Last Word: John Arlott and a slice of cricket-writing history

The Hindu

8 hours ago

As the Indian cricket team was making its way around England during an exciting cricket series, I spent some time with John Arlott. Or more precisely, the book he wrote on India's tour of England in 1946, the first series after World War II. India were led by Pataudi Sr., and lost all three Tests.
There is something exciting about the start of a tour. In England those days, tourists played First-Class matches against the counties, traditionally starting with one against Worcestershire. I love the way Arlott (in pic) tells it in Indian Summer: 'On the morning of 4 May 1946, I sharpened six pencils, pocketed a new notebook, looked out of the window of the perfect cricketers' hotel beside the Severn at Worcester, congratulated myself on having left my grey flannel suit at home in favour of a tweed suit and set off for the first real cricket match for six and a half years.'
There's a slice of cricket history there; so too cricket-writing history.
Here's how the Indian team got there, in Arlott's words: 'Gradually, in twos and threes, the Indian team arrived, their heads ringing still with the noise of airplane engines, to wait in vain for their sea-borne cricket gear, to skid through a mud-and-rain-bound mockery of net practice at Lord's, and to leave, on the evening before the game, for Worcester — in a coach that lost its way in the Midlands and deposited them at their hotel shortly before three o'clock on the morning of their first match…'
This was another time, another world. Shubhman Gill and his team didn't play First-Class matches at Worcester or anywhere else; if their bus got lost on the road, it would have become an international incident.
This current Indian team has the world's No. 1 all-rounder and left-arm spinner, Ravindra Jadeja. So did that 1946 team. This was Vinoo Mankad, 'his rebellious straight black hair gleaming, laughter richly present in his deep-set eyes, he bustles powerfully through his short run and bowls with a thick left arm.' Arlott might have been writing about Jadeja when he said, 'His over will last little more than a minute, ….(he) never allows a batsman to rest.'
How was the first post-War Test received? 'It was', says Arlott, 'attended by the sun, who saw very little First-Class cricket in 1946. On the first day, 29,000 people watched the play in varying degrees of cramming.' This wasat Lord's, where the England captain Walter Hammond caught Vijay Hazare at slip, 'with an unhurried ease which suggested that he had been warned in advance.'
Indian Summer is a slim book. Before the appendix (statistics), there is this:'….you sir, who have followed me relentlessly with your pencil to mark off my errors — you may have the appendix and I have no doubt that you may be happy with your figures while I slink off and attempt to arrange to pack my bag again.'
The cricket might have been disappointing, but the writing about it was fabulous!