‘Great survivor’ Dravid achieves unique feat during another India win

When Rahul Dravid, as the national coach, occupied the Indian team’s dressing room during India’s 100-run win over defending champions England at the Ekana Stadium on Sunday night (October 29) in Lucknow, he achieved a unique feat that escaped everyone’s eye.

When the last time an England team had visited Lucknow to play a match, almost 31 years ago, Dravid was a member of the BCCI President’s XI in that three-day encounter at Lucknow’s KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium — around 12 km from Ekana Stadium. On Sunday, he was the lone survivor from both teams that played the 1993 game, though now he was in a different role.

Outside of the two competing teams of 1993, the only other survivor who was present at the Ekana Stadium was Jonathan Agnew, a former England cricketer-turned-BBC Radio commentator, who had covered that match as a journalist. And he is presently covering the World Cup for the same radio station.

Former India fast bowler Rudra Pratap Singh (senior) and Ashok Bambi, the local liaison manager of the 1993 England team in Lucknow and a former Uttar Pradesh captain, were the others who recalled that game for different reasons.

On Sunday, while Dravid, 60, watched his team’s 100-run win from the Indian dressing room housed in the pavilion, 63-year-old Agnew was in the media box opposite. It would have pained Agnew no end as England suffered their fifth crushing defeat in six matches that took them to the bottom of the 10-team table. On the other hand, Dravid’s boys registered their sixth win in six matches that has left them the only undefeated team in the competition, so far.

Dravid is indeed a great survivor, much like his penchant to occupy the crease for long hours to wear down opponents while batting for India in 286 innings of 164 Tests between 1996 and 2012. This durability starkly reflects in a unique world record he holds: the most number of balls faced by a batsman in a Test career — 31,258.

Agnew heaped heartfelt praise on Dravid whom he said he knew for many years. “Dravid and I go a long way. What a nice person he is. We have even worked together for the BBC Radio team once. That was during the 2012 three-Test series between Alastair Cook’s visiting England team and India,” Agnew told The Federal on Sunday (October 29) as captain Rohit Sharma smashed 87 and then Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah rattled the opponents for a memorable Indian win.

Recalling the 1993 game

In the 1993 match, Vinod Kambli’s 61 had ensured that the selectors picked him for the opening Test in Calcutta in the same month, January, for his debut. He made 16 and an unbeaten 18 in India’s win. The other batsman to sparkle in Lucknow’s hazy weather was Navjot Singh Sidhu who smashed off-spinner John Emburey for several sixes. However, Dravid showed just a glimpse of his potential - of what was in store. He scored 27 at No.5 in the first innings before part-timer Gooch had him caught by wicketkeeper Alec Stewart while in the second innings, he was promoted to No.3 and remained unbeaten on 28 when the weather-affected match ended.

Agnew was particularly baffled to see how Dravid could be stumped off Gooch’s innocuous trundler when I showed him the scorecard of that match. The former England fast bowler scratched his head trying to recall the dismissal; until the end of Sunday’s game, he couldn’t. “I wonder how that could have happened,” he was completely perplexed, repeatedly putting his finger on the printout of the scorecard that described Dravid’s dismissal.

Agnew was so bemused by being unable to remember Dravid’s dismissal that after our chat, he even mentioned about it on live commentary as England inched towards their spectacular collapse, eventually being bundled out for 129 in 34.5 overs — a well-rounded 100 less than India.

“My best memory of that game is Sidhu hitting those huge sixes off Emburey,” said Agnew. The opener smashed Emburey for four sixes in each innings while scoring 36 in the first and an unbeaten 57 in the second.

Three years later, Dravid made his Test debut in England and scored a fine 95 at No.7 at Lord’s, London, before Chris Lewis, who had bowled in the Lucknow match too, induced an edge from him. It was the match in which Sourav Ganguly, too, made his Test debut and scored a fine 131 while batting at No.3. England captain Mike Atherton, who scored nought and 17 in that match, was present at the Ekana Stadium on Sunday as a TV commentator.

For the record, Dravid scored his maiden Test century in his ninth match, against South Africa at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. In all, he scored 36 Test centuries in 164 matches and aggregated 13,288 runs at an excellent average of 52.31.

Manager of 1993 England team won hearts

Bob Bennett, a former Lancashire batsman of repute, was manager of the 1993 England team. RP Singh, who was at the time based in Lucknow before marrying an English lady and settling down there, and Bambi recalled their warm association with him.

“Bob is a brilliant man, though when he came to Lucknow for that match, we had just exchanged greetings. Later, I joined Lancashire as a coach. I knew Bob well as he was chairman of the Lancashire County Cricket Club,” Singh, an English Cricket Board Level 4 High Performance coach, told The Federal from England.

“And when I, as a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team, went to the Isle of Man to play matches, maybe about 13 years ago, Bob came to watch our matches, and we talked a lot. He was from Bacup town in Lancashire, and after retirement he had been living there. I used to see him at Bacup when I played for Burnley in the Lancashire League,” said 58-year-old Singh who was still living in Lucknow when England played there, and represented Uttar Pradesh in national tournaments.

“Bob presented me with a set of video CDs of the 1993 England tour to India when we met at the Isle of Man. They were the tour video diaries made by Dermot Reeve, one of the England players on that tour. I still have those CDs at my home in England.”

Interestingly, Reeve’s mother also played a crucial cameo on that disastrous English tour to India. Almost all the English players and even their official scorer had fallen sick — mostly stomach bug and flu virus. When the scorer, Clem Driver, “collapsed” during the first Test in Calcutta and took a flight home, Reeve’s mother, Monica, stepped in and did the scoring.

Bambi, 70, has another reason to remember 83-year-old Bennett. “I and my friends had gone to Gwalior to watch the sixth and penultimate One-day International of that tour. But when we couldn’t manage complimentary passes, I approached Bennett and he promptly gave us the passes, saving us from the disappointment of returning without watching the action. He also presented me with a tie,” he told The Federal.

“While in Lucknow, the English team visited some historical places in the city, like the La Martiniere College and the ruins of Residency, the residence for the British Resident General during the British Raj. They all were very courteous,” he pointed out.

“Interestingly, during that three-day game, semi-cooked food would come for the England team from the hotel and it would be cooked properly at the stadium before they consumed it.”

(The writer has covered cricket for over three decades, based in New Delhi. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket)