The year 1971 will inextricably be linked with
Ajit Wadekar who passed away yesterday after a prolonged illness at the Jaslok
hospital in Mumbai. This year will also be etched in the annals of Indian
Cricket history since it marked the coming of age for the Indian cricket team,
which until then had pedantic performances to show as visitors, specially
playing against their former rulers the English team. All this was changed
under the leadership of Ajit Wadekar.
Ever since India’s debut in the test cricket at
the Lord's, England, on 25 June 1932, for nearly forty years, India continued
to be a weak team in comparison with other Test cricket teams, such as
Australia and England. The year 1971 was a watershed year for Indian cricket.
It was in that year under the new captain – Ajit Wadekar – India registered her
first-ever away-series victories in the West Indies and England to inject a
refreshing self-belief in the Indian cricket, hitherto unseen. The team backed
up the two back to back series victories over seas with a series win against
England in India a year later thus achieving a remarkable three series wins on
the trot under the stewardship of Ajit Wadekar.
The scene of the historic series (1971) victory
against the English at the Oval in London was ecstatic with scores of Indian
fans thronging to the ground, where Ajit Wadekar’s team had beaten England by
four wickets to end the hosts' run of 26 Test matches without defeat. Ajit
Wadekar became an overnight hero and continued to be so until his demise.
In his relatively brief cricketing career that
spanned 37 Tests, Wadekar scored just one century which came against New
Zealand in Wellington in February 1968, a knock that helped India win their
first ever Test series away from home. His team’s (which included the legendary
Sunil Gavaskar) outstanding performance during the 1971 series, when the Indian
team conquered the mighty West Indian team at their fearsome dreadful pace
pitches and followed it up with the victory against their former rulers the
English team in England, will ever remain a talking point when cricket history
is discussed. It is for this very reason that one of the sections included in
the Cricket exhibition that I had the honour to curate for Australia and
England was this historic tour titled “Coming of Age”.
Ajit Wadekar also has a special relationship with
the science museums (NCSM). He was the chief guest for opening an exhibition
titled “Science of Sports” which was opened at the Nehru Science Centre
somewhere during 1998. Dr R Chidambaram, former Secretary DAE, was the guest of
honour. Dr Chidambaram a cricket buff himself was full of praise for Ajit
Wadekar and fondly recollected his memories of the 1971 series that India
played against the mighty West Indians and England, during his brief
interaction at the opening of the exhibition at the Nehru Science Centre.
On its return from England, there was demand that
the “Cricket Connects: India –England” exhibition must be presented at the
Nehru Science Centre. The first person that came to our mind for the opening of
the exhibition was Ajit Wadekar. My colleague Saket met Ajit Wadekar with a
copy of the exhibition catalogue and delivered my request letter to him for the
opening of the exhibition. He fondly remembered his earlier visit to the Nehru
Science Centre and was pleasantly surprised that the science museum is also
involved in curating Cricket Exhibition. He was highly appreciative of the
exhibition catalogue and was all praise for the exhibition, the photos of which
were shown to him. He immediately gave his consent for the opening of the
exhibition and commended us to also invite his neighbour -another cricket hero
of yesteryears- Dilip Vengsarkar for the opening. Vengsarkar too agreed
immediately to be present for the opening of the exhibition. As luck would have
it, Ajit had passed on the copy of our England Cricket exhibition catalogue to
the hero of the 1971 series, Sunil Gavaskar, who also stays in the same
building on the Worli Sea Face. We were in for a very pleasant surprise when
the PR manager of Sunny Gavaskar called me and informed that Sunny Bhai too
wishes to be present for the opening of the exhibition. All this happened
because Ajit Wadekar had put in words of appreciation about the exhibition to
Sunil Gavaskar and also had passed on the exhibition catalogue to him.
Unfortunately, on the scheduled day of the
opening of the exhibition, Ajit Wadekar had an unavoidable commitment at
Chandigarh and could not attend the opening. However, we had the august
presence of Dilip Vengasarkar and Sunil Gavaskar. Ajit Wadekar spoke to me in
person on the day of the opening and expressed that his apologies be
communicated to the audience for his absence. Long live Ajit Wadekar.
We join countless others in expressing our
heartfelt condolences to the family of the departed soul and offer our prayers
for the departed soul to rest in eternal peace.
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