SR Tendulkar 119*
, M Prabhakar 67*, SV Manjrekar 50)

Match drawn

3rd Test. The Oval. 23–28 August 1990

India 606–9 dec (RJ Shastri 187, Kapil Dev 110, M Azharuddin 78, KS More 61*,
SR Tendulkar 21
)

England 340 (GA Gooch 85, RA Smith 57, EE Hemmings 51; M Prabhakar 4–74) and 477–4 dec (f/o) (DI Gower 157*, GA Gooch 88, MA Atherton 86, AJ Lamb 52)

Match drawn

England won the series 1–0

1st Test. Brisbane. 29 November–2 December 1991

I
ndia 239 (M Prabhakar 54*,
SR Tendulkar 16
; CJ McDermott 5–54) and 156 (RJ Shastri 41,
SR Tendulkar 7
; CJ McDermott 4–47, MG Hughes 4–50)

Australia 340 (MA Taylor 94, DC Boon 66; Kapil Dev 4–80) and 58–0

Australia won by 10 wickets

2nd Test. Melbourne. 26–29 December 1991

India 263 (KS More 67*,
SR Tendulkar 15
; BA Reid 6–66) and 213 (DB Vengsarkar 54,
SR Tendulkar 40
; BA Reid 6–66)

Australia 349 (GR Marsh 86, IA Healy 60, DM Jones 59; Kapil Dev 5–97, M Prabhakar 4–84) and 128–2 (MA Taylor 60, DC Boon 44*)

Australia won by 8 wickets

3rd Test. Sydney. 2–6 January 1992

Australia 313 (DC Boon 129*, MA Taylor 56) and 173–8 (AR Border 53*; RJ Shastri 4–45,
SR Tendulkar 1–2
)

India 483 (RJ Shastri 206,
SR Tendulkar 148*
, DB Vengsarkar 54; CJ McDermott 4–147)

Match drawn

4th Test. Adelaide. 25–29 January 1992

Australia 145 (DM Jones 41; SLV Raju 3–11, Kapil Dev 3–33,
SR Tendulkar 2–10
) and 451 (DC Boon 135*, MA Taylor 100, AR Border 91*; Kapil Dev 5–130)

India 225 (Kapil Dev 56,
SR Tendulkar 6
; CJ McDermott 5–76) and 333 (M Azharuddin 106, M Prabhakar 64,
SR Tendulkar 17
; CJ McDermott 5–92)

Australia won by 38 runs

5th Test. Perth. 1–5 February 1992

Australia 346 (DC Boon 107, AR Border 59, TM Moody 50; M Prabhakar 5–101) and 367–6 dec (DM Jones 150*, TM Moody 101)

India 272 (
SR Tendulkar 114
, KS More 43; MR Whitney 4–68, MG Hughes 4–82) and 141 (K Srikkanth 38,
SR Tendulkar 5
; MR Whitney 7–27)

Australia won by 300 runs

Australia won the series 4–0

2nd match. England v India at Perth. 22 February 1992

England 236–9 (50/50 ov); India 227 (49.2/50 ov)

England won by 9 runs

9th match. India v Sri Lanka at Mackay. 28 February 1992

India 1–0 (0.2/20 ov)

No result

12th match. Australia v India at Brisbane. 1 March 1992

Australia 237–9 (50/50 ov); India 234 (47/47 ov, target: 236)

Australia won by 1 run (revised target)

16th match. India v Pakistan at Sydney. 4 March 1992

India 216–7 (49/49 ov); Pakistan 173 (48.1/49 ov)