Scripts that made Chennai special

This month marks 40 years since the closure of my favourite cricket magazine Sportsweekrsquos World of Cricket WOC It ran from 1974 to 1984mdashin the first year as Cricket QuarterlyA couple of years after its discontinuation the publishers put out a monthly publication titled WOC whose demise coincided with the end of the 1987 World Cup WOC didnrsquot quite have the same impact on me and I dare say on most cricket lovers who were used to their quarterly fixThe last Test match concerning India covered by World of Cricket Quarterly was the Chennai Test in which Sunil Gavaskar reached his 30th Test century which took him past Don Bradmanrsquos record tally of 29World of Cricket Quarterly used to have the best cricket journalists contributing to their issues and most of their covers carried a list of lsquoThe Worldrsquos Best Team of WritersrsquoOne such writer was KN PrabhumdashlsquoNiranrsquo to his contemporariesI remembered how the flowery formidable and famous writer often brought up the Chennai Tests he covered in his feature articles for various publicationsHad he been living he wouldnrsquot have missed the fact that Chepauk where Indiarsquos twoTest series against Bangladesh opens today is in its 90th year as a Test match venueChepauk became Indiarsquos third Test centre after Mumbai and Kolkata during the 193334 series against Douglas Jardinersquos EnglishmenMore on that laterPrabhu could well be the first Indian writer to report on 100plus Tests involving India The 194849 India v West Indies Test in Delhi was his first and to celebrate his lsquocenturyrsquo he wrote glowingly about Chennai in World of Cricket OctoberDecember 1979 ldquoMadras manymemoried city for one who watched his early cricket Though it was not an unofficial Test Indian XI v Australian Services in 194546 the heart still warms to the thought of Lala Amarnathrsquos century against Miller Keith Pepper Cecil and company For sheer gallantry skill and all the graces Gundappa Vishwanathrsquos unbeaten 97 against Clive Lloydrsquos team in 197475 will be hard to beatrdquoChennai boy Prabhu later to become a Mumbai resident watched his first match at Chepauk in February 1938 when an Indian team took on Lord Tennysonrsquos XI in a fourday game during the 193738 season ldquoI can recall sprinting and just boarding the tiny tram car that used to sway along Ice House Road not far from Chepauk As I bought my ticket it was easy to come by without having to stand in a queue and as I entered the ground I saw Vinoo Mankad going down on his knee to squarecut Arthur Wellardrdquo Prabhu wrote in Memories of Chepauk a piece he penned for the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume in 1980As Sports Editor of the Times of India Prabhu travelled to Chennai for the sixth Test against the West Indies in 1983 Gavaskar was poised for Test Century No 30 and Prabhu was well prepared for the peak which the batting icon scaled with a double century ldquoWe shared a room in Madras He was carrying some books and notes It was also his last assignment before retirementrdquo fellow writer Ayaz Memon told me on TuesdayChepauk stayed close to Prabhursquos heart till his July 2006 death As he wrote Chepauk was to him what Old Trafford was to Neville CardusChennairsquos inaugural Test in 193334 eventuated in a 202run win for England But the powerful side couldnrsquot claim it was a breeze against CK Nayudursquos India Pacer L Amar Singh claimed 786 in Englandrsquos first innings NS Ramaswami another fine writer in the Prabhu era wrote in Cricket Quarterly OctoberDecember 1974 that Amar Singhrsquos deliveries were ldquoclothed with the sinister grace of a war javelinrdquoRamaswami also wrote about Amar Singhrsquos 48 in Indiarsquos second innings of that Test ldquoHe hit often and he hit tremendously hard One stroke a hook from the pavilion end carried the ball far over midwicket beyond the tennis courts almost nearing the western wall This was a truly colossal hit fit to be compared with an earlier mighty stroke of CK Nayudu which carried the ball beyond the southern wall into what used to be called the old Engineering College groundrdquoHow can one dwell on Chennai and not mention the 1986 Tied TestldquoGreg Matthews had barely completed a pirouette and begun his ardent appeal for a legbeforewicket decision against Maninder Singh before 52yearold Vikram Raju at 518 pm thrust his right index finger towards the heavens and so consigned the match to a special place in historyrdquo was how Australian writer Mike Coward described the last wicket in his book Cricket Beyond the BazaarThe late Rajan Bala another muchloved writer in the Chennai press box wrote under a Wisden Cricket Monthly headline lsquoWhen is a stand not a partnershiprsquo He was referring to India accumulating 415 runs scored by Dilip Vengsarkar Vishwanath and Yashpal Sharma at one stage in the 198182 Test against England Vishwanath and Yashpal put on 316 but Vengsarkar retired hurt at 71 hit on the head by a Bob Willis delivery The Sportstar magazinersquos Robin Marlar felt that Vengsarkar would have been better off wearing a helmetEngland didnrsquot win that 198182 Chennai Test like they had done on their previous full tour in 197677Their triumph in the 198485 Test ensured India couldnrsquot win the series and David Frith the editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly WCM was chuffed to be there ldquoNever in the whole history of the world had eyes beheld an England score such as stood on the board at Chepauk just before Allan Lamb was bowled It read 5632 What was going on out in the sunlit saucer of the Chidambaram Stadium was almost too much to grasprdquo he wrote in WCMThe India v Bangladesh Test in Chennai which starts today is not the traditional Pongal Test but its top performances could make for a fine crop of prosemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper