Part III
Born to lead
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Friday, 23rd, March, 1962, West Indies v India, Third Test, Kensington Oval, Barbados
Frank Worrell, the West Indies Captain and his Indian counterpart, the Ninth Nawab of Pataudi strode down the steps of the Pickwick Pavilion, and headed out on to the pitch to spin the toss. Worrell spun a coin into the high Barbadian sun, and the Nawab made the wrong call. The Nawab of Pataudi Jr, as recorded in the scorecard, at the age of 21 years and 77 days, had become the youngest ever Test captain.
Ten years prior, to the day, the two captains had been ship mates on one of the famous ‘Strata’ boats of the P&O line, making their way to England. While the rest of the West Indies team headed home following the 1951-52 tour of Australia and New Zealand, the professionals – Roy Marshall, Sonny Ramadhin, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, and Worrell – were off to ply their trade in the Lancashire Leagues. When the boat docked in Bombay, among the passengers embarking were Vinoo Mankad, also bound for the Leagues, and the young Nawab headed to prep school in England. The latter soon became a regular attendee at the tennis ball cricket net sessions held on deck by the professional cricketers.
Now, the Nawab was captain of an Indian team in complete disarray. The previous Saturday had been marred by the horrifying incident of India’s Captain Nari Contractor being struck on the head by a bumper from Charlie Griffith in the territorial match against Barbados. Distracted by someone opening a window in the dressing room, (there was no sightscreen at the time), Contractor lost track of the ball, and suffered a fractured skull. Now, he lay in hospital, two operations later, having suffered the loss of a lot of blood and fighting for his life.
