Woodcock’s world of words

February 3 1992 Sachin Tendulkar 81 days short of turning 19 blazes away to a century on a fiery Perth track against AustraliaThe accolades flow in and around the portable typewriters Tendulkar was still a few years away from being compared to Don Bradman but an English writer says to his fellow professionals ldquoTendulkar is the best batsman I have seen and unlike all of you I have watched Bradman batrdquo The writer was John Woodcock of The Times LondonHe saw Bradman as a young man and marvelled at Tendulkar at a time when he was known as the Sage of Longparish in journalistic circles Woodcock had been the newspaperrsquos cricket correspondent from 1954 to 1987Longparish is a village on the banks of River Test in the north of Hampshire My Sydneybased friend Mark Ray then reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald was invited to Woodcockrsquos home in July 1989 It was a visit that provided Ray a muchneeded break from the drudgery of reporting on an Ashes series It was also a visit on which Ray learnt that Woodcock was the man some England captains turned to when they required advice Like Mike Gatting did when he was involved in that ugly row with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana in 198788Some of Englandrsquos opposing captains liked Woodcock too Ian Chappell who led Australia in three full Ashes campaigns told me from Sydney on Wednesday ldquoSad news of Woodcockrsquos demise indeed He was a gentleman with a great sense of humourrdquoIndia had a special place in Woodcockrsquos heart probably because his father was born in Allahabad There were other probable reasons The first Test match he saw involved India against England at Lordrsquos in 1936 The first Test he covered for a national newspaper Manchester Guardian featured India at Leeds in 1952In October 1976 he undertook a 46day LondonMumbai road journey for the India v England series in a 1921 RollsRoyce with fellow journalist Henry Blofeld and three others for companyHe loved watching the elegance and skill of Indiarsquos cricketers He was in Jamaica when Ajit Wadekarrsquos team provided an early glimpse of what they could do in the 197071 Caribbean Test series And while he wrote glowingly of BS Chandrasekhar for his role in the 1971 Oval Test win Woodcock was pained to see a similar Wadekarled team being reduced to 42 at Lordrsquos in 1974 Indiarsquos lowest Test score before last yearrsquos 36 all out in AdelaideWoodcock was amazed that India gave it away after being 1310 in response to Englandrsquos 629 Thereafter 19 wickets fell for 213 runs He wrote in The Cricketer ldquoIndia were carried away I thought by their successful start and enthusiasm of their supporters I am all for adventure but it needs to be tempered by judgmentrdquoThe next India v England Test series in England was held five years later and Woodcock rejoiced in the batting of Gundappa Viswanath Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil GavaskarViswanath and Vengsarkar carved hundreds in the Lordrsquos Test ldquoThere are too many gifted batsmen in the Indian side for Englandrsquos bowlers to have things their own way Vengsarkar still only 23 and taller than the average Indian is fast becoming a highclass player His 103 at Lordrsquos was his third century for the yearrdquo Woodcock wrote in The Cricketer International On Viswanathrsquos knock he observed ldquoTo bat as well as Viswanath does and yet to be so very small requires a genius for the gamerdquoHe credited Gavaskar for getting India close to victory through his 221 in the fourth and final Test of the series at The Oval The game was drawn but England won the series by virtue of their opening Test triumph at Edgbaston ldquoTo say that no one gave more than a passing thought to India reaching so remote a target 438 is probably wrong I expect Gavaskar did Gavaskar had won many new admirersrdquo Woodcock wrote India fell nine runs shortWoodcock was the editor of Wisden Cricketersrsquo Almanack when India won the World Cup in 1983 He paid Kapil Devrsquos men a fine tribute in the Notes by the Editor section ldquoThe World Cup was a great success and Indiarsquos victory a splendid surprise They brought warmth and excitement in the place of dampness and depression In the early years of limitedovers cricket noone themselves included took India seriously Their strength lay much more in waging battles of attritionrdquoGavaskar too was praised for going past Bradmanrsquos record 29 Test hundreds ldquoThe tribute which Gavaskar must have valued most of all came from Bradman himself when he referred to him as lsquoa great little playerrsquo rdquoWoodcock was asked by the BCCI to write a piece on Indian cricket for their Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume 192979 In it he listed his Best Ever Indian XI Gavaskar and Merchant would open the batting Syed Mushtaq Ali would be sent in at onedrop followed by MAK Pataudi the captain Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad would be next Wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer would come in before L Amar Singh and Mohd Nissar The last two spots would be any two from Bishan Singh Bedi Chandresekhar and EAS Prasanna depending on form and conditionsldquoIf the next 50 years of Indian cricket yields another side as good as this one no one will complainrdquo is how he ended his pieceWoodcock was wise and experienced enough in 1979 to believe that India would be blessed with more great players But would he have imagined then sitting in an Australian press box and declaring like he did at the WACA ground in 1992 that he has seen a player better than Bradman Wersquod never know and we wonrsquot be able to check with him Woodcock 94 left us on Sundaymiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper