It sure feels different being at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Boxing Day Test and not having Dr. Chand Jain around. Dr. Jain passed away on the Sunday before the Test began, much to the shock of those who knew him. Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Wasim Akram and myself would spend many an evening with him when in Melbourne, where he would lay on the food and drink in plenty, and the evening would be full of anecdotes and leg-pulling that retired cricketers indulge in. Dr. Jain had settled in Australia for a long, long time, and was a friend of the cricketers, and the game is poorer for his demise. He wasn't afraid to express his opinion, and that made him lose out on some so-called friends, but if they were genuinely his friends and not just freeloaders, then they would have understood that behind any comment was a genuine desire to see the best for the person concerned.
He would have loved to have seen Sourav Ganguly walk in to bat in his 100th Test match at the MCG, for Ganguly was a favorite of his, as was Sachin Tendulkar, and he would have added more to what ESPN and STAR CRICKET gave to Sourav on the morning of the Test to commemorate his 100th Test. It's a special achievement for sure, and speaks volumes of his determination to play for India again after the unnecessary roadblocks that were put in his career by some schemers.
Presenting him the bottle of Bollinger took me back to the time when I played my 100th Test at Lahore, way back in 1984. Of course, being in Pakistan, there was no question of a bottle of champagne being available, but the unexpected visit of the then Pakistan President, the late General Zia-ul-haq made it eminently memorable. I say unexpected, because just a few days previously, when India played a game at Rawalpindi against the Pakistan Board President's XI, the General had made a sudden appearance at that warm-up game, and thrown all of us in a tizzy of sorts. Normally, when a team is scheduled to meet the head of state or the head of the government, the management asks everybody to carry their blazers to the ground for the introduction to the dignitary, but since there was no information whatsoever that the president would be coming to see the game, we had not carried any blazers to the ground. Moreover, it being a warm-up game, therewas a relaxed air about the whole proceedings and a fair bit of pranks that touring teams indulge in.
Jimmy Amarnath, who had become a bit of a specialist in throwing shoes into the sea or out of trains or on the roofs of dressing-rooms, had just thrown one of my shoes on the roof, and so I was sitting in my socks when the President arrived. The manager of the team, Raj Singh Dungarpur, suggested that since I had met the President on my earlier tours to Pakistan, I should go and sit with him rather than he doing it himself. But how was I to do so without shoes? We are of course talking of 1984, when players barely carried more than a pair of shoes on the tour, unlike now where apart from half a dozen pairs of cricket shoes, there are training shoes and casual shoes too. Anyway, borrowing a pair of shoes, I made my way amid great laughter from the dressing room to sit with the President.
As he got up to leave after watching the game for some time, I asked if he was coming to Lahore for the Test, and he replied that he had a delegation from the United States army visiting him, and so he wouldn't be able to make it. Maybe he saw a look of disappointment on my face, for he asked me why I had asked him that question, to which I replied that it was going to be my 100th Test, and since it was the first time anybody from the subcontinent was reaching that landmark, it would have been an honour to have him present at the Test match. He pondered over it, but said that it would be difficult to get out of his commitments. It was perfectly understandable, as heads of state have their every movement chalked out months before, and its not easy to get out of that. What a pleasant surprise it was then, to be informed by the manager on the morning of the Test that the president was flying down especially to greet and congratulate me, though again it is perfectly understandable that he wouldn't have wished me the very best of luck, given that I was the captain of India and playing against his Pakistan team.. He flew down for half an hour or so and gave me heaps of gifts from the Lahore District Cricket Association and a carpet from him, as souvenirs of the 100th Test. It was a gesture I will never forget, and it made the occasion all the more memorable, though I didn't get too many runs in the Test, being out for 30-odd and 40-odd in the game. India were being done in by some pretty ordinary umpiring, but managed to save the Test, thanks to a gritty hundred by Jimmy Amarnath, and some stubborn batting by Shastri and Gaekwad.
Later on, I got a sweet note from him about the book 'Idols' that I had presented to him at Rawalpindi, where he had turned up unexpectedly for our tour match.
Sourav Ganguly had the new Australian Prime Minister watching him play a fine innings, though 'Dada' would be disappointed at getting out to Brad Hogg in the manner that he did, particularly because while he was the skipper of the Indian team, not too many left-arm spinners made it to the Indian team, maybe because 'Dada' didn't think too much of their capabilities. There is still the second innings to come as this is being written, so Ganguly has a chance of joining that elite list of players who have scored a century in their 100th Test. Till then, welcome to the Century Tests Club Dada, and hope your good form continues and takes you closer to the 150-Test mark. Well done!
