From Bradman to Kohli: Best of India-Australia Test Cricket by Kersi Meher-Homji. Published in 2018 by The Cricket Publishing Company, Post Office Box W27, West Pennant Hills, NSW 2125. Pp: 150. Price: Aus $ 45 (plus postage).
What timing! After 71 years and on their 12th tour Down Under, the Indian cricket team finally broke their ‘duck’ by beating Australia 2-1 under the inspiring captaincy of Virat Kohli in the dramatic Test series that ended earlier this year. And here we have this book by the inimitable Kersi Meher-Homji (born 1938) who is Mr India/Australia Cricket himself having emigrated from Bombay to Sydney, Australia in 1970 and watched every Test match between the two nations either at the ground or on TV since 1956.
Meher-Homji is amazingly prolific even into his 80s and this is his 15th cricket book, the first, Cricket’s Great Families, having been published in 1980.
India first toured Australia in 1947-48 when the home side were led by the legendary Don Bradman and were dubbed cricket’s ‘Invincibles’ after they thrashed England 4-0 in the five-Test Ashes series in 1948. They won by the same margin against the hapless Indians too in what was Bradman’s final home series.
But to the author’s credit he has not forgotten the early pioneers. Even before the first official series in 1947-48 and the first official Australian team to tour India in 1956-57, two Australian sides visited India for what were then known as unofficial Test matches, first in 1935-36 (known as the Maharaja of Patiala’s Australian team led by Jack Ryder) and then the 1945 Australian Services side shortly after the end of World War II, led by Lindsay Hassett.
Cricketer Allan Border with author Kersi Meher-Homji (r)
The second official tour in 1967-68 saw India suffer a whitewash, losing all four Tests despite heroic batting by skipper ‘Tiger’ Pataudi. The two Parsis in the side, the late all-rounder Rusi Surti and wicketkeeper/batsman Farokh Enginer also excelled. The left-handed Surti in fact topped the batting averages for the series and bowled brilliantly too and was also outstanding on the New Zealand leg of the tour that followed. He was signed up by Queensland for the domestic Sheffield Shield, the only Indian cricketer to play in the prestigious tournament and eventually he settled down in Australia.
Since 1996-97 the two nations — who share January 26 as Republic Day/Australia Day — have fought for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, named after two stalwarts, Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar and Meher-Homji has certainly pulled off a coup by getting both of them to write forewords for his book.
It was the 2000-01 series in India that captured the attention of the cricket world and helped place Test matches between these two nations to the high pedestal it now finds itself on. Since India and Pakistan no longer meet in the Test arena, it would be no exaggeration to state this series now matches the ancient ‘Ashes’ rivalry between England and Australia.
India were trounced by 10 wickets in the opening Test at Bombay but turned around the second at Calcutta, winning by 171 runs after being asked to follow-on, only the third time this had been achieved in Test cricket history. The hosts then scraped home by two wickets in the third and final Test at Madras to clinch the rubber 2-1 in what is considered one of the greatest Test series of all time. Madras was also the venue for only the second tied Test match in cricket history back in 1986.
Meher-Homji captures all the drama in his racy style, each series in Australia and in India being described briefly and with plenty of interesting sidelights, not forgetting the controversies.
The book is rounded off with statistics, quirky trivia and a best Australia XI vs India and India XI vs Australia. A real treat for cricket fans. Pity the publishers did not include any color photos.
GUL-FRAAZ (GULU) EZEKIEL
New Delhi-based reviewer,Ezekiel, is a freelance sports journalist and author of numerous sports books.