Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling 1886 to 2019

By Vijay Lokapally and Gulu Ezekiel

Indian cricket was traditionally known for its spin bowling. All that changed with the advent of the magnificent Kapil Dev in 1978. The floodgates really opened in the new millennium with Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan leading a revolution that today sees India's pace attack as among the best in the world.
But how many know that from the late 19th century right till the 1940s it was fast bowlers that shaped the early years of Indian cricket? From Pavri and Bulsara to Nissar and Amar Singh, batsmen from around the world found Indian pace bowling too hot to handle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9789388271363

Vijay Lokapally

Vijay Lokapally has written on cricket for more than three decades. He is a widely travelled cricket scribe with the distinction of having reported extensively on the game from practically every international venue. Working since 1986 with The Hindu, a respected National newspaper, Lokapally is acknowledged for his insightful views on the game. He covered his first Test in 1981 as a freelancer and has the distinction of covering six limited-over World Cups for The Hindu and Sportstar. His enviable access to cricketers, past and present, gives Lokapally a ring-side view of the game in India. It reflects in his incisive writing on all formats of the game. Lokapally is acknowledged for his contribution in Olympic sports, too. He has written extensively on Indian hockey and football. He is also a prolific film and food critic. His articles on the subjects in The Hindu's 'Metro Plus' are widely read and cherished. Driven is the third book by Lokapally. He has previously written the Virender Sehwag Story and co-authored 'The Houseful', an assemble of Indian films. His later books were the World Cup Worriors, The Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story and Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling. He lives in Delhi with wife Sunanda and son Akshay.

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Introduction

It is a pleasure to contribute an introduction to this offering by two of India’s outstanding cricket-writers, one of whom, Gulu Ezekiel, is a friend of long standing. He well knows of my involvement in India’s stunning 1983 World Cup victory, when I goaded them beforehand with criticism of their half-hearted batting in previous World Cup matches, one in particular. Provocatively, I even suggested that they might as well withdraw from limited-overs cricket if they found it so distasteful. (Mind you, with the contortions the shorter game forces on batsmen, I could see their point.)

Before I knew it, I was rejoicing with the Indian players and the tumultuous army of fans in the team hotel opposite Lord’s ground that evening, spending most time with ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath (whose dismissal of Holding sealed the result) and watching captain Kapil Dev dance a beguiling, sinuous bhangra. Come midnight, I had secured every player’s signature in the match programme.

I got to know Kapil (and the magnificent Sunil Gavaskar, who graciously presented me with his blazer for my collection) quite well around that time. Although Kapil wasn’t a tearaway bowler, he was for some years the best that India had. I’ve studied films of the Lord’s Test played by India in 1932, when Mohammad Nissar and Amar Singh opened the bowling effectively in their country’s maiden Test match; and again in 1936 (before I was born, I hasten to point out, if not by much: indeed, I must have been conceived around that time). Precious footage shows Nissar and Amar bowling England out for 134 (13 runs behind India’s opening innings). Alas for India, as four years earlier on that same famous ground, their batsmen failed to back up that smart bowling, and defeat followed.

Zoom forward 47 years, and that World Cup victory over West Indies at that same Lord’s ground brought thrills and unbridled delight to the Indian spectators in attendance and to the countless numbers at home in front of their TV screens.

Whether it’s something to do with improved diet, or modern fitness training, India has not of late been short of quality fast bowlers, which for so long had been the missing link. The authors have tracked that development, spotlighting some very interesting cricketers along the way. The glory years of the Indian spin quartet are almost ancient history now. Should another generation of spinners to match Bedi, Chandra, Venkat and Prasanna come along, with their wonderful batting line-up, India would be unbeatable.

Meanwhile, the reader can enjoy reliving some of the special times when the pace men did their stuff for their country. The contents tempt me to become an honorary Indian – if I’m not already.

ONE

When Pace was Ace

(Early years)

The most exciting spectacle in cricket has always been that of a fast bowler approaching the crease at speed, blood-red, rock-hard ball between fingers and thumb, his intention plainly to beat the batsman with sheer speed or swing or bounce or all three.

– The Fast Men by David Frith

The early years of Indian cricket, going back to the 1880s is a story of pace, pace and more pace.

A few of express pace, many fast medium and some just medium pace/swing, these bowlers dominated the narrative of Indian cricket, extending through the 1950s even though spin bowling had came into its own in the previous decade.

Broken bones, fractured jaws and skulls, bruised bodies and bruised egos—even one apparent fatality—was the lot of visiting cricketers who toured India for both official and unofficial Test matches in the 1920s and ’30s.

Even homegrown batsmen were not spared from the fast bowling onslaught that saw visiting captains from Arthur Gilligan to Douglas Jardine—yes, the same Jardine of ‘Bodyline’ infamy—and Jack Ryder to Lord Lionel Tennyson cry foul at the ‘bumper barrage’ that greeted them at the hands of our pace battery.

So what was behind this phenomenon?

The first community to take to cricket in India were the Parsees or Zoroastrians, a miniscule minority in a vast land whose origins are traced to ancient Persia (now Iran) and who settled mainly in Western India from the 10th century onwards.¹

It was the Parsees, who maintained close ties to the British rulers and who sent the first cricket teams abroad, to England in 1886 and again two years later.

The first fully representative ‘All India’ side toured England in 1911 while the first team from England to India was led and organized by G F Vernon in 1889-90 and included Lord Hawke, a legendary figure in English cricket of that era. Hawke himself led the next team to India in 1892-93 that included F S Jackson, later Sir Stanley Jackson, Governor of Bengal.

In 1902-03 the Oxford University Authentics captained by KJ Key toured India and had in its ranks the famous lob bowler W. Simpson-Hayward.

It was not till 1926-27 however that the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which controlled the game in England sent out their first official team to India led by England and Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan.

In the book Not So Unofficial by P N Sundaresan, one of the early doyens of Indian cricket writing, he states the match against ‘All India’ (as the Indian team was known till independence in 1947) at Bombay Gymkhana from December 16-18, 1926 ‘though it was not considered as such, can be taken as the first unofficial Test played by India.’ The team for that match consisted entirely of Indians.

For those unfamiliar with the term, one of the first Test players to emerge from-then Madras, M J Gopalan explained in his foreword to the book: ‘They really played a very significant part in building up our cricket both on and off the field at a crucial period of this development. The game could not have progressed without public support and these unofficial Tests helped in a great measure to get it…these matches shaped and strengthened our cricketers for the highly competitive international matches. Having played against most of these overseas teams I can vouchsafe to their high calibre.’

Who then were the early fast bowlers that made such an impact both in India and abroad?

Inevitably these came from the Parsee community which dominated the early cricket scene in India.

Pavri: The Parsee Pioneer

Perhaps the most famous of these, Mehellasha Edulji Pavri played a stellar role in what was then the most famous day in Indian cricket history when the Parsees defeated Vernon’s XI by four wickets at the Bombay Gymkhana on Jan. 30-31, 1890.

Pavri according to cricket historian Vasant Raiji was the first star of Indian cricket, his massive physique coupled with an impressive beard giving him a formidable look.

The team was captained by JM Framjee Patel who penned a vivid account of the historic match in one of the earliest Indian cricket books, Stray Thoughts on Indian Cricket (1905).

The visitors collapsed for 97 in the first innings with Pavri taking two wickets. The Parsees in turn fell for 82, Pavri opening the batting.

Pavri was at his lethal best in the 2nd innings grabbing 7 for 34 in 13.2 overs with the English folding up for a miserable 61 all out in 27.2 overs.

Pavri was the top scorer for the home side with 21 in the second innings as they lost six wickets before getting the 77 runs required for victory.

Wrote the elated captain: ‘Messrs Pavri and [RE] Modi [five wickets in the match] divided the bowling honours and it was not underhand [underarm] bowling that wrought the ruin, but first-class overarm bowling.’

An important point this as a number of the bowlers on the two Parsee tours of 1886 and 1888 bowled underarm or lobs as was quite common then.

This was Vernon’s only defeat on the tour where their record read 10 wins, two draws and one defeat.

Remarkably, less than three years later the Parsees repeated the feat against Lord Hawke’s side and once again Pavri was the star.

Pavri indeed was the star bowler on the 1888 tour of England on which the team enjoyed more success than the disastrous visit two years earlier. On both tours it was the quick bowlers, both underarm and ‘round-arm’ who dominated with Pavri finishing the 1888 tour with outstanding figures of 170 wickets at less than 12 runs per wicket.

Lillywhite’s annual described his bowling thus: ‘He bowled fast round-arm of a good length, and towards the end of the tour developed a very good style, varying his pace and pitch well, besides making the ball do a good deal at times.’

That experience of bowling in England obviously held Pavri in good stead when he returned to India.

The three-day match at the Bombay Gymkhana (Dec. 22-24, 1892) against Hawke’s XI saw the Parsees romp home by 109 runs. Pavri’s 6 for 36 in the second innings (2 for 18 in the first) were his best figures in first-class cricket since the earlier Vernon game was of two days duration, hence not first-class. It was the first of just two defeats for Hawke’s team out of 23 matches on tour.

The tour was also significant as for the first time the name ‘All India’ appeared on the scorecard, on January 26, 1893 at Allahabad in a three-day match, 18 years before the 1911 All India tour of England.

This was misleading however as only three Indians were in the team, the rest being Englishmen domiciled in India. And expectedly all three were Parsees; Pavri (who took two wickets in the innings defeat), N P Bapasola and B D Gagrat. It was thus not truly representative of a national side. The venue was then known as Alfred Park, now Madan Mohan Malviya stadium.

The Parsees completed a glorious hat-trick when they defeated the third English team to visit India, beating the Oxford University Authentics—the weakest of the three visiting sides—at Bombay Gymkhana in November 1902 by eight wickets.

Led by Pavri, the team included two bowlers who by the turn of the century had gained a ferocious reputation, M D Bulsara and K B Mistry, both from Ajmer. Bulsara was nicknamed ‘The Demon’ after the legendary Australian fast bowler of Ashes fame, Fred Spofforth. But it was the left armer Mistry, making his first class debut against the English, who struck terror in the hearts of batsmen across the land and had best figures of 9 for 81 against the Europeans in the Bombay Presidency match at Poona in the 1906-07 season.

Bulsara was the outstanding Parsee fast bowler in the Presidency matches played against the Europeans between 1892-93 to 1906-7.

In only his second match in 1900-01 he had the outstanding figures of 5 for 21 and 8 for 31 as the Parsees won by 135 runs at Poona. The Europeans could only muster 51 and 82 in their two innings.

In the 1907-08 season in the final of the inaugural triangular tournament against the Europeans in Bombay (the Hindus being the third team), he had match figures of 10 for 50, the Parsees winning by 143 runs.

So what of the other fast bowlers who were such a feature of the Indian cricket scene back then? Indeed it was said of that era that every college, every club, every representative side had four fast bowlers in their ranks.²

Foremost among them was certainly the fearsome opening pair of Mohammed Nissar and Ladhabhai Amar Singh Nakum. Their brilliant fast bowling in tandem in both official and unofficial Test matches in the 1930s was largely responsible for Indian cricket making a name for itself on the international scene in the early years. Their life and times will be explored in detail in the next chapter. They were ably supported by the crafty Mohammad Jehangir Khan, all three coincidentally born in 1910.

Amar’s elder brother Ladhabhai Ramji Nakum, aka the ‘Kathiawar Terror’ was perhaps the most fearsome in terms of pace and intimidation of his era and had experienced foreign batsmen running for cover.

M J Gopalan, Sarobindu Nath (Shute) Banerjee, Mubarak Ali, M Salahuddin, Syed Nazir Ali (the first Indian bowler to capture the wicket of Don Bradman, playing for the Club Cricket Conference at Lord’s against the touring Australians in September 1930) and Dev Raj Puri—who played a small but historic part in Indian cricket—all these bowlers would surely have made a name for themselves on the world stage if India’s Test debut had come in the 1920s rather than 1932.

Puri: The History Man

Puri (born 1916) played one unofficial Test against Ryder’s team, the third at Lahore in 1936 opening the bowling in tandem with Nissar and Banerjee. He later made a name for himself as a radio commentator and was in the opinion of Vijay Merchant, the fastest Indian bowler he had come across in his opening spell when he was considered lightning quick according to contemporary reports.

This was told by Merchant to Puri’s son, Dr Narottam Puri and conveyed to me when I spoke to Dr Puri for the purpose of this book. Dr Puri followed in his father’s footsteps and became a famed radio and TV commentator and host.

Puri played a stellar role for Northern India in the very first Ranji Trophy final in March 1935, against Bombay at the Gymkhana grounds with figures of 2 for 44 and 6 for 101. But it was not enough to prevent Bombay winning by 244 runs thanks largely to Merchant’s second innings century (and three wickets to boot!)

But it was Parsi medium pacer Homi Vajifdar (born 1894) who was the bowling hero for Bombay with 2 for 44 and 8 for 40—the best in a Ranji Trophy final for 21 years—that too at the age of 40. The next season he captained Bombay to victory over Madras in the final and later became a well known coach.

In just his second Ranji Trophy game that first season and while still in college, Puri had sensational figures of 4-1-3-3 (including the prized wicket of Lala Amarnath for a duck) as Southern Punjab crumbled to a miserable 22 in their second innings at Amritsar, the lowest first-class score in Indian cricket for 76 years till Hyderabad’s 20 all out v Rajasthan at Jaipur in 2010.

Puri also captained Punjab University to victory in the inaugural Rohinton Baria inter-collegiate final in 1935-36, beating Bombay University by 73 runs at Bombay.

The match was won in dramatic fashion on the final day thanks to Puri’s ferocious bowling. Bombay were all out for 231 but not before a 9th wicket partnership of 81 runs in 95 minutes between Adhyaru (65) and Wadia (64) gave them hope.

That was broken when Puri took the new ball with Mubarak Ali and hit the hapless Adhyaru on the mouth as he attempted to hook a bouncer, rendered him unconscious and he was out hit wicket as he fell on the stumps!

Puri was briefly mentioned in the ‘Notes from India’ column by Atropos (a pseudonym) in the 1935 winter annual of The Cricketer (UK) magazine: ‘A new figure in Indian cricket is DR Puri, the captain of the Government College, Lahore. Puri had not played cricket in his school days, but his college career has been brilliant. The selectors have an eye on him, and though it is too early to mention the names of probables, it is no risk to say that Puri is among the best six in the country.’

This was about the pending selection of the team for the 1936 tour of England and thus it is clear that Puri was most unfortunate to miss out on selection when he was at his peak.

Dr Puri narrated to me the sad story that his father was not allowed to bowl a single delivery or even bat a single ball when he was called for the tour trials in Delhi. This is because he had played a few matches for the Patialas who were the sworn enemy of the notorious Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju, Sir Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagrama, aka ‘Vizzy’ who was captain in 1936 (See Chapter Two).

Just imagine Nissar, Amarsingh and Puri bowling flat out in the 1936 Test matches!

Mystery Man

In the Ranji Trophy match in 1935 in which Southern Punjab were routed for 22 by Northern India it was Mohammad Baqa Khan Jilani (born 1911), brother-in-law of Jahangir Khan and uncle of Imran and Majid Khan, who did the star turn with the ball.

After claiming 4 for 46 in the first innings, he ran through the Punjab batting in the second innings with sensational figures of 4.1-1-7-5 including the first hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy—one-Test men Lall Singh and Yadavendrasingh (Yuvraj of Patiala) as well as 1932 tourist Joginder Singh were his victims.

Jilani is one of those mystery men of the early years of Indian cricket. Both the circumstances of his Test debut at the Oval in 1936 and that of his death at the age of 29 (the same as Amar Singh) in 1941 are murky and mysterious.

What is also mysterious is the manner of his bowling. Various reports state he bowled ‘medium-paced off-breaks’³, medium paced leg-breaks or just medium pace. This is not dissimilar to BS Chandrasekhar who bowled his leg spinners at a brisk enough pace to perhaps make him the fastest bowler in the Indian attack during his prime.

Anthony De Mello (born 1900), the guiding force behind the founding of the BCCI and its first secretary also had his moment in the sun when on first-class debut in 1930 he claimed the scalps of the mighty English opening batsmen Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe while playing for Rest of India against the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram’s XI at the Roshanara Ground in Delhi—birthplace of the BCCI two years earlier. De Mello was said to have jumped and danced with joy at his feat, part of a first innings analysis of 6 for 66 while bowling at a lively medium pace.

Coir: The Cause?

So what was behind these phenomena of tall, strapping young men bowling like the wind in that era? Why was it that the fast bowling scene was so barren in the 1960s and ’70s when weather, diet and other factors were routinely trotted out as excuses?

The main reason according to the late cricket commentator and author from Calcutta, ‘Berry’ Sarbadhikary was the matting wickets made of coir (not the comparatively ‘quiet’ jute matting which was a later innovation) spread on gravel, earth or mud and even grass, often uneven ‘the ball perhaps doing all sorts of funny tricks at some pace, including bumping awkwardly and even shooting.’⁴

According to Sarbadhikary these uncertain, bumpy pitches encouraged bowlers, especially those in the North from Aligarh, Meerut, Delhi to Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, this being undivided pre-1947 India, to bowl flat out. This was also the case in Sind, Kathiawar, Rajputana and Central Provinces.

With a number of these nurseries of fast bowling becoming part of the new nation of Pakistan after partition in 1947, India also lost a number of players, including many fast bowlers who settled down there.

Wrote Vijay Merchant in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack (1952): ‘Above all, the Partition has deprived India of future fast bowlers. In the past, India often relied for fast bowling on the Northern India people, who because of their height and sturdy physique, are better equipped to for this kind of bowling than the cricketers of Central India or the South. Now this source of supply has ceased and the gap has not yet been filled.’

The few first-class turf wickets were at the Bombay Gymkhana (and later on Brabourne stadium), Poona, Eden Gardens (Calcutta), Chepauk (Madras) and Lawrence Gardens, Patiala. These were green tops but with true bounce which allowed batsmen to play their strokes freely while also assisting the bowlers, both pace and spin.

Reportedly at the official dinner at Amritsar for the 1933-34 MCC (England) touring team led by Douglas Jardine, the chief host Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala complained to Jardine about the utter lack of spin bowlers in India. When asked why this was so he replied it was because Indians ‘hate being laughed at. They say slow bowling means sixers, and fast or fast-medium stuff is seldom hit for six. So they won’t practice slow bowling.’ Which all sounds pretty amazing and ironical to those who followed Indian cricket in the 1960s and ’70s when it epitomized spin bowling at the cost of pace!

It was from the late 1930s onwards that coir was replaced by the more benign jute matting (which however continued