Polite but tough, Ajit Wadekar did it his way

There’s an apartment in Mumbai, overlooking the Arabian Sea, which one would be forgiven for walking past without noticing. It’s called ‘Sportsfield’. Nothing remarkable about it, except that it has been home to some of Mumbai’s – and India’s – most legendary sportspersons over the years.

There are hockey heroes, cue sports world champions, international tennis and badminton players, and legendary cricketers, who have all lived there at various points over the years. Some continue to. Sunil Gavaskar is there. Ravi Shastri has a home in the nine-storeyed building too, as does Dilip Vengsarkar. On the top floor is the Wadekar family.

The building, those in the know say, came up as one for big-ticket sportspersons at Wadekar’s behest.

Wadekar was a good – not great, perhaps – and aggressive left-hand batsmen. For the time he played in, he was quick-scoring. But the legend around him was built on his achievements as a captain.

It was in 1971. He had started out with the Indian team in December 1966, and made a mark with a series of good scores in his 21 Tests by the end of the series at home against the Australians in 1969.

He had 10 half-centuries and a century already, eight of those 50-plus scores coming in the second innings. The century was during the 1967-68 tour of New Zealand, when he totalled 328 runs in eight innings in a 3-1 Indian win. India’s first Test series win away from the subcontinent.

He wouldn’t score another Test century, and just four more half-centuries, in his 37 Tests, which ended with modest numbers: 2113 runs, an average of 31.07. But he was a leader of quality, that much is certain.

In 1971, before India went to the West Indies, Mansoor Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, was expected to be India’s captain. But it was Wadekar who was named to lead the side. And India won 1-0.

Was he an outstanding tactician? A master strategist? A great motivator and manager of men? Just plain lucky? Whatever it was, with Gavaskar (774 runs) and Dilip Sardesai (642) running the show with the bat and the spin trio of S Venkataraghavan (22 wickets), Bishan Singh Bedi (15) and EAS Prasanna (11) causing havoc, India won.

There were other notable contributors too – Eknath Solkar with bat and some stunning close-in catching, which Wadekar and Venkataraghavan contributed to too, Syed Abid Ali’s bowling, and Salim Durani’s performances at crucial moments, for example.

But Wadekar had done it. Taking over from Pataudi, he had led India to a historic win. He had done it using Pataudi’s formula: Spin. Plus, Gavaskar and Sardesai.

And he had made a statement early on when, in the first Test in Kingston, he had asked Sir Garfield Sobers to follow-on despite India being just 170 runs in front (play had been lost to rain). Talk about mindgames. That too, in the soft-spoken, extremely polite – but firm – manner that became his calling card. Sobers remembered Wadekar fondly after hearing of his death, telling Mid-Day, “He was not only a good player, but a good human being as well.”

If people thought West Indies was a fluke, Wadekar proved in England later the same year that it wasn’t. He led India again, India won again, 1-0 as well, this time by winning the final Test of the series at The Oval. Wadekar even topped the scorers’ chart for India with 204 runs, his 48 and 45 in the Oval Test going a long way towards ensuring victory.

Stepping back a bit, he made his first-class debut in the 1958-59 season when still in his teens but having played little or no cricket at the school level. It was almost by chance that it happened, as his eyes were on the banking sector. At the domestic level, though, he became a giant, a shining light in the formidable Bombay (now Mumbai) set-up.

From 1958-59 to 1974-75, the season he quit, Bombay won all but one edition of the Ranji Trophy, India's flagship first-class competition, faltering only in 1973-74. And the 323 he scored against Mysore (now Karnataka) in February 1967 – the opposition attack included BS Chandrasekhar and Prasanna – is still talked about in tones of awe by those who saw it. “Yeah, it was a good innings,” he would say about it in later years. Understated. The same way, when asked about a contentious issue, he almost always started with a smile before saying, “It’s just a game, don’t take it too seriously”.

Back to Test cricket, and Wadekar also led India to victory over England at home in 1972-73, but by the end of India’s tour of England in 1974, the magic was over. India lost 3-0 this time under Wadekar’s captaincy, and he retired soon after.

Wadekar seemed to have gone away from cricket after that, but he returned as manager in the 1990s, and struck a successful partnership with captain Mohammad Azharuddin as India became almost invincible at home.

Wadekar was an institution, significant beyond his numbers as a cricketer. He led the team his way. He played the game his way too. Employed with State Bank of India for many, many years, loved by most, respected by all. Some, including his team-mates from the 1970s, said his success was down to good fortune. But not many other Indian captains made their luck in quite the same way. Not in that era for sure.

Affable, unfailingly polite, but firm, and very determined, a ‘tough character’, as Sanjay Manjrekar noted after Wadekar’s demise. Qualities that marked him out as different from the rest and, to repeat, made him his own man. Someone who made India believe, who led the way in India carving an identity as a cricket-playing nation. A pioneer. A legend.