Gupte pays dearly for calling Kanhai ‘A Rabbit’! by Shan Razack

Gupte pays dearly for calling Kanhai ‘A Rabbit’! by Shan Razack Sunday, August 24, 2014 at 1:32 PM

“SUBHASH GUPTE (is) was the greatest leg-spinner I have played against; a man with enough mystic power to perform the Indian rope trick.” 

That was how Guyana and West Indies star batsman Rohan Kanhai described Gupte, though the two men “didn’t exactly hit it off” in their first meeting during the West Indies tour of India in 1958-59.

Indeed,” recalls Rohan, ‘the whole thing began to take on the proportion of a personal feud” as Gupte, “India’s golden boy-the only real world-class bowler India had,” prepared to spin the tourists out of contention.

Wrote Kanhai later: “In the first Test I presented him with his 100th Test wicket when he had me snapped by Roy for 22 in the second innings.

“In the next Test at Kanpur, he bowled me neck-and-crop for a duck, and as we came in for tea, he sauntered up to me and sneered, “Hello Rabbit”.

“The jibe brought a giggle from the rest of the players in earshot but set my blood boiling. I managed finally to mumble through clinched teeth, ‘Just you wait until next time, I’ll get after you!’’’

Gupte obviously felt that by calling Kanhai a “rabbit’ in front of the others, he’d destroy the confidence of the Guyanese batsman and gain the “whip hand” for the rest of the tour. It’s a common enough psychological weapon used by the cricketers to sap the spirits of their opponents. Applied effectively it can be as deadly as any Yorker or vicious leg-break in some cases. Today we refer to it as sledging, which, the Australians, in particular used so often to their advantage.

West Indies were dismissed for a modest 222. Kanhai made just 43 in his second knock in the second Test. But all that “rabbit” business changed in the third Test in Calcutta in December 1958.

Gupte was at his ferocious best, taking not only the prized wicket of Kanhai, but also those of his fellow countrymen Basil Butcher bowled for a duck, and Joe Solomon lbw, not before he scored 45.

He got Kanhai all right, but not before the Guyanese master batsman had had time to translate his glorious form into a personal tally of 256 runs-his highest in Test cricket and overtaking Frank Worrell’s record Test score of 237 against India in Kingston. Above whatever he’d achieved in Calcutta, mastering Gupte was Kanhai “real prize”.

The batsmen encountered much difficulty in coping with the wrist spinner Gupte. Gupte captured nine wickets for 102 runs in 34 overs and three ball with his leg-breaks and googlies. This was the best performance by an Indian bowler against the West Indies and remained so until 1983 when the pace bowler Kapil Dev, captured nine wickets for 83 runs at the Gujarat Stadium in Ahmedabad in the third Test of the series. The West Indies batted first and lost its openers, John Holt Jnr. (5) and Conrad Hunte (23) with the score at 12 and 72 respectively. In spite of these early setbacks, however, they proceeded to compile a massive 614 runs, made in only 575 minutes, for the loss of five wickets.

This mammoth total was due largely to a brilliant attacking innings of 256 by Rohan Kanhai, his maiden test century and the first double century by a Guyanese batsman in Test cricket. 

The local press acclaimed this achievement with headlines such as: “Kanhai’s First Century is a Double.” “According to the Reuter report, Kanhai, “was in a devastating mood’ and “played classical shots with supreme confidence from the beginning.” He soon got completely on top of the bowling. He continued scoring in business like fashion and when India brought on Gupte, the leg-spinner was made to look innocuous.

Kanhai scored his first 50 runs, which included ten blistering fours, in 80 minutes. He reached his century in only 132 minutes, the fastest hundred in the series, and 200 in 256 minutes. Kanhai was involved in dominating partnerships-one of 107 runs in 81 minutes with “Collie” Smith (34) for the third-wicket, and another of 217 runs for the fourth wicket with fellow Port Mourant batsman Basil Butcher, who batted brilliantly to score a robust 103, also his first Test century. Between the tea interval and the end of play on the first day Kanhai and Butcher scored 123 runs in only 85 minutes.

The third centurion in the innings was Garry Sobers who made 106 not out, his third century of the series and the sixth in the last ten Test innings. Kanhai shared an unfinished stand of 170 runs for the sixth-wicket with Joe Solomon, who made 69 not out. It is interesting to note in the previous Test, Solomon was unfortunately run out for 86-fourteen runs short of achieving the distinction of scoring a century in his first Test appearance.

India never recovered. Forced to follow-on, 409 runs behind, the side could muster up only 124 runs, its batsmen falling prey to the menacing pace bowling of Roy Gilchrist, who ended the Test with a fabulous performance of nine wickets for 73 runs, and Wes Hall, the man who swept through India’s second innings to give West Indies victory with a day to spare.

The President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prashad, made a fine gesture in presenting Kanhai with a stuffed Tiger’s head for what he called “a fine innings played in the right spirit.” Gupte was presented with the tiger’s skin for his impressive match-performance.

For the West Indies, the Calcutta Test win was a landmark achievement. Solomon and Butcher, two hitherto unknowns, made their mark on the 1958-59 tour. The Port Mourant trio, all former Corentyne High School old boys, Kanhai, Butcher and Solomon seem to relish the Indian attack. As in the past three Tests, West Indies compiled a formidable score of 500 runs in the Fourth owing mainly to the contribution by Basil Butcher who top scored with a dashing 142, Kanhai contributed 99 and Solomon made 43. The most successful bowler was the persistent left-arm orthodox spinner, Vinoo Mankad, who took four wickets for 95 runs. In contract, Gupte, India’s leading bowler had embarrassing figures of one wicket for 166 runs in 58 overs.

Solomon scored exactly 100 not out in the fifth and final Test at Delhi in West Indies mammoth 644 for eight dec’l. This was Solomon’s maiden Test hundred and only century that he scored in his 46 innings which he had in his 27 Tests in which he represented the West Indies.

In the series, the three Guyanese batsmen in the team placed first, third and fourth, respectively, in the West Indies Test averages. Heading the Test averages was Joe Solomon, who, in his first Test series, scored 351 runs in six innings, with a staggering average of 117 runs an innings. This remains the highest average achieved by a Guyanese in a Test series for sixteen years, i.e. until 1975, when it was surpassed by another Port Mourant player diminutive left-hander Alvin Kallicharran in the short two-match series against Pakistan in Pakistan where Kallicharran had an average of 125.50.

Solomon’s achievement was only the fifth occasion in Test cricket that a West Indian had achieved an average of over 100 runs an innings in a rubber. Third in the averages below Sobers (557 runs, the team’s largest aggregate with an average of 92.83 runs), was Basil Butcher, who in his maiden Test series, scored an impressive 486 runs with an average of 69.42. This proved to be his largest aggregate and best averages in a Test series in his entire career.

Immediately below him, occupying fourth position in the averages was Rohan Kanhai whose sterling knocks gave him 538 runs at an average of 67.25, his highest aggregate and second best in a Test series in his career.

The considerable success achieved with the bat by Solomon, Butcher and Kanhai made this series in India in 1958-59 the first one in the history of West Indies cricket in which Guyanese batsmen made a substantial contribution to the regional team’s success. The brilliant achievements of these three players meant that Guyana has now emerged as a batting force in West Indian cricket comparable to what Jamaica had been in the 1930’s and Barbados since 1948. The series definitely mark the rise or surge of Guyanese cricketers to a place of real prominence in West Indian cricket.

Gupte was left out of India’s tour of the West Indies in 1962 because of a controversy with the Indian cricket Board (ICB), but traveled with the team nonetheless and eventually married a pretty damsel in Trinidad. Gupte lived with his charming wife, children and tiger’s skin until his death in 2002.

Kanhai, who got to know Gupte fairly well after the Calcutta Test would tell you that his stuffed tiger’s head hangs proudly in his mother’s home at Port Mourant. If ever, you have cause to doubt me, then do check it out whenever you visit Port Mourant. Talking about home, I read somewhere that an approach was made to Rohan Kanhai to have the house converted into a sports museum. It would be a fitting gesture if this is to become a reality, for it would gave our sporting heroes and heroines who had done Berbice and Guyana yeoman service an opportunity to showcase their contributions to our rich sporting tradition for all Guyanese and, more particular for our young people. Sports is an important and vital part of our national heritage. The performances of our Sportsmen and Sportswomen have always contributed significantly to a sense of national pride.

PS. Sir Garry Sobers, arguably the greatest cricketer the game has produced once said that Subhash Gupte was the finest exponent of his craft. Bishan Bedi, another giant among spinners said: “I was listening to radio commentary when Gupte took nine for 102 against West Indies at Kanpur in 1958. I was so inspire by the performance that I took up spin bowling. Gupte’s feat really spurred me on.”

Interestingly, Bishan Bedi was not the only one to be inspired by Gupte. I’ll tell you of a Guyanese bowler who saw Gupte for the first time did likewise and went on to play Test cricket. I refer to the late Ivan Madray who saw his first Test match at Bourda-the first 1953 Indian team vs. West Indies-and after observing Subhash Gupte as he bowled. He told his friends that one day he would play Test cricket at that ground. It didn’t take him too long! A year later, in 1954 that he played in the trials at Bourda and was selected to play against the touring 1955 Australian side. Three years later, Madray played his first Test against Pakistan at Queen’s Park, Oval Port-of-Spain. Madray said that Gupte was his idea of what a leg-spinner should be.

Chandu Borde said: “He was easily the finest leg-spinner I have ever come across. In fact I would go as far as saying that he, was one of the finest bowlers India has ever produced. The former all-rounder, who himself bowls leg-breaks, spoke wistfully of the day he remembered clearly.

“You should have been there at Kanpur in 1958, then you would understand what I mean. His guile and flight were second to none. Very few batsmen would pick his googly,” said Borde.

On a placid wicket at Kanpur against a strong West Indies side, he made the batsmen dance. Nine for 102 he picked up; I’ll never forget that day.”