The Anderson-Tendulkar Tests Series

Those days the tour used to begin in May and not many foreign batters scored 1000 runs in May; Merchant did as did Umrigar (described as 'Palm Hitter' in the West Indies on his 1953 tour for his sixes) but who except for a solitary 112 in 1959 at Manchester did not get going in the tests. Neither did the other batters. We craved a win in a test match in England even as we suffered a whitewash in 1959 and 1967. It was only in 1971 that India won its first Test under Ajit Wadekar.

- Nikhil Kumar

Rarely have we got a chance, since India played its first test match in 1932, to earn world-wide acclaim for our cricket as in the recently concluded Anderson-Tendulkar series.

That it performed in England where its record has been pretty mediocre is indeed very satisfying despite the services of some past outstanding cricketers. C.K. Nayudu, a Colonel in the Holkar Army, who got to be a legend for his six-hitting and the finesse of his delicate leg glances, led us on our first England trip in 1936 and caught the attention of our hosts with his tall sinewy frame and fearless batting.

Others were: Vijay Merchant who sits second with his career batting average of over 71 next only to the Don; or the extremely correct and prolific V.S. Hazare who earned the spontaneous appreciation of the Don during India's 1947-48 tour of Australia after he hit a hundred in each innings of the Adelaide test match; Vinoo Mankad who vied with the great Keith Miller as the finest all-rounder whose performance in the second test match in 1952 at the iconic Lord's of 5 wickets for 196 runs and batting scores of 72 and 184 runs earned press headlines of England versus Mankad.

A tour of England was mastered by Australia and the West Indies but was a challenge to our Polly Umrigars, Vijay Manjrekar, Pankaj Roys and others.

Those days the tour used to begin in May and not many foreign batters scored 1000 runs in May; Merchant did as did Umrigar (described as 'Palm Hitter' in the West Indies on his 1953 tour for his sixes) but who except for a solitary 112 in 1959 at Manchester did not get going in the tests. Neither did the other batters. We craved a win in a test match in England even as we suffered a whitewash in 1959 and 1967. It was only in 1971 that India won its first test under Ajit Wadekar.