It’s a tale of India’s first test century scorer overseas & his swashbuckling batting that lifted spirits of a colonised nation
By Shams Ur Rehman Alavi
The year was 1936. The country was under foreign rule when the Indian cricket team visited England on a tour that uplifted the spirits of Indian masses. History was written when two most unlikely cricketers, Syed Mushtaq Ali—the bold hitter and the first Indian to score a Test hundred overseas— and Vijay Merchant went out to open the innings at Old Trafford and showed that how they could excel the British ‘colonial masters’ in their own sport.
Once, Mushtaq Ali was on the pitch, he immediately began the attack. The first 25 runs were scored within less than 20 minutes, soon he had completed half century. It was savage hitting, a display of cavalier batting that charmed the spectators.
Mushtaq was charging out at pacers and hitting them, in an era when batsmen avoided risky shots, boundaries were few and sixes even fewer. Soon the tall batsman from Indian city of Indore, was punishing bowlers and dominating the field completely.
Crowd was growing ecstatic with the range of shots. Mushtaq created history, he fast reached his century, the first by an Indian cricketer on the foreign soil. People loved it, papers applauded his style and elegance, wholeheartedly. Merchant too completed century soon after.
The British were surprised that the Indian team, which they expected to be amateurs, could bat with such supreme confidence, take on their pacers, attack Allen and Hedley Verity, and completely dominate the bowling, in cricket, a game that was not merely a sport but‘a way of life’ for the British.
In India, cricket lovers were enthralled. It delighted the nation. The country wanted a morale boost and they got it through cricket. It was long before Quit India movement started, people were growing tired with mere promises and freedom was not in sight.
However, it was the era when Mumbai triangular (later quadrangular and pentangular) had already made Indians passionate towards the game. Now, the Indian cricketers had shown British that they could excel the latter in their own game and the fact that Mushtaq tore through their pace battery, boosted the spirits, the morale of Indians.
Interestingly, it was DD Hindlekar who was not playing in the match that Mushtaq was brought to open. Even more surprising is the fact that the Captain Maharajkumarof Vizianagram ‘Vizzy’ had asked Mushtaq to ‘run out Merchant’ because of his own rivalry, however, Mushtaq told Merchant in the morning about it and they laughed, only to make a mockery of English bowling attack.
Terming him, ‘Tiger on Hot Bricks’, because of his attacking style, the press showed its admiration for the man who was an ultimate entertainer. That was how Mushtaq Ali became a sensation and so much love poured for him from all over. From the British gateman at the stadium entrance who bowed to him, the cricket writers and lovers of the game, were fulsome in praise.
In his article in The Statesman (dated March 17 1999), Monojit Majumdar writes that he was India’s original sporting icon. “The day’s beautiful people people, all flocked to see him….Nargis, Pushpa, Hans, Nimmi. Also Mahboob Khan and Dilip Kumar’.
Though the Second World War interrupted his career, he played first class cricket over decades and was adored for his style.
Mushtaq himself said it time and again that for him the aim was to entertain the crowd, as they came to watch the match and he couldn’t disappoint them. Sadly, the selectors didn’t have a great equation with him.
He played for Holkar and over half a dozen other teams in domestic cricket including Central India, Madhya Bharat, UP, Maharashtra, CP and Berar apart from Madhya Pradesh. Wherever he went, and played against any team, even in the Ranji Trophy— domestic first-class cricket championship played in India—and first class matches on special tours or visits to places like Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the crowd would come to catch a glimpse.
Cricket legend, Keith Miller, who is one the greatest all-rounders of all time along with Garfield Sobers, said that “Mushtaq Ali was ‘Errol Flynn of cricket’, dashing, flamboyant, swashbuckling and immensely popular wherever he played, and spectators got a refreshing touch seeing him bat”.
Miller recalls that once he bowled a good length delivery outside off stump and Mushtaq thumped it with an ‘unerring cross bat past square leg with the speed and accuracy of a Robinhood arrow in flight. “I thought it was a lucky shot but as he hutted up to his work, his range of shots and wider and even more powerful, I realised that was bowling at a champion”.
Also, Miller said that nothing irritates a fast bowler more than the situation when he is smashed for a six over his (bowler’s) head with a mere f lick of wrists. “When Mushtaq was not selected to play in a test match in Calcutta, thousands of cricket lovers, incensed that he would not be appearing, marched in protest? So he played”.
‘What cricketer in living memory or in history of cricket could demand such action? Not even cricket’s most talked about character the bewhiskered WG Grace could match the true story about Mushtaq Ali’, There was only one Mushtaq’. These are the exact wordswith which Miller remembers Mushtaq Ali in the foreword of Cricket Delightful.
Son of a police inspector, Mushtaq Ali was born on December 7, 1914 in Indore. Mushtaq’s elder brother Altaf Ali and uncle Bashir Ali were popular players in Indore, in both hockey and cricket and had played in Aga Khan Hockey Tournament.
Then, the family shifted to another locality within the same city. Soon, CK Nayudu took Mushtaq under his wings. He managed to get permission from Mushtaq’s father to send the land with him to play in Hyderabad. Nayudu was tough in the field and wanted Mushtaq to practice and remain determined.
In coming years, the ruler of the princely state of Indore, Maharaja Holkar, patronized and supported Mushtaq Ali. Author Mihir Bose in his book writes that “in 1947, 48 Mushtaq couldn’t go to the overseas tour because of his brother’s death”.
“Maharaj Holkar persuaded him to go but Indian board didn’t want him. Vice-captain one minute, non-entity the next. The team had not left, yet, for Australia, the Maharaja was prepared to meet expenses of travel. He telegraphed the board but De Mello replied that it was too late and they had found replacement”. Mushtaq had fallen victim to internecine fight and plots in the cricket administration.
His performance in Ranji trophy was excellent in the year. He had averaged 63.60 but was omitted from all India selection and this had brought public reaction. Crowd protested, chanted ‘No Mushtaq, No Test’.
The demonstrators threatened violence, breaking into pavilion and surrounding Duleepsinhji, the chairman of selection committee, who was heckled and pushed. They left only after Duleepsinhji, himself a legendary cricketer, assured that Mushtaq would be part of team in the next match.
Mihir Bose’s book ‘A History of Indian cricket’ mentions at length about how people as well as giants of cricket loved Mushtaq Ali, using his bat like a magic wand. ‘There was suppleness and a loose, easy grace which concealed power , as the feline silkiness conceals the strength of some jungle beauty of gleaming eyes and sharp fangs.
He writes that CB Fry, Sir Pelham Warner, Sir Hobbes and even Douglas Jardine, all lauded his art of batsmanship. In Britain, an English gateman’s gesture who presented him with ‘six pence’ had overwhelmed Mushtaq Ali.
His performance in the series against West India, won hearts of the people. Especially, the century at Calcutta. Apart from test cricket, his performance in first class cricket matches against England in domestic and overseas tours, gave the people a sense of achievement, specially, for the swashbuckling strokes, a man who was always in a hurry, charging at the bowler.
Once again in 1951-52, he was part of the team when history was created and India won its first test against England at Chennai. The nation recognised his services and Padma award came in 1963. PM Jawaharlal Nehru said that when the freedom movement was on and people were living under foreign rule, fighting for independence, it was the exploits in the sports that kept people’s morale up and made them zestful.
Records hardly mattered to Mushtaq. Perhaps, like three other devastating hitters and cavaliers for their countries, Learie Constantine for West Indies [though his batting average was much less but is remembered as one of the giants of cricket] along with Gilbert Jessop for England and Victor Trumper for Australia. After retirement from first class cricket, Mushtaq remained in Indore. His son Gulrez Ali also played first class cricket and so did his grandson Abbas Ali, who played for Madhya Pradesh in Ranji Trophy.
Mushtaq himself wrote that he played cricket for fun. ‘I found joy in the game and while I played it, I was intent of transporting that delight to those around me, the players and the spectators alike and to those who followed by fortunes from a distance, through newspaper reports or radio commentaries.
It was the match fixing controversy that had affected him deeply and felt sad at the state of affairs. He would say that ‘excessive money’ was the reason that sportspersons could even think of such immoral behaviour. He passed away on June 18, 2005 at the age of 90. The Board of Cricket Control for India (BCC) rightly named India’s domestic T20 tournament after him, naming it as the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
