Not one to shy away from a fight

lala amarnath played his cricket at a time when the game had far more character than it does now. for someone who didn't miss a trick and was never short for words, amarnath in recent years wasn't forthcoming. the last time we approached him for his opinion on the recent happenings in cricket, he excused himself, saying it was below his dignity to speak on things that had nothing to do with the game.``i played cricket in a different era and i enjoyed every bit of it. not that we didn't have fun, but not at the cost of the game,'' he said. lala was a great raconteur. he had an earthy wit and his sense of humour made him an endearing companion. asked why he didn't think of writing his autobiography or authorise someone else to do it, he quipped he was far too outdated for people to read. he took to writing a column on match days, and then dabbled in radio and television as an expert, but he never seriously tried to establish himself in the new role. he would tell how he used to do a tightrope walk between skipper nawab iftikhar ali khan pataudi and vijay merchant, who felt captaincy on that 1946 tour of england was rightfully his. lala's job was to keep the two top guns of indian cricket in good humour. he would narrate with a chuckle how he once conveyed to merchant the high esteem the skipper held him in, and to boost his ego told him that the nawab was keen on knowing how merchant played the late cut. if amarnath was the first indian to score a century in a test, he was also the first player to be disciplined, on the tour to england in 1936 when captain maharajkumar vijayanagaram got a mouthful from him for humiliating him by sending him to bat at number 10 when he was padded up to bat higher up the order. he returned to a hero's welcome and the board had to sheepishly accept that the team management had erred in its decision to pack him home at a time when he was in peak form. lala and controversy were made for each other. he was not one to shy away from a fight. many who played with and under him will tell you what a great thinker of the game he was. he was the sort who believed in entertaining the crowds and he played more for them than for himself. he used to say he would have become a first-rate wicketkeeper if he hadn't taken to bowling. once in a test against west indies in bombay he held five catches, deputising for p. sen. he bowled chest on with a final hop and skip with the wrong foot forward. the stories of his cricketing acumen are legion, some of which he laughed off himself. a close friend of his and later the first captain of pakistan, abdul hafeez kardar, told yours truly one day in lahore that the lala was a great one to con the opposition with his instinct, particularly when it came to reading the pitch. kardar said amarnath once fooled his counterpart into fielding on a beauty of a pitch and on another occasion declared the innings abruptly soon after lunch on the first day to sow seeds of suspicion about the pitch in the opposition's mind. long after he had quit playing, he told the media on the eve of a moin-ud-dowla gold cup match that they would be in for a big surprise the next morning. amarnath looked at the overcast sky and told the regular fast bowler to relax and himself went in to bowl with the new ball. if memory serves one right, he took seven wickets for his team indian starlets and at the other end a young fast bowler by the name of amir ali took the remaining three. whatever lala did he did with a flamboyance that made cricket all the more entertaining. today's cricketer thinks of his own self, not the paying spectator, he would say when asked to differentiate between cricketers of his time and the present lot. cricket today is played with all the care in the world. the batsman is afraid to attack and the bowler is also afraid of being hit, leading to a stalemate. for all those who played under him, he was just captain. he played for southern punjab, gujarat, patiala and, finally, railways in the ranji trophy. he was the manager of the team that first toured pakistan after partition and was a national selector who used his judgment and intuition in picking players for their talent rather than on the figures in the scorebook. he believed in horses for courses. there was little doubt he was a great judge of a player. when it came to his sons, lala rightly felt his eldest son surrinder was far more talented but achieved much less than his promise. he said mohinder did well because he was able to adapt himself to the changing situations unlike his brother. his biggest disappointment was that his third son rajinder didn't live up to his expectations. in the early days of rajinder's cricket, he used to say that his instinct told him he should do better than his brothers because he was a genuine all-rounder. many thought it was his way of promoting his sons, but then mohinder made up for all of them.