On this day 50 years ago: When Snow sent Gavaskar sprawling

One of the ugliest sights in cricket was witnessed this day 50 years ago at the spiritual home of cricket Lordrsquos in 1971England and India were involved in a tense Day Five at the London venue where Ajit Wadekarrsquos team were set 183 to win their firstever Test on English soil They had four hours and 20 minutes to get to their targetTwo early wickets saw Sunil Gavaskar playing only in his fifth Test partnering the promoted Farokh Engineer Just before lunch 472 Snow bowled to Engineer and both the Mumbai batsmen set off While Gavaskar was running to make his ground big Snow barged into him and sent the little batsman sprawling with no bat in hand When he reached his crease Snow picked up Gavaskarrsquos bat and threw it to him which didnrsquot make for a pretty sight as wellSnow apologised to Gavaskar for barging into him but that didnrsquot stop the English authorities to ban him for the next Test at Manchester The shoulder charge as expected attracted harsh comments from the purists England great Denis Compton called it ldquodisgracefulrdquo while Sportsweek magazine quoted an excricketer as saying that it was ldquoan act of a bullyrdquo Another former player asked ldquoWhile it is important to win at sport do you bring wrestlers boxers anaesthetists into Test cricket to win at all costrdquoEarlier in the year Snow was pulled up by the umpires for bowling bouncers in the final Test of the 197071 Ashes at Sydney His delivery felled Australian tailender Terry Jenner He was also manhandled by a member of the SCG crowdIn Sunny Days Gavaskar described Snowrsquos shouldercharge as a ldquoviolent shoverdquo but emphasised that he tossed his bat to him and didnrsquot fling it contrary to media reports Bad light and rain played their part on that final day and India who were expected to win ended up gasping at 1458 with Gavaskar tooscoring with 53 Wadekar in My Cricketing Years said he was convinced India would have won had it not been for the rain And no matter what the critics felt about the possible loss he felt his team showed that they could handle pace bowling The skipper himself played one of his finest innings on Day Two of the Test 85 off 182 ballsI interviewed Snow about the incident in Mohali during the opening Test of the 200102 India v England series The fast bowlerturnedtravel businessman told me ldquoLet me make it clear that it shouldering Gavaskar was an accident I was just trying to pick up the ball to run him out I apologised to Sunil but there was a furore in the dressing room because I did not go down to the Indian dressing room to apologise which I told Alec Bedser chairman of selectors I would doldquoWe Gavaskar and him were over with it but on a public basis it was not desirable to cricketrdquoIndia ended the 1971 series in glory beating England in the third and final Test at The Oval Images of victory celebrations on that Oval gallery remind us of an epic triumph but the Snow incident at Lordrsquos was unforgettable too