MUNI THE BOSS

At the outset, there is nothing significant about the year 1721, as far as India's political history is concerned. Aurangzeb, the sixth of the great Mughals, had passed away in 1707, and the Empire he and his forefathers had built, had started to disintegrate. The Marathas were gaining in prominence, and in the process of knocking hard on the doors of Delhi. These were prominent happenings; what was peripheral was that 'merchants' from England and France had established 'settlements' in select areas of the subcontinent, and were going about their business of trade.

The sea-route being the sole link between them and their respective homelands, most of these settlements were situated in the coastal areas of the Indian peninsula.

It was sometime in 1721 that a British ship dropped anchor off the coast of Kutch in western India. The recreational activities the sailors indulged in on the coast elicited curious reactions from onlookers. One of the sailors, who answered to the name of Downing, recalled his time on the Kutch coast in his memoirs thus: "We everyday diverted ourselves with playing cricket and other exercises"

This is the earliest recorded reference to cricket in India.

As the merchants metamorphosed into rulers, they continued to demonstrate their recreational pursuits on Indian soil. The British army took on the English settlers in what was the first recorded cricket match in India in 1751.

The establishment of the Calcutta Cricket Club (what we know today as CC & FC) in 1792, was another watershed for the sport in the land. In fact, it is the second-oldest cricket club in the world, after the MCC (1787).

Ten years after its inception, the CCC organized a match between its team and the Old Etonians. The highlight of the game was Old Etonian Robert Vansittart's hundred. It was the first 'recorded' century on Indian soil.

That game was watched by the locals, as were other encounters that took place elsewhere.

It was but natural that the locals sought to copy what the 'rulers' were doing. Recent evidence suggests that members of the Indian army were among the first to take to the sport. The 'sepoys' of regiments based in Sylhet (now part of Bangladesh) were reported by a periodical of the time as being more energetic and cheerful cricketers than their European superiors. The latter did not mind this, and were in fact happy to engage in matches against their subordinates.

The Parsis were the first Indian civilian community to take to cricket. They set up the Oriental Cricket Club in Mumbai in 1848. It did a premature death, but the community then established the Young Zoroastrians Club in 1850. They were followed by the Hindus, who formed the Hindu Gymkhana in 1866. The scene of the cricketing activities of the Mumbai locals was the Esplanade 'maidan,' which was situated in front of the western ramparts of the erstwhile Bombay 'Fort' (demolished in 1860). At the far end of this 'maidan' was a plot of land that was out of bounds for dogs and Indians - the Bombay Gymkhana.

Cricket was also gaining in popularity in other cities at around the same time. 1884 was an eventful year, in that a team from Sri Lanka played a match in Kolkata. It was the country's first shot at international cricket. The Parsi Gymkhana was set up in Mumbai in the same year. A year later, Kolkata hosted a match between the Presidency Club and a team from Australia.

The relative economic stability of the Parsis was instrumental in their sending a team on a tour of England in 1886. Dr. D.H. Patel, one of the leading cricketers of the time, was named captain.

At the team's send-off in Bombay, Pherozeshah Mehta, one of the eminent Indians of the time, stated the squad's objective; "As artists go to Italy to do homage to the Great Masters, or as pilgrims go to Jerusalem to worship at a shrine, so now the Parsis are going to England to pay homage to the English cricketers, to learn something of that noble and manly pastime in the very country that is cricket's chosen home."

As was expected, the Parsis could not get the better of their seasoned opponents, but they gained a lot of experience. The second Parsi outfit that went to England in 1888 was far more confident than its predecessor. The visitors exceeded all expectations, winning eight matches, losing eleven, and drawing twelve. Their most successful cricketer was the round-arm bowler Dr. Mehellasha Pavri, who took as many as 170 wickets.

The British sent a team to India in 1889-90 under the captaincy of G.F. Vernon. The main aim of the team was to play against Englishmen living in India. Critically from the Indian point of view, one game was scheduled against the Parsis, in the light of their impressive showing in 1888. In what was a red-letter event for Indian cricket, the Parsis prevailed by four wickets. It was the first cricket defeat suffered by the British on Indian soil, and indeed, their first 'defeat' of any kind since they had crushed the War of Independence in 1857.

However, while they were unremitting on the political front, the British were supportive on the sporting one. Lord Hawke's team that toured India in 1892-93 made room for two matches against the Parsis, wherein the spoils were shared.

Lord Harris, one of the game's influential figures of the time, did his bit in his capacity as Governor of the Bombay Province to further Indian interest in cricket. He instituted an annual 'Presidency' match between the Europeans and the Parsis, and also earmarked land on the Mumbai seafront, for the Parsis, Hindus and Muslims to set up their respective 'Gymkhanas' and 'maidans.'

The game had by then spread across the subcontinent. It gained a fillip in the 1890s when the Prince of the state of Nawanagar wowed all those in England who thronged to watch him bat. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji was elegance personified on the cricket field. His fascinating wristwork and unconventional shot-making skills were a revelation to the British, who were born and bred on an orthodox approach. His success, first for Sussex in the English County Championship, and then England in Test cricket, made him one of the most popular personalities in the Empire 'where the sun never set.'

His fellow Princes were quick on the uptake. Some of them took it upon themselves to do their bit for cricket, to facilitate their entry into the 'good books' of the British rulers.