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4 Views & Analysis

Past &
Present The coaches
behind Indias
hhRamachandra Guha is an Indian
cricket champions
Ramachandra Guha I speak here from intimate per- The contributions of these
historian and writer

F
orty years ago, a candi-
date presented himself at
the cricket selection trials
of St Stephens College. St
Stephens then had the best
college team in Delhi and perhaps
India. The new lad who came to the
nets that day had two disadvantag-
es: He was not articulate in English,
and he was not to money or status
born. Promising freshmen crick-
eters in St Stephens announced
themselves by their pedigree; they
either came from elite board-
ing schools such as Mayo College
or from famous English-medium
schools in New Delhi such as Mod-
ern School.
This shy new boy came from
an unknown school in West Delhi;
and he said he had played for
Sonnet Club. The Stephanians had
not heard of that place either.
The Delhi cricket clubs they knew
of were Roshanara Club, Madras
The contributions Club, and Rohtak Road Gym-
of coaches to Indian khana. So amused were they by
cricket are both the background and demeanour
of this freshman that the senior
individual and Stephanian cricketers derisively
institutional. nicknamed him Bonnet.
sonal experience, since I was one of
those condescending fellows myself.
But later in the season our knowl-
edge of Sonnet Club was to expand
by leaps and bounds. Till then, our
sole cricketing rival was Hindu Col-
lege. We normally won the early
rounds of the inter-college champi-
onship by an innings. Then came the
main match of the year, the gruelling,
close-fought, five-day final against
Hindu. However, the year the boy
from Sonnet joined our nets, we
were given the fright of our lives in
the quarter-final by the previously
unknown PGDAV College, whose
opening batsman, Raman Lamba, and
opening bowler, Randhir Singh, were
far better than our own. It was only
our greater all-round depth that al-
lowed us to squeak through.
The recent documentary on
Sachin Tendulkar saw a cameo ap-
pearance by his own early men-
tor, Ramakant Achrekar. Due to his
association with the greatest of all
Indian cricketers, Achrekar has at
least got some attention; most Indi-
an cricket fans know his name. But
other coaches who are as remark-
able remain little known outside
their home town.
coaches to Indian cricket are both
individual and institutional. They
take gifted cricketers at hand at
an early age, hone their skills and
mould their personalities in order
to recognise, develop and fulfil
their potentialities. But beyond the
impact on particular individuals,
these coaches have helped further
the democratisation of cricket
in India, both socially as well as
geographically. They have made
working-class and lower-middle-
class kids into international players;
and they have made Indian cricket
itself many-centred and multi-polar.
When I was young, Indian cricket
had but one power centre, Bombay.
When Karnataka grew to match
Bombay in cricketing strength, few
recognised that behind the rise of
their best players was a focused
and absolutely selfless coach
named Keki Tarapore. Likewise, if
Delhi has now come to equal Bom- Achrekar worked only in Bom- calculating selectors who denied
bay and Karnataka, a great deal of bay; Tarapore, only in Bangalore. Sinha a place in the Delhi under 16
credit must go to coaches like Tarak After nurturing so many first-class side all those years ago are deserv-
Sinha who groomed the cricketers cricketers in Delhi, Tarak Sinha then edly forgotten. But the boy they
who have since won their teams went on to coach Rajasthan to its spurned has since become a real
Ranji titles, Test matches, interna- first Ranji Trophy title. Still later, he (if perhaps still somewhat unsung)
tional one-day championships, and helped make Jharkhand a consider- hero of Indian cricket.
more. able force in domestic cricket. The (HT Media)

Knkaapura
hhTensing Rodrigues is engaged
in research on Konkani Language
and People
Ramayana is indeed
the story of the historic
encounter between the
arya and the vadukar,
the inhabitants of the
Deccan peninsula
T The Protectors
o see Ayodhyas lord of
men, a mighty saint of
glorious fame, the hermit
Visvamitra came. For evil fiends
that roam by night, disturbed
him in each holy rite. And in their
strength and frantic rage, assailed
with witcheries the sage. He came
to seek the monarchs aid, to guard
the rites the demons stayed, unable
to a close to bring, one unpolluted
offering. Thy duty bids thee King,
defend the suffering guest, the sup-
pliant friend. Give me thy son, thine
eldest born, whom locks like ra-
vens wings adorn. That hero youth,
the truly brave, of thee, O glorious
King, I crave. For he can lay those
demons low, who mar my rites and
work me woe. (Ramayana, Book
I, Canto XX XXI) [Griffith, 1895:
Ramayana of Valmiki, 32] That is
sage Visvamitra at king Dasara-
thas court at Ayodhya imploring
him to send his son Rama, suppos-
edly around fifteen then, to protect
the hermits who had established
themselves in the Deccan, from the
harassment by the raksasa. This is
just the beginning of a long chain
of encounters in which Rama slays
the raksasa, as he goes into exile,
then to Lanka for the rescue of Sita,
and back to Ayodhya; at Pamca-
vati alone he is said to have slayed
fourteen thousand raksasa. (Mahab-
harata, Drona Parva, Abhimanyu-
badha Parva, LIX).
Ramayana is indeed the story of
the historic encounter between the
arya and the vadukar, the inhabit-
ants of the Deccan peninsula. But
what becomes obvious from the
story of Rama is that in this en-
counter the kshatriya functioned
as the shield and the sword the
protector of the bramhana; it was point of the social and biological in- contemporary bramhana? We have set apart as the bramhana after the encounter with the kshatriya;
for this, perhaps, that the kshatriya tegration of bramhana and kshatriya. already discussed the social and the encounter) seem to have ab- for instance it is then that the
was given a full entry into the arya No wonder therefore, that outside biological integration of the bram- sorbed both ideas and practices of ideas like karma and transmigra-
fold. In the Puranas and Epics one the dharmasastras, the kshatriya are hana and kshatriya, and yet two the kshatriya, the earlier inhabit- tion of soul entered it. The Vedic
finds several instances of a seam- still an ambiguously defined entity. distinct classes redefined by the ants of the Indo-Gangetic plain. theology took a characteristically
less transmigration of kshatriya into Who are the contemporary dharmasastras. According to many [Converse, 1974: The Agnicayana Jaina like turn: life is suffering, the
bramhana, and vice versa. Perhaps kshatriya then? In the Indo-Ganget- scholars Kashmiri Pandits left the Rite: Indigenous Origin; History body is an entrapment, asceticism
the most illustrative is the story ic plain, their original homeland, arya homeland in the Sarasvati val- of Religions, Vol. 14, No. 2, 82] is a means to release the ideas
of Visvamitra himself. According there could be some original ley before the arya movement into Converse illustrates this with the of ahimsa seem to have turned the
to Vishnu Purana, Satyavati was a kshatriya. In the Deccan a new the eastern Indo-Gangetic plain; agnicayana rite; both the design sacrificial orientation of the arya
kshatriya who married an old Bh- jana emerged, carrying the genes therefore they constitute the pure of the fire altar and the proto- upside down. Perhaps the most in-
rigubramhana named Ricika. Ricika of both the Indo-Gangetic kshatri- arya strain, without the kshatriya col of placing the bricks for this teresting example of the exchange
desired a son having the qualities of ya and the vadukar. These were admixture. It is my contention that rite seem to have been borrowed is the fact that two most revered
a bramhana, and for that purpose he for the most part very unjustly the Sarasvat Brahmana who came extensively from the practices of objects of brahmanic faith, Rama
gave Satyavati a charu (a dish of rice, relegated to the basket of sudra; down to the Konkan and Malabar the black-and-red ware territory and Krishna are kshatriya. This
barley, and pulse, with butter and we have seen the case of Shivaji, coasts also constitute almost equal- to the east, that is, the kshatriya exchange continued when they
milk, offered as ahuti in yajnas). He and the Maratha in general. [The ly pure arya strain. These and the territory. One can find no refer- moved into the Deccan - the vadu-
also gave Satyavatis mother another Sanskritisation of Marathi, 07 May Kashmiri Pandits could have fled ences to such practices in the kar gods took a Vedic garb.
charu to make her conceive a son 17; Pissurlenkar, 1936: O Elemento the drying Sarasvati more or less Vedic texts prior to this; even the As we conclude, one observation,
with the character of a kshatriya. But Hindu da Casta Chardo, O Oriente at the same time, leaving the rest Sanskrit word for brick is taka (it speculative as it appears at this
Satyavati and her mother quietly Portugues, Vo. XXX, 204] But in to move eastwards on a mission of in Konkani), seems to be related to point, may be in order: the original
exchanged the charu. This resulted the Deccan as well, we can reliably semantic, social and biological an- sutakal, meaning clay burning in arya, who had settled in the Sar-
in Satyavatis mother giving birth speculate, a class of Indo-Gangetic nexation. Tamil. In fact Satapatha Brahmana asvati valley, seem to have been a
to Visvamitra, a kshatriya, with the kshatriya remained. These could be We need to remember that the categorically states that the firing far smaller community as compared
qualities of a bramhana, and Satya- what came to be identified as the kshatriya-bramhana exchange pan used for the fire sacrifice is to kshatriya in the Indo-Gangetic
vati giving birth to Jamadagni, the vidyadhara; we shall go into that was not just social and biologi- an asura contrivance. [Eggeling, plain, and definitely in comparison
father of Parasurama, a bramhana aspect a little later. cal; it was cultural and theological 1885: Satapatha Brahmana, Kanda with the population of the penin-
with qualities of a kshatriya. [Wilson, If we have asked the question as well, perhaps as much as the 6, Adhyaya 6, Brahmana 2, Verse sula. This probably explains their
1840: Vishnu Purana, Bk. 4, Ch. 7, as to whom the contemporary former. In the transitional period, 6, 253] Agnicayana is representa- survival strategies as they found
428] Well, charu could have been a kshatriya are, it may be relevant which Converse puts at around tive of the changes that came themselves getting lost in the cul-
euphemism; but that only proves the to ask the question: Who are the 500 BCE-600 BCE, the arya (to be about in the Vedic religion post turally alien ocean.