India’s original ‘little master’ Gundappa Viswanath recalled India’s historic first Test win against England at the Oval in 1971 along with Ajit Wadekar’s fondness for him. In that Test series, Vishwanath played under Wadekar and he paid handsome tribute to the former India captain at the BCCI-organised memorial at the MCA lounge on Wednesday. Wadekar, 77, passed away on August 15.
Walking down the memory lane related to the events surrounding the Oval Test, Viswanath said: “Ajit told me that he is not bothered about what I had done earlier and that he did not want to see me in the dressing room till the scoreboard showed the runs that had to be scored for victory. I did not know if it was a joke, as Sunny would say, or serious, and I did not know how to take it. He wanted to win the Oval Test badly.”
Viswanath scored 33 runs and it was the first time he didn’t score a boundary in his innings, maybe because Wadekar told him that I can do it in singles. The later had also demanded runs from the opener as he used to love his batting.
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Recalling another incident, Vishwanath said, “Even though I played against Bombay and wanted my team to win, I wanted to see how much Ajit scored. He played so easily, had no follow through, he just used to guide the ball. He is one of the best left-handers I have ever seen. Chandra always used to say: “I cannot bowl to him (Ajit).” He was amazing… I did not know whether he was defending or playing a stroke, the ball raced to the boundary. I will always miss him.”
Sharing his thoughts through a video presentation, Sunil Gavaskar said: “We used to go to Ajit’s room during the 1971 tour of the West Indies. The atmosphere used to be tremendous… all talking cricket. He was not good at keeping time for meetings; he used to be late. He was my first Bombay and India captain and I will remember him fondly.”
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Former India players, Madhav Apte, Vinod Kambli, Syed Kirmani, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, Ashok Wadekar (Ajit’s brother) and Prasad Wadekar (Ajit’s son) spoke at the memorial meeting.
Former India gloveman Farokh Engineer said India and the cricket fraternity should celebrate the life of Ajit Wadekar. He said they had a great rivalry in the domestic cricket when they played between R.A. Podar College and Ruia College and Àjit was the big difference between the two college sides. He also urged that the Mumbai Cricket Association should name a stand or gate after Ajit… maybe a street.
