Date-stamped : 14 Dec1998 - 13:17
INDIAN SUMMER An Account of the Cricket Tour in England 1946

by John Arlott (Longmans, Green and Co., 1947)

D.D. Hindlekar

He could clown so brilliantly that you laughed out loud with him,
laughed  until  you  were disturbed by a hint of emotion that did
not spring from laughter. He looked at you out of gleaming   eyes
from  under  his  wry  peak of grey hair and you warmed to him at
once.  Sometimes, in the evening, he would talk  of  the   future
with  a patient resignation that ran deeper than the soundings of
polite conversation.

As a wicket-keeper Hindlekar was at his best when taking  medium-
pace bowling over the stumps, but he made many good stumpings off
Mankad and missed few. The sight of a catch coming  to  him  pro-
duced  an  instant  response  of boyish eagerness in him -- which
sometimes, when he was standing back, made  him  snatch  at,  and
drop,   the  ball.  The  oldest member  of  the team, with little
match-play in the four years preceding the tour, he suffered many
strains  and bruises but could take no rest after Nimbalkar`s in-
jury in early July.  Hindlekar  kept  wicket  in  21  of  the  29
matches  first-class  matches and 3 of the 4 second-class matches
played by the touring side, and in 14 of its last 15 games.    He
bore   the strain  with  considerable  fortitude and contrived to
enjoy him- self.

As a batsman he had some fine moments when,  in  crises,  he  re-
vealed  courage  and  calmness which he backed with good batsman-
ship. He played a big part in saving the game for India  in   the
second Test Match and, immediately afterwards, was found lugubri-
ously shaking his head over some minor matter  completely  uncon-
nected  with  cricket -- probably a further failure to purchase a
sewing-machine. At Southend, in circumstances  which  a  fiction-
writer  would  have hesitated to prescribe, he won the match with
three strokes which would have been outstanding  in  any  context
and   which  were outstanding there. His is the easiest figure of
all to recall at the wicket -- his cap at a bewildered angle, his
left toe pointing at an angle of forty-five degrees and his whole
weight pressing, through stiff-straight arms, on to the  slanting
bat.   After  his  stroke or, even more memorably, after "leaving
alone" a ball outside the  off  stump,  he  would pass  his   bat
through a full-circle flourish before walking aimlessly away from
the wicket as if he had remembered some forgotten business on the
boundary.  Against  fast bowling he looked an impressive batsman,
but the turning ball led him into doubt and betrayed him into er-
ror.

"Dattu" had his preoccupations -- he  was  interested  in  narrow
shoes,  trilby  hats  and, above all, a sewing-machine.  Everyone
who met him liked him; no human could have done otherwise.

R.B. Nimbalkar

Nimbalkar made only one more appearance after the match with Lan-
cashire at Old Trafford in which he broke his thumb. It was not a
satisfactory tour for him. He was one of the only two members  of
the   party  who did not play in a single Test Match.  Hindlekar,
as first string wicket-keeper, had to be given much  practice  in
the  early  games  since  he  had  played little in the preceding
four years. Then, when Nimbalkar was given  the  opportunity   of
match-  play,  and when drier wickets promised him an opportunity
to exhi- bit his powers as an  attacking  batsman,  he   received
his  injury which never really mended.

As a wicket-keeper he could be profoundly and impressively  immo-
bile,  standing  unmoving, one arm out-stretched, for the ball to
hit and enter the extended hand. Or he would stand with one   arm
close  against  his side and take the hard-thrown ball that whis-
tled past his thigh, without moving an inch.   Sometimes,  as  at
Ox-  ford,  he  brought  off a stumping at great speed. I thought
him, though erratic, sometimes a brilliant wicket-keeper. But  if
there is  one  member  of a cricket team who must not be erratic,
it is the wicket-keeper. As a batsman he  drove  powerfully   out
of   the massive strength of his chest and shoulders. In his bat-
ting, too, there was a minimum of movement.

Nimbalkar is a good brain; he sees quickly the roots of an  argu-
ment, and expresses his views clearly, flavouring them with cyni-
cism. He had been a good googly bowler, and can still be  a  baf-
fling,  if  not  an accurate, spinner. He has done many things in
his life, has moved surely where cricket is not regarded. Nimbal-
kar  can  be  kind to those among whom he finds himself, although
formal politeness neither deceive nor satisfy him. He is  strong,
and self-contained in his strength, needing no one.

Abdul Hafeez

Before he was 20 Abdul Hafeez had scored  two  centuries  against
the  Australian  Services XI -- on fast, dry wickets. In England,
in a year of wet wickets, he played some exciting golf-shots   in
attack and some hesitant half-cock strokes in defence against the
turning ball. He seemed unwilling to defend; his  nature  was  to
attack and in two Test Matches he attacked with success. Since he
has a sufficiently quick brain and a suitable humility to  learn,
while he is at Oxford he may acquire a technique of defence which
will serve him when the ball spins and  the  pitch  responds.  He
could become boyishly disheartened at his batting failures but in
the field he never relaxed, ran hard,  threw  straight  and  held
some   very  good catches.  He  bowls left-handed at about medium
pace, but has a record of successful bowling at slower speed.  As
a  batsman  he is willing to back his eye against the bowler, and
his eye is sufficiently good to bring him sometimes  to  success;
tall, with good wrists and a sense of timing, he has the physical
attributes  necessary  to  a  batsman.  If  Hafeez    can  either
strengthen his defence or increase the frequency of his successes
as a purely attacking batsman and gain his Blue at Oxford, and if
his  development  confirms  the promise of his early play, he may
take a high place in Indian cricket. At the moment he can only be
discussed  in terms of possibilities, he is the most enigmatic of
the 1946 Indian team.  But at least it is certain that, from time
to time, his character is that of the great match-winning batsmen
who carry off games almost alone and against huge odds.

Notes: 1. Hindlekar died in Bombay on March 30, 1949.  He was 40.
The  3rd  Test  at the Oval was his last.  2. Nimbalkar (Arlott`s
accounts  list  him  throughout  as R.B.  but Wisden  and  others
list him as  B.B.)  never  played for India, but went on to score
443*  for  Maharashtra  in 1948-49,  the  fourth  highest  first-
class  score  to  date.  3. Abdul Hafeez played in all 3 Tests of
the 1946 tour for India and went on, as A.H.  Kardar, to  captain
Pakistan in its first 23 Tests, winning 6.

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