The West Indies tour of 1962 remains a traumatic one for Indian cricket. Not only was the Indian team completely bulldozed, losing all five Tests, worse, their captain, Nariman Contractor, was hit on the head by Charlie Griffith in a match versus Barbados and nearly lost his life.
Contractor never played Test cricket again. Coming up after a similar 5-0 whitewash in England in 1959, it put the ability of the Indian batters to handle high quality fast bowling under the scanner.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), waking up to this fact, decided on a rather unusual course of action. For the 1962/63 home season, it decided to take a rather extreme measure: it was announced that four West Indian fast bowlers would be playing in the Ranji Trophy. The men shortlisted were Lester King for Bengal, Chester Watson for Delhi, Charlie Stayers for Bombay and Roy Gilchrist for Hyderabad. It was the last name that raised eyebrows.
Pankaj Roy (left) and Vinoo Mankad walk off during their world record-opening stand partnership against New Zealand, 1955-56 Wikimedia
Unlike the other three, Gilchrist was a known commodity for Indian cricket fans. In 1958, he had toured India and pulverised the Indian batsmen with his hostile bowling. Gilchrist was not only fast, but also a most ill-tempered person who would resort to uncontrolled use of bumpers (as bouncers were known back then) and beamers – hell-bent on hurting batsmen. In the fourth Test at Nagpur, after A.G. Kripal Singh had hit him for three consecutive boundaries, Gilchrist overstepped a long way and hurled a bumper that hit Kripal flush in the head, dislodging his turban.
After the Test series was over, the tourists were facing North Zone in a match at Amritsar as a preparation before flying off to Pakistan for the second leg of the tour. Gilchrist was at his nastiest worst and unleashed a barrage of bumpers and beamers at Swaranjit Singh. The latter had been a batchmate of West Indies captain Gerry Alexander at Cambridge. Alexander stepped in and asked Gilchrist to stop, but the man paid no heed.
During the luncheon interval, Alexander asked Gilchrist to not step out onto the field again. It is alleged this led to a heated exchange and Gilchrist tried to attack Alexander. While the veracity of this tale was never proven, Alexander ensured Gilchrist was immediately sent back home. He never played for West Indies again. Gilchrist had subsequently moved to England, playing league cricket in Lancashire where his behaviour showed no change – once he pulled out a stump and hit the batsman on the head with it!
But back to our story. The four Caribbean quicks were scheduled to feature from the knockout stages. Bengal and Hyderabad topped the charts from East and South zones, respectively, and were drawn to play each other in the quarter-final at Eden Gardens. Back in 1958-59, Eden had proved to be Gilchrist’s favourite hunting ground. He had produced incredible figures of 23-13-18-3 and 21-7-55-6 as the hosts had lurched to a humiliating innings and 336-run defeat. Now, he was back there with a point or two to prove. And among the opposite ranks was an old and familiar foe.
For all of the 1950s decade, Pankaj Roy had been India’s first choice opening batter. During the 1958-59 series, in the opening match at Bombay, Roy had produced arguably his finest international innings. Set a near impossible target of 399 or bat out a day-plus to secure a draw, Roy had batted for nearly seven-and-a-half hours to score 90, against a bowling line attack comprising Gilchrist, Wes Hall, Eric Atkinson, Sonny Ramadhin, Garry Sobers and Collie Smith to ensure India left with honours even. It was a performance Gilchrist remembered. Subsequently, a poor series in England in the summer of 1959 however had hastened the end of his Test career and he was dropped from the side after the first Test of the home series versus Pakistan in 1960 – never to be recalled again. Pankaj Roy certainly had a point to prove.
The Ranji Trophy Wikimedia Commons
Hyderabad was among the stronger domestic sides with Indian stars ML Jaisimha (the captain) and Abbas Ali Baig as well as future India player S Abid Ali in their ranks. The arrival of Gilchrist further swelled their ranks. Bengal however had also been bolstered by the addition of Lester King – who had debuted against India in the 1962 series and taken five wickets in his very first outing. A subset of the bigger script was the battle between the two West Indian quicks.
Before the match, the Bengal camp led by their skipper Roy had raised concerns with the umpires about Gilchrist. On the morning of the first day, Gilchrist, while juggling the red cherry in his hand, had spoken loudly to his new teammates, making sure his voice carried to the Bengal camp: “I know this ball is hard. But is it hard enough to kill Pankaj (Roy)?” The umpires called up Hyderabad skipper Jaisimha and the team manager to warn them about Gilchrist.
When play began, the demon found his mark immediately, disturbing opener Chowdhury’s stumps for a duck. Pankaj Roy, however, weathered the storm and in tandem with Prakash Poddar, added 130 for the third wicket before the latter fell. Shortly later, Roy brought up a magnificent hundred. Gilchrist eventually had his man, Roy falling for 112. But with the umpires’ intervention limiting his use of bumpers and beamers, Shyam Sundar ‘SS’ Mitra (98) and Subimal ‘Chuni’ Goswami (41) added precious runs to take Bengal to a formidable 386. Gilchrist 5/124.
When Hyderabad came out to bat, Lester King gave them some taste of Caribbean pace mixed with gratuitous use of short-pitched stuff. Still, fifties from Baig, Jaisimha and Mahendra Kumar got the tourists to 361, King matching his compatriot with a five-fer (5/146).
With a slender 25-run lead, Bengal started their second essay. Pankaj Roy couldn’t open the innings. He had been up all the previous night nursing an ill family member and was hardly in shape to walk out. Gilchrist was in savage form and in no time, Bengal were tottering at 42/4. Pankaj Roy now walked out. He first added 41 with Poddar and then a match-turning 99 with his nephew, young Ambar Roy (41). Gilchrist breathed fire but Roy held firm, bringing his composure and experience to play. It was without a doubt his finest innings in domestic cricket and by the time he fell for a magnificent 118, he had pulled Bengal out of trouble with the side totalling 280. Gilchrist took 4/111 but this time, failed to get Roy.
On a deteriorating Eden pitch and Abbas Ali Baig out injured, Hyderabad had little chance of chasing down 300+. Durga Shankar Mukherjee now took over – delivering a devastating display of seam bowling, picking 4/23 in 10.1 overs. Hyderabad all out for 121 to give Bengal one of their most famous wins.
In the semi-final, Roy produced another solid display, making 80 and 37 but Bombay were too strong as they marched past Bengal. That Eden quarter-final remained Gilchrist’s only appearance for Hyderabad. He went back to England where his reign of terror hit a nadir when he was given a three-month prison term for trying to attack his wife with a scalding iron.