THE CRACK OF DOOM

It's exactly 75 years after India (known then as All-India) stepped into the field at Lord's, against a formidable English squad. When it came to the business end of things, mercifully C K Nayudu was leading the side and not tour captain Maharaja of Porbandar, of whom it was said, "He owned more Rolls Royces than he had made runs."

As Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe entered the crease, England must have been expecting to roll over their minnow opponent. But 3 down for 19, the hosts were running for cover. The top order had been run over by a paceman named Mohammed Nissar.

Dropped catches and inexperience combined with the tenacity of the English skipper, a certain Douglas Jardine, saved England the blushes. But even in defeat, the newborn test side emerged with its head held high. And All-India had its pacemen to thank for the shock waves.

Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh could indeed set wickets rattling. England great Walter Hammond described Amar Singh's bowling thus, "He came off the pitch like the crack of doom."
It is said pacemen always hunt in pairs - be it Miller and Lindwall, Trueman and Statham, Hall and Griffith or Adcock and Heine. Imagine India had a potent pace duo operating in tandem in the very beginning, ironic considering they have always struggled to have a consistent duo operating together in later eras. The best of the lot - Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath - never had a regular partner to share the burden.

When India played the Lord's Test, both Amar Singh and Nissar were only 21. Young and restless, they could be counted on to play tests galore. But then India was only a fledgling test nation and the 1930s saw them play a mere seven tests, all against colonial master England. And the Second World War meant a premature end to the pace duo.

Amar Singh could pack a punch with the bat too, smacking 51 in even time in the second innings at Lord's as India was sliding to defeat. Here's a description by Neville Cardus, "His batsmanship had a beauty which had its own mysterious axis and balance. His off-side strokes were like shooting stars - all wrong in our English astronomy, but all right and splendid in some other dazzling solar system. Most cricketers in the same situation would have gone into protective sheaths."

That's not all. His fielding too had its share of admirers, with comparisons to the West Indian great Learie Constantine. All in all, a complete all-rounder. The perfect recipe for one-day cricket.

A complete entertainer and free spirit, Amar Singh had his problems with the disciplined C K Nayudu. And played his part in the oust-Nayudu-from-captaincy intrigues. Pity the team of the 1930s was always weighed down by internal dissension. Who knows what India could have achieved if more energy had been diverted to on-field action.

So here are two supremely gifted pacemen, Amar Singh and Nissar, whose talent resulted in feats of individual brilliance, but was never part and parcel of a collective will. Nissar took 25 wickets in 6 tests while Amar Singh scored 292 runs and claimed 28 wickets in 7 tests.

Nissar died in Pakistan much after Partition while Amar Singh tragically died of typhoid in 1940, when he was only 29.

Putting their exploits in perspective is the fact that it took more than 40 years for an Indian paceman to make his opponents hop around. First test, late 1978, India vs Pakistan. Pakistan opener Sadiq Mohammad asks for a helmet from the pavilion after being peppered by an Indian debutant - Kapil Dev.