Lala: the rebel with a cause

LONDON, AUG. 9. Lala Amarnath, the fiery all-rounder who was the first to score a century for India in Test cricket, bowled off the wrong foot, and frequently got off on the wrong foot with authority too, The Times wrote on Wednesday.

Yet his enthusiasm, drive and splendid all-round talent took him from rebel to the first captaincy of independent India, the daily said in a laudatory obituary of the cricketing genius.

``He also founded a mini dynasty, producing two sons who played Test cricket,'' it said. While, Surinder and Mohinder played Test cricket, his youngest son Rajinder played first-class cricket.

The first player to score a Test century for India, hitting 118 at Bombay in December 1933 against Jardine's England team, Amarnath had a Test career of 19 years and a first-class career of 30. He played 24 times for India, although his Test tally of 878 runs at an average of 24 and 45 wickets at 32, did him little justice.

Right-handed and just under 5 ft 7 inches tall, he was aggressive in batting, bowling and captaincy - and in all his relations with authority. He was 24 when he made headlines on India's 1936 tour of England, being sent home by the captain, the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, The Times said.

Amarnath was then the team's leading all-rounder, with 613 runs in 20 innings, including three centuries and 32 wickets at an average of 32.

``The Maharajah (actually Maharajkumar), leading India at a time when that country's captains were chosen more for princely standing than playing worth (he toured with 36 pieces of personal baggage and two servants), had a tour batting average of just 16 in 42 first-class innings, with a top score of 60 and three wickets,'' the paper went on.

Amarnath was unawed by his lordly skipper: he spoke out angrily first when not given the field he wanted as a bowler, and later, when pushed down the order to allow other players batting practice, so sparking his dismissal.

The Indian board then announced it would allow Amarnath to return to England if he would apologise, but two days later, apparently after intervention of the British government, it changed its mind. After the tour, a special committee examined charges against Amarnath (which was never made public), but decided to take no further action, according to The Times.

Amarnath did not temper his behaviour in the later years. In 1949 at a press conference as captain of India, he accused the Indian board of ``playing power politics''.

Board president Anthony de Mello, long unhappy about Amarnath's independent line, had him suspended ``for continuous misbehaviour and breach of discipline''. Three months later the board accepted Amarnath's apology and the resolution was expunged. But he temporarily lost captaincy.

He made his peace with authority in the fifties, becoming a Test selector in 1952, serving until 1960, with two seasons as chairman.

Lala Amarnath developed his cricket in Lahore and was first considered a wicketkeeper, but he hit five centuries in club cricket in the year he turned 20.

Lord Tennyson, captain of a touring MCC team in 1937- 38 was perhaps poetic when he termed the youngster ``the Bradman of India'' but the promise was unmistakable. His dismissal from the 1936 tour and then the war meant that it was a full decade before he received further international opportunity.

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