During his visit to Chennai to receive the sixth CK Nayudu award institutedby the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Lt.Col Hemu Adhikari spoke toCricInfo on his long and illustrious career as player, manager and coach
Sankhya Krishnan01-Oct-2000During his visit to Chennai to receive the sixth CK Nayudu award institutedby the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Lt.Col Hemu Adhikari spoke toCricInfo on his long and illustrious career as player, manager and coach.The ravages of time have left their mark on the diminutive former Indiacaptain, not just physically but also in the occasional lapses of memorythat he displayed. Each time Adhikari turned to his charming wife Kamala,or Kemu as he called her, and arrived at the solution after a briefexchange in Marathi. But the gleam in his eyes was palpable as hereminisced about events obviously close to his heart and his commentary waspunctuated by noiseless chuckles. Here are some excerpts.On his debutI made my debut in 1938 for Hindus. Hindus won the championship that timeand Col CK Nayudu was the captain. I regularly played for Hindus butsubsequently this tournament was suspended and our activities were confinedto University cricket. I played for Bombay University in the inter-varsitytournaments.On the DonWe watched him so closely that we got fed up and felt it was better he keptaway from us because he was a very unique batsman. He made a fool of anycaptain. Place an off side field and he’d play the ball away to leg. He wasa supernatural cricketer. A very shrewd captain but very quiet, modest andconservative. Those were his great characteristics. His concentration wasso great. The players asked me how to get him out. I said the only way toget him is to shoot him. It’s no joke to score 300 runs in a day. I don’tthink we’ll ever see the likes of him again.On the Lindwall-Miller duo & Fred TruemanIt’s very difficult to compare bowlers of that generation and thisgeneration. Lindwall and Miller were the greatest combination I’ve seenalong with Trueman and Tyson. Sir Don Bradman used them very intelligently.Miller was very fast for a few overs. So he used to bowl Miller for 5-6overs and rest him. Then he used to bring on Ernie Toshack who was veryconsistent. He used to attack the leg stump and place a field on the legside, so you just couldn’t score. But Lindwall and Miller were the greatestpair I’ve played against.Trueman was not difficult but he used to attack you very much. He wouldn’tmind even if you didn’t get out. I will blow your brains out, he told me.Keep your brains cool, I replied. I told our batsmen not to talk to thefielders. When Trueman comes you turn around and ignore him, I said.On the treachery of dame luck in AustraliaYou see I’m not offering excuses. But an ounce of luck in cricket is wortha ton of skill. Every time we lost the toss and Australia used to batright upto the next day, then there would be heavy rain. The wickets wereuncovered so when the game was resumed they would just play a couple ofovers and declare. Every time we were caught on a bad wicket. So much sothat in the third Test, the crowd started shouting: Come on Don, be asport, let the Indians play on a good wicket and you experience a badwicket because you have to go to England. I got a ball on my chest once.But it was a good education to have. Even writers like Fingleton andO’Reilly said India had bad luck. One Australian cricketer said that whenselecting Yardley as captain for the England team, the chairman ofselectors asked: Is he lucky? Because we want a lucky captain. That’s howhe was chosen. Luck plays a very great part. Of course Yardley was a goodcricketer also.On the pride of place he gave to fieldingWhen I was in school and college, I used to read books and they saidfielding is the key to success. If you get 100 runs but give away 5-6boundaries and drop a couple of catches, you are not worth your place inthe side. But even if you score zero and save 45-50 runs, you have +50 toyour name. So fielding is the basis on which you must build up your cricket.On his belated ascendance to the captaincy in 1958-59You see, when this came we were posted in the Army and my unit was inDharamsala, about 7000 feet high, where you can’t think about cricket. Ihad just forgotten about it. First they sent me a message and I refused. Mywife spoke to me about it. I told her, when I wanted it, they didn’t wantme, so why should I go. She advised that this was not the correct attitude.Meanwhile my chief sent me a message asking me to come and report to himimmediately. He told me the same thing: India needs you. Your country isbigger than the individual. Just go and play and let the public feel whatwrong the Board has done to you.On his omission from the England tour that followed in 1959As a matter of fact, everybody was surprised, all the papers wrote aboutit. My chief called up the chairman of selectors and asked him the reason.He said somebody had told him that Major Adhikari was not available for thetour because of his professional duties. So my chief called me up saying:”If you don’t want to go, why do you put the blame on us. Have I said noto you, I have given you every opportunity.” I said that this was nottrue. I just didn’t want to go because I was out of practice. I was in aplace where I couldn’t see a cricket ball. How can I go and play a Testseries without practice?On his approach on the England tour of 1971I used to give the boys a lot of fielding practice. We would go onto thefield half an hour before the match started and practice. Some of the boyssaid they will get tired. I said if you get tired in half an hour, you’renot a fit cricketer. Someone from outside, a very prominent fellow, came upand said: “See, you’re doing this, supposing a player gets hurt, then whatwill happen.” I said it’s his bad luck. Supposing you fall in the bathroomon the day of your match. You can’t fight against your fate. At thebeginning of the tour, I addressed the boys and said whatever individualprizes you get, they should be deposited with the treasurer and distributedequally among the players. Because a bowler for example, cannot takewickets unless the fielders hold their catches. So it’s the contribution ofthe entire team that matters. The players said that myself and my assistantshould also have a share. I said we have nothing to do with it, it was youreffort. So the boys got it.On the celebrations after Oval ’71The entire crowd were there outside the dressing room and they wanted thewhole team to come outside. Meanwhile a message came and they said thatPrime Minister Indira Gandhi wants you on the telephone. She said: “Onething you have to do, the moment you land, you will be escorted to myhouse. I want to meet the boys and congratulate them for the excellentthing you have done, you have put India on a very different mat.” And wedid just that.On his philosophy of coachingOnce you’re at the crease, as my own coach had told me: “When the bowlerbowls, just forget everything. Watch his grip and follow it till hedelivers the ball and see from where he’s delivering, from near the creaseor away from it. Because he can move the ball from nearer the stumps muchmore but with the same delivery and same action, if he bowls from thereturn crease, the ball may not swing or swing less.” Whenever our teamwas going out, I used to tell the Board that I must get the team one monthbefore for practice. India was known to be weak against bouncers. So I gotthe boys to play bouncers on a cement wicket with a wet ball. I told thebatsmen, if you can’t hook, just duck it. We practiced first with a tennisball without wetting, subsequently with a wet ball and then by slowlydecreasing the distance between thrower and batsman. I personally feel,though I may be wrong, that a coach must know his pupils physically,mentally and spiritually. A foreign coach may not be able to put thingsacross. My whole principle of coaching was not to change the basics. At theage of 19-20, you can’t ask the boy to change his grip or stance. You mustimprove on what he is. There was an incident when an English cricketer wasbatting. He played 2-3 drives through the covers with his foot on theonside, nowhere near the ball. So the bowler told him: “My chum, look atyour foot, it is nowhere near the pitch of the ball.” The batsman replied:”You look at the foot, I look at the ball!”Parting shotRemember, the will of fortune can never remain all the time down. It hasgot to come up sometime, isn’t it, it can’t remain static. It is coming andit will come up. I am very optimistic about Indian cricket.