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Lala Amarnath Life and Times: The Making of a Legend
Lala Amarnath was the first Indian to score a century when in his first Test match, against England, with the score at 21 for 2, he chose to counter-attack rather than stonewall. He reached his 100 in just 117 minutes, but never made a Test century again.?A strong-willed and plain-spoken man, he was sent back from England during India’s 1936 tour before the Tests started accused of “indiscipline”. In this book his son Rajender tells what really happened. ?The war curtailed his best years; his fourth Test, in England in 1946, coming 13 years after his first. That tour was memorable for his becoming India’s top wicket-taker, with five wickets in the first innings of the Lord’s Test. ?He was drawn into the establishment when he captained India to Australia in 1948, where his aggressive, imaginative captaincy drew praise from Don Bradman. But he never became truly part of it although he also made a name for himself as a selector and commentator.?Two of his three sons, Mohinder and Surinder, played Test cricket for India while the author Rajender played at first class level in India and in League cricket in England.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 5, 2022
‘Lala’ Amarnath was an highly influential figure from Indian Cricket history with major significant achievements, none bigger than scoring India’s 1st Test Century at Bombay Gymkhana on his Test debut. He is also known for his controversies- the primary one being the send off from India’s tour of England in 1936. As one of titles aptly captures, he was a ‘Stormy Petrel’. All such characteristics are captured well in the book by his youngest son- Rajinder Amarnath.
The book follows a straightforward chronological manner covering his childhood, early years, his journey as a player, captain, Team Manager, selector and Administrator. His life was so full of events and drama that no outward embellishments is required, and the book captures the critical events well. The narrative flow is simple and straightforward, and it is quite insightful to understand his journey better, some instances stand out- namely the adding of prefix ‘Lala’, his interactions with Maharaj of Patiala, the landmark tour of Australia in 1947-48, and his last series as player and captain against Pakistan in 1952-53.
The author gives good attention to some of the controversies surrounding him-dedicating fair length of the chapters to atleast provide a full perspective from Amarnath’s side. What stands out outside of these controversies is his all-round cricketing talent, excellent cricketing acumen and being a street-smart character. In the modern world, the closest comparison that can be made is with as a combination of Brendon McCullum as a batsman and captain, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar as a bowler and steeliness of Steve Waugh and Saurav Ganguly. It was a real pity that he couldn’t play international cricket in his prime years and with the divided loyalties of the players to the Maharajas, community, states- it must have been really hard to maintain a balanced outlook and unity- which is bound to create extreme opinions as is the case with Amarnath.
As a add-on, the book is embellished with great and archival pics from the family albums and newspapers, which are great to see (I love the cover pic).
A must-read for all Indian cricket lovers to re-visit a towering personality of Indian cricket before the modern era.
The book follows a straightforward chronological manner covering his childhood, early years, his journey as a player, captain, Team Manager, selector and Administrator. His life was so full of events and drama that no outward embellishments is required, and the book captures the critical events well. The narrative flow is simple and straightforward, and it is quite insightful to understand his journey better, some instances stand out- namely the adding of prefix ‘Lala’, his interactions with Maharaj of Patiala, the landmark tour of Australia in 1947-48, and his last series as player and captain against Pakistan in 1952-53.
The author gives good attention to some of the controversies surrounding him-dedicating fair length of the chapters to atleast provide a full perspective from Amarnath’s side. What stands out outside of these controversies is his all-round cricketing talent, excellent cricketing acumen and being a street-smart character. In the modern world, the closest comparison that can be made is with as a combination of Brendon McCullum as a batsman and captain, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar as a bowler and steeliness of Steve Waugh and Saurav Ganguly. It was a real pity that he couldn’t play international cricket in his prime years and with the divided loyalties of the players to the Maharajas, community, states- it must have been really hard to maintain a balanced outlook and unity- which is bound to create extreme opinions as is the case with Amarnath.
As a add-on, the book is embellished with great and archival pics from the family albums and newspapers, which are great to see (I love the cover pic).
A must-read for all Indian cricket lovers to re-visit a towering personality of Indian cricket before the modern era.
December 8, 2020
3.5/5 Lala Amarnath - Full-blooded, opinionated and supremely talented. While reading histories of Indian cricket, Lala Amarnath was described as such. I used to be surprised as to why his record didnt indicate the same ! One of the key reasons that I realised ofcourse is that he played in many unofficial tests and also lost a full decade 1936-1946 because of WW2 and some clashes with others.
While I marked it as to-read a while ago, I was wary of picking it up as it was written by his son. Avid readers know that Indian biographies are adulatory and the older ones can be especially dry. While this one too didnt discuss the faults and shortcomings of Lalaji, it was interesting to read and laced with anecdotes. Both his on-field and off-field careers were adequately covered and also gave an understanding of Indian cricket in those days.
On the negative side, it presumed a basic knowledge of the history of Indian cricket and so is not for some1 reading about the era for the first time. Secondly, his great colleagues - Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad and Vijay Merchant are hardly mentioned.
After reading a lot of ebooks for months in the lockdown, I am trying to read physical books which do not have an ebook edition and picked this one up with low expectations. Can be read keeping the above in mind.
While I marked it as to-read a while ago, I was wary of picking it up as it was written by his son. Avid readers know that Indian biographies are adulatory and the older ones can be especially dry. While this one too didnt discuss the faults and shortcomings of Lalaji, it was interesting to read and laced with anecdotes. Both his on-field and off-field careers were adequately covered and also gave an understanding of Indian cricket in those days.
On the negative side, it presumed a basic knowledge of the history of Indian cricket and so is not for some1 reading about the era for the first time. Secondly, his great colleagues - Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad and Vijay Merchant are hardly mentioned.
After reading a lot of ebooks for months in the lockdown, I am trying to read physical books which do not have an ebook edition and picked this one up with low expectations. Can be read keeping the above in mind.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews