T
he Times, London,
on March 1, 1932, one-
and-a-half months before
the Indians embarked on
their first-ever official tour
of England, published the
following report: ‘The game
gown on...The Delhi police
may be having three sharp
rounds with a rioting crowd
in the Chandni Chowk, the
crowded bazaar of the old
city, but a mile or two away
on the club ground set in
the gardens that 400 years
ago Shah Jehan built for his
princess, a Roshanara side
will be playing the Punjab
Wanderers or an Army team
from New Cantonments
will be fielding in the white
sunlight....’Here is the team
for England:
The Maharaja of Pa-
tiala, Captain (eventually
withdrew in favour of the
Maharaja of Porbander), K. S.
Ghanshyamsinhji (Kathi-
awar), Vice Captain, Amar
Singh (Jamnagar), S.M.H
Colah (Bombay), Ghulam
Mohammed (Ahmedabad),
Joginder Singh (Punjab),
B.E. Kapadia (Bombay), Lal
Singh (Kuala Lumpur),
N.D. Marshall (Bombay),
J. Naoomal (Karachi),
J.G. Navle (Gwalior), C.K.Nayudu (Indore), Nazir Ali
(Patiala), S. M. Nissar (Pun-
jab), P.E. Palia (Mysore), S
Godambe (Bombay), Wazir
Ali (Bhopal).
It will be seen that the
team is composed entirely
of Indians; the question of
selecting Englishmen play-
ing in India did not arise.
And soon after the Indian
team arrived in England onApril 13, 1932, the evening
standard commented on the
socio-political significance
of the tour:
‘No politics, no caste, just
cricket. This is the unofficial
slogan of the cricket team
that has come from India
after a lapse of 21 years to try
its strength against England
and the first-class counties.
There has never beensuch a team of contrasts
meeting on the common
footing of cricket. The 18
players speak eight to ten
languages among them;
they belong to four or five
different castes.’
The Indians played their
first tour match against TG
Trott’s XI at Pelsham Farm,
Pearmarsh, near Rye on 29th
Apr il, 1932. Interestingly,
playing against the Indian
team in this match was
Duleepsinhji.
However, it was on May
22, 1932 in the match against
the MCC that the world got
a glimpse of what India’s
first homegrown legend,
CK Nayudu, was capable of
achieving. Nayudu, Wisden
Cricketer of the Year i n 1933,
smashed the first Indian
century of the tour in style.
And in the first and only
Test match at Lord’s, the In-
dians shocked the English in
the first half-hour itself. The
MCC was reduced to a dismal
19-3 by some excellent Indian
bowling and fielding.
Though India eventually
lost the match by 158 runs,
the courage and grit shown
at Lord’s clearly conveyed to
the world that the Indians,
in little time, would carve
out a niche in the world of
cricket.jewels in the crown
Reliving India’s Test matches in England down the decades
silver linings Playbook
The first Indian team to tour Englandcricket40 6 august 20181932