Empire: World History - 311. Cricket In India: Beating The Brits At Their Own Game (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

How did Britain’s imperial game become so popular in India? Why were India’s princes the ‘nepo babies’ of cricket? How does the legacy of Partition continue to affect matches in India and Pakistan today?  Anita and William are joined once again by Tim Wigmore, author of Test Cricket: A History, as they unpack how a colonial sport grew to define a nation, mapping onto India’s historic and political tensions.  Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts  And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: [e-mail] Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Producer: Anouska Lewis Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnon. And me, William Durimple. Now, this is our second in our little mini series about Empire and cricket, and we've been looking at the way in which imperial politics sort of weaves in and out of the world of international test cricket. We had an absolute corker last time talking about the ashes, which is in full swing at the moment.

But now we're going to be talking about pre-partition India. So when we talk about India, we know, we know, we know that Pakistan and Bangladesh are test-playing nations. But when we talk about this, we're going to talk in the context of India for this. And once again, we are in the company of the brilliant Tim Wigmore, who has a, well, showing, the book, it's a lovely book. History of Test Cricket. It's called Test Cricket, so it does what it says on the tin. And it's, I mean, it's a brilliant, brilliant read, wonderful read. And it's also augmented so well with your entire encyclopedia of knowledge, Tim. So thanks very much for being with us. What we're here to talk about is India and Cricket. And if you want to gauge the passion that the subcontinent has for cricket, you need look no further than Bollywood's treatment of this period of history when India takes on England. It's a film called Lagarn. A film called Lacan? It is the legend.

The blockbuster called Lagan. You've been living in London too long. Listen, even in London, this was an absolute fever pitch moment. So Lagan, for those of you who may not have seen it, it's set in 1893 during the height of British colonial rule. And it's a little village called Champanair in central India. The villages are struggling under the heavy taxation land tax burden of Lagan. And they are being ground down.

by the British authorities. There's a particularly sadistic captain called Andrew Russell, and he keeps putting up the taxes and the villagers keep begging him, stop doing this. You're killing us. And the leader of the villages is Bhuvan, played by the marvellous Amir Khan, who is absolute Bollywood royalty. Let me tell you, anyone who watches Indian films will know that Amir Khan is right at, you know, the Mount Olympus of actors. And we're getting him on the podcast. Can you believe it? We're getting him on the podcast. Only we're for our club members. So if you want to listen to that exclusively on our club, it's Empirpodukuk.com. That's Empowerpoduk.com. Just click into that and you will get to see Amir Khan. You'll get

our newsletter. You'll get quick access and early access to miniseries. You know, if you loved him, who doesn't, you get to hear all of his three episodes in one go. Amir Khan's Bhavan challenges the British to a cricket match, which they don't know how to play, by the way. The villagers have no idea how to play it. And says, you know, if we beat you, you're going to cancel the taxation for three years. But the British say, if you lose, you have to play us three times as much. Now, this was an absolutely bonkers moment in cinema. Where did you watch it, Willie?

I guess you watched it in India, didn't you? I actually watched it near Piccadilly Circus, bizarre. Unexpected answer. Oh. There was a cinema that had it on for about seven years after it had sort of come out and played nothing like the mousetrap. I watched it in Hamslow with a completely Asian audience. And the popcorn throwing, honestly, every time a six was scored, it was like it was being scored in a match taking place in front of you. And people would stand up with a chaka, which is what people say in the crowds for a six.

Tim, did you watch it? I mean, was it a similar experience for you? Yeah, watched it with a few friends and a curry appropriately enough. And it was obviously very, very long in the best variety traditions, but completely worth the length. It's four hours, four hours, but gripping every minute. And there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with it at all. It was a compliment.

Let's talk about the origin story then of Indian cricket. I guess you have to take us all the way back to the 1700s. It was sort of more a beach game in the 1700s, wasn't it? And it's the first game thought to have been played in Gujarat. Am I right in saying that? Yeah. So the first game that we know about was played by British merchant sailors along the beachfront in Canbay. What do we know about this Canbe match?

Because it's the port area and it's near Andabai. I mean, that's such a strategic location. A British sailor talks about, so basically the boat was lying for a fortnight in a channel there. He writes in his diary, we every day diverse ourselves with playing cricket. So that was as far as we know, the first cricket played in India. And actually, in 1792, in Calcutta, the Calcutta Cricket Club is formed. And this is the oldest cricket club in the world outside England. So even older than any in Australia, which is on our previous episode.

The history is irarcably long. Before we talked about cricket as a kind of window into empire and how things were. And I think the first formal cricket match shows that really well. So this is played in Calcutta again in 1804 and the two teams are Aldertonian civil servants versus other civil servants. Okay. So the Toffs and they're not so common, but commoner team playing against each other. There's a fabulous image from 1859 from the Calcutta Cricket Club. It could be an Oxford or Cambridge picture of, you know, sort of people sort of lounging by a people tree.

it looks like all moustachioed and pith helmeted in the best clothes it looks like. This was a game for Europeans. I mean, it wasn't anything involving the locals at all in any way, was it? So that was initially the case. The first Indian community that get on board with cricket is the party community. Who were the most anglicised and anglophile of all the Indian communities. And very much concentrated in coastal areas. Yeah, between Gujarat and Bombay, exactly.

So the parties become hugely important in the development. of Indian cricket. And the first Parsi club is formed in Bombay in 1848. And this is again thought to be the first club for Indian people in India. And actually what happens in 1877, the Parsies challenge the Bombay Jim Kana, which is the Premier British Only Club, to a match. And this becomes a regular affair where the Parsis will play the British. It represents the start of Europeans playing Indians in cricket. The Parsons club was called the Oriental Cricket Club. Were they any good? They are good. And so obviously the Bombay, Jim Kana, they assume, will just pulverize them win easily. In fact, you know, the first game is a draw,

and the game's become really evenly contested. And this game has played reginal until 1906. The parties win 11 and the Europeans only 10. So in fact, the parties are more than holding their own. This leads to really the formative early competition in Indian cricket, which is a trying in the tournament initially, but it expands and expands. So this is played in Bombay between different communities. The first few teams are Europeans and the Parsis. And then from 1907, you have a Hindu team invited. Then from 1912, you have a Muslim team invited. And then eventually in 1937, you have the rest, which includes Sikhs and Indian Christians. Let's just sort of hang back with the parisies just a little while longer. Because as

Willie said, you know, sort of the most westernised of all Indians. And they did business. They went to school and learned English. They understood about English manners. The community that produced Freddie Mercury, among others. Indeed. When they arrive in England in 1877 and they open their first matches at Sheffield Park, and then they have a game at Lords, the home of the Marlaban Cricket Club, the MCC. The Parsis are almost reverential about even being there. So there's a dinner.

I love this story. There's a dinner on the eve of their departure. And Sir Faroes Sharmeta, who is a noted political leader and is part of this parcy contingent that is playing cricket in England. He says, I'll read the quote. Artists go to Italy to do homage to the great masters, as pilgrims go to Jerusalem to worship at a shrine. So now the Parsis are going to England to do homage to the English cricketers, to learn something at that noble and manly pastime in the very country, which is its chosen home. Such a posse quote that is brilliant.

But the British press liked them. They said these were the best of all Indians, didn't they? I mean, there was a lot of positive feedback that came back with these Parcy tours. Absolutely. There's not a sense of communities being in opposition to each other. It's very much a sense of being united through cricket. For most people in England, it's the first experience they would have ever had of Indian people, those party tours. But how interesting that the rest of Indian cricket is on communal lines. It's anywhere else in the world where games are played only between religious communities. It's a weird thing. You don't get sort of Christian football matches and Muslim teams and Hindu teams. But are you doing the cricket at this period? That's right. The amazing amount these tournaments, and they're actually mirrored. You get some in karate as well, but Bombay very much remains the premier place. You get cricketers who travel from all around the subcontinent to go and play in these matches. And they're incredibly well supported and prestigious. And the lack of communalism is really striking. So it's a famous game in 1944 and the Muslims beat the Hindus in a very close final in Mumbai. It said that everybody, including all the Hindu crowds, they're all cheering the Muslims at the end. People attach a huge. importance to these matches. So with Jinnah and Gandhi, they are very aware of these matches and they attach very important to them. So with Jinnah, he's very happy about relations he sees

in these communal matches. Pentangler, as it is by then, because it's got five teams by then. So it's called the pentangular game, just to stress that, is that right? It develops. As you get more teams, it becomes a triangular, then a quadrangler, than a pentangler when you get the rest to include the seats and the Christians from 1937. One thing that strikes me, though, is that again, sort of the other ring of the parties that goes on, You know, they're not real Indians. They're not really like the rest. There's a quote in one cricket publication that talks about the Paracy's saying the

Parcy fraternity is the most intelligent as well as the most loyal of the races scattered over our possessions, it says. So there's still very much sort of like a respect for the Parcy teams, but the rest are still regarded as somewhat, you know, less than. Yeah, that's right. And we see, so the first or India tour, as opposed to distinctly Parcy tours in India's in 1911 and that is dominated by Parsley. You have seven Parsis, five Hindus and three Muslims. But within that, there is an amazing diversity of players in the team. So Powankabalu is the star player

and he is a Dalit. Those are the former untouchables. Yeah, he's an incredible player and he's, you know, the absolute star of the tour. It sort of is accessible to players from a wide range, but really the vast majority are from the more privileged groups, groups for sure. Well, I want to talk about Baloo more in a second, but I also want to talk about Gandhi, because you mentioned Nero and Jinnah being great fans of, you know, when the pentangular happened and talking about no communal tensions, but Gandhi was opposed to them from the very beginning

because he thought actually dividing these cricket teams along communal lines or according to their religion was just harmful and it was another way of dividing up the country. And Baloo was a really interesting character. because although, you know, he, as you say, was born of the untouchable Chamaar cast, as it was then known, you know, his father was a seapoy in the 112th Infantry Regiment of the British Indian Army. And I love the story about how his life was transformed and how cricket came into his life, because this wasn't a time. Cricket's still sort of quite young.

People might play it, but not the way they do if you go to India now, where every street or every gully you'll see some really quite, you know, tasty bowling and batting going on amongst young people at a scale that I've seen very little in other countries. Everybody plays it. But there is a man called J.G. Greg, who comes into Baloo's life. Now, do you know much about J.G. Greg? Because he's the one who sort of notices that Baloo isn't just one of these kids who's just playing for fun, but he's playing with real talent. Tell us a bit about that relationship.

Yeah. So he begins, as a kind of bowler in the nets, and he notices that this guy hasn't amazing amount of talent. He sponsors him because he's a groundsman in a club in Pune. Ballou is he's looking after the Parsi Grounds. That's right. He's sort of cleaning up, right? Then out of that, Greg supports him and actually helps to get him to play and not just be

a net bowler. Isn't there an even more cute story where, you know, he sees Baloo playing in the nets and he thinks that he's pretty good. And he says, you know what, I'll give you eight honors every time you can. can dismiss me in the nets. If you, if you can get the better of me, I'll give you eight honors. And that's where he sort of starts him on almost sort of an unofficial training regime in the nets that, you know, eight honors will mean a lot to someone like Baloo. And so then he sees that he's very, very talented and decides then to take him on. Yeah. So then everyone actually starts

to take him seriously. So in 1896, when he would have been 20, he moves to Bombay and plays for the Hindu Jim Kana Club. And then he gets insisting in Mumbai. Bombay is basically where you go to make your fortune as a cricketer. As happens today, you know, in a whole variety of ways still. It's the setting for slumdog millionaire, all these kids arriving in the big city and finding their way. But poor old Balu is not treated well, despite being the star of the team. He's made to eat apart and drink apart and be a part, isn't he? Yeah, because as a dallet, he suffers all those prejudices.

And his cricket ability is relevant when he's on the pitch, but not often. And actually even on the pitch, being Dalit is still very relevant. So for this tour to India in 1911, you know, based on cricketing merit, he should have been the captain. But of course, he's not picked as the captain because he's not the sort of person that India wants to be captain. And we talked about how England on the previous episode, they want the right sort of person as they see it to be captain. The same is true of India as well. And so instead, India pick their captain is a prince who travels five servants. So that is the range of the Indian team then in 1911.

I mean, is the prince with the servants any good at cricket? Or is he, you know, like you were talking about with the England team, sometimes where the cricketer didn't even deserve a place on the team? Is that the same case with the Indian team? Yeah, he's not great at cricket, but India do later pick some much worse people to be captain, which we can talk about later if we like. Got a picture of Baloo, and he's quite a dressy character. It's not like he's sort of some sort of cowering figure.

Boy, he looks like a movie star. And his cricket ability is the catalyst for his amazing kind of post-playing career. He becomes prominent in politics, to the campaigner for Dalit rights. So cricket actually gives him a visibility, which he then uses for other purposes. And in a way, he wouldn't have been good at cricket. He wouldn't have had his political career at all.

Yeah, I mean, just a little in a nutshell, and we can maybe do this in greater detail in a future podcast. He's, first of all, very, very good friends with Babasab, Mbibke, who is sort of the leader of Dalit rights in India. And they are very close. And, you know, Ambikka sees a great poster boy in Pavanka, Baloo, and thinks, you know, this is going to be the thing that changes everything, that this is the best man on the side, even when the side does tragically badly as it did in 1911, he's the one who shines out.

They go along together, but then they fall out with each other. And it's a dramatic falling out, which is only kind of resolved during the funeral of one. But tell us about another name. When you talk about Indian cricket, you cannot not talk about Ranji Singh. And Ranji Singh, I mean, there's a trophy in his name. If you look at pictures, just Google him. This is like every inch a royal, an Indian royal, in, you know, the pearl bedecked headdress and blazoned silk turban and costume.

You know, he looks royal, he is royal. And he's another Trinity man. He also went to Trinity College, Cambridge, very important. Yes, Ranji, he is the son of a village farmer, but he's adopted as an heir by the Jam Seib of an Indian stateler. So he's kind of not official royalty, but effectively he is royalty. And Jam-Sab, Willie, I mean, how would you define a jam-sab? It's like a noble or a sort of a noble in the kingdom, isn't it?

Exactly. Not exactly the prince or the Maharaja, but somebody who's right up there is a jam-sub. It's still pretty posh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so the jam-sab adopts him. So he's got now, you know, sort of a better lineage. And then what happens to him? Well, he moves to England.

He goes to Trinity College in Cambridge to study, and there he plays cricket. obsessively and he is seen as this very kind of mythical figure. I think, you know, from the East he's seen as, he's gives him some exoticism. He adds to this through the way he plays. So he's a revolutionary. He, he kind of invents or he's popularizes the leg glance, which is basically a flick, a flick you play to the leg side. And it's a very elegant shot. What does that mean for us non-cricoters? Normally, if the ball is outside, you're off-stump. You'd hit it to the off-side in the direction of the ball and he's hitting it in the other direction. So he basically kind of reimagines the geometry of the field. He opens up these new corners the way he plays.

Did he want to translate that for me? Well, yes. He flicks it in a way you wouldn't expect, Willie. That's all you need to know. Okay, got that. Flicks it in a very beautiful, elegant way where you wouldn't expect it to go. But that's his reinvention and elegance. And people talk about the elegance of his play. I think it's the Guardian journalist, Neville Cardus calls him the Midsummer Night's Dream of Cricket. And I'm not. I'm not even sure I know what that means, but I think it's a good thing. I think it's a compliment, right? Sort of like Tatiana and Oberon, you know, the royals in this kind of dreamy world. He's pit for England in 1996. He makes his debut and he does very, very well for England in the

Astros and stuff. He is, he is, in Matt Nighthung is maybe the best player, the best batsman in the whole world. But he basically has to end up, you know, retiring early to become the Maharaj as a four-time gig. but he gives his name to the Ranji Trophy, which is Lord's India in 1934, and is actually the first kind of major non-communal competition in India, even though the pentangler is still more prestigious. You said he was picked for the side. We should give a date to that, this 1896, and he plays at Old Trafford. He hadn't been picked to play at Lords. Is there politics involved in that? You know, you can't have a brown fella playing at Lords, or am I just imagining that? No, that's absolutely right. I mean, there's politics throughout. It's great. So he's, yeah, there's, the home ground has a say in who is picked.

And people at Lord, they do not seem to want Ranji to be picked. And actually, you get this reoccurring figure, which you'll know a lot about Lord Harris. Oh, tell us about Lord Harris. Now, that's a good character to discuss. Tell us all about Lord Harris. Who's he? So Lord Harris, yeah, he's born in Trinidad. He's the fourth Baron Harris.

He goes on to play test cricket for England in the ashes as an amateur, of course. His father is governor of Trinidad. He goes to Eton himself. He then, you know, becomes this sort of incredibly senior figure in the running of English cricket, including selection. And despite being born in Trinidad himself, he opposed what he calls are birds of a different feather to play for England. He then, of course, becomes God of Bombay. and he makes a famous prediction in 1921 just talking about the prospects for Indian cricket

and he's very dismissive and he says notwithstanding their multitudes I doubt if they are going to turn out a team of all India as good the best of our county clubs So there are tours of South Africa aren't there and South Africa even at this stage pre-apartheid is famously racially divided Yeah and the basis

South African board they basically put pressure on England not to select Ranji So even though on merit, Ranji should easily be in the team, he's not selected to tour in 1998 or 1902 to South Africa. South Africa make it clear by, you know, unofficial channels that they only want to play against white players

and England adhered to that. England, very close things with South Africa at this time, and they, yeah, they basically adhere to that. This is the same period that Rahmogandhi's being thrown off his train at Pete Merricksburg and this sort of thing, isn't it? Things are very tense at that time. Absolutely. And so Ranji is, yeah, he's just, he's not selected.

So he plays 15 times for England as an average of 45, which is really exceptional for that era. But he would have played a lot more, but for the racial politics, and I suppose for his own. Principally duties as well also a factor in that. When you have India playing England, politics is going to creep into this, isn't it? And I just wonder when the nationalist movement starts to gain momentum. So we're talking particularly in the 1930s where a lot of nationalist leaders are being pulled in and put in prison. How does that impact cricket and the way people are attending matches or being selected for matches or indeed turning up to watch matches? Yeah, so of course the first big question, will India be allowed to become a test nation and gain test status?

Because before you have England, Australia, South Africa, all white nations. But in fact, 1928, India do become a test nation. Their first tour, their first series is planned for 1930, 31 against England. but in fact, the tour is cancelled because of the civil civil disobedience campaign in India. So politics, again, is encroaching from the very start. And then India, they do tour England in 1932, which will be their first ever series of test matches, but three of their players withdraw from the tour in protest at the imprisonment of Gandhi at the time. Several Indian players are very, I think they're very conscious that to be sharing a pitch with England,

And in a way, could be to kind of give tacit consent to British rule. So this dynamic really, it plays out right from the start of Indian test cricket. This sort of, you know, the fact that so many are withdrawing and not cooperating with cricket because they see it as a political statement leads to the era. Shall we call it the era the nepo baby? Yeah, I think it is a nepo baby era. We can call it that. I mean, describe why is the era of the nepo babies.

It's cringe, but who gets to play instead? So we talked about with England the sort of social kudos that's attached to the captaincy. Well, that is even more so the case in India. So it's almost like you have a conversation about who you pick in your squad. And then you have a separate parallel conversation about who should be captain that's not even related to cricket ability at all. So the first tour during the 1932, and then you're obsessed with the question of who will be captain. And so you have the Maharaj of Patiala is initially, he's initially appointed as captain,

And basically because he offers to underwrite and pay for the whole tour and organise all these trials. He pulls out because of ill health. Well, he was quite a fat man. I mean, he was like that. This is a bit of a theme as well at this time of captains. Yeah. Then you have the Maharaj Kumar of Visina Graham, who had donated 50,000 rupees for the tour. He had pulled out before already, which leaves, you know, a kind of vacancy for a third candidate.

And this is the Maharaj of Paul Panda, who is very enthusiastic at cricket, as we all are. he's also very bad at playing cricket. As most of us are. As most of us are as well. So he plays four matches on this. This is the most incredible kind of fact that is actually true. It sounds made up. But he plays four matches on this tour and he scores only two runs in these four matches.

But he buys three Rolls Royces on this tour. And so therefore it's famously said he leaves with more Rolls Royces than he does runs. So he is as a kind of embodiment of the kind of amateur. to captain, he is perfect. The only thing in his credit is he has a little bit of self-awareness, and by that, I mean, he's the

kind of ceremonial captain, he's the guy at all the cocktail parties, and he plays against the county teams, but he doesn't play in the actual test matches because he recognises that he is so inept that he shouldn't. Bit rubbish. Yeah, but he has those Rolls Royces. He can probably drive them during the test matches rather than play. I think he'll drive his own Rose Royce.

Yeah, that's true. He'll be drove, yeah. And then in 36, England's ear, India's next. India's next saws at England, they again have the same question. And this time they go for Marraaj Kuma, Visinagram, who had been in the running in 32. He brings two servants and 36 items of personal luggage to England. And this time, unlike Paul Bander, he does insist on actually playing. So basically in cricket, your specialist bats and bat in the top six positions and your bowl is below that. But Visinaagram, because he can't, he can't bowl and he can't really bat. So he becomes a specialist it's number nine, which is a new position really. You might get that as the last player who you

pick in the village team. And he averages eight, which is pretty, pretty appalling. And he plays all three matches. So you have this kind of perverse situation where India are quite a weak team anyway. And then they are weakling themselves by being nowhere near at full strength by picking these people who are completely ill-suited to be the captain. It doesn't sort of shore up the image of, you know, these birds of a different feather being able to play cricket. It sort of proves Lord Harris right in many ways. So that's... That is the embarrassing golden age of cricket when, you know, gold mattered. We're going to take a break here.

Join us after the break when we come back with one of the most seismic episodes in politics in the Indian subcontinent. And we talk about how that affected cricket. Join us then. Welcome back. So we're now in 1947 and India is about to be split into and Britain is about to divide and quit. how does this affect cricket Tim and how does it affect cricketers particularly Fazal Mahmoud and Kotari Naudu? So the Fazumamamud story is really incredible.

So he's a Muslim footballer from Lahul. Context is there's an India tour of Australia coming up in that winter. India haven't toured Australia before and it's a huge, huge deal for them. He's desperate to be on that tour and he's so sort of single-mindly focused on this. He's oblivious to the politics that's actually happening at the same time. There's basically a touring camp is, is, uh, plan for Punei on 15th of August. Of course, this is the same date as partition.

But people don't know. That's the thing, because people don't know about the date. So we've talked about this with partition before. You know that people did not know which side they would be on. Their new partition was coming. They didn't know the date it would be happening. They didn't know which side they would be on. They didn't know the four boundaries yet.

They knew nothing of these things. So of course, you know, if in the cricketing calendar, they've got this camp, training camp that's scheduled. Nobody knows. That's actually going to be one of the bloodiest days. in history. That's what's planned. It's going to be Tim and all India side because, you know, why not? Yeah, and we should actually say India in the 30s, they have Muslim players. It's a team that's picked on merit, really. Yeah, absolutely non-segregated. So Hindu Sikhs and Muslims, all in one

team. So this is a team, 16-member cricket squad that's selected months in advance. Yeah, which was the norm because you have to plan your arrangements and everything. So Faisal on 14th of August, you know, 947. Well, millions are passing through the border. Bullet carts are rumbling. Muslims going the other direction to Lahul, but he undertakes this incredible 1,000-mile journey where he basically goes through Punjab, Karachi, then he flies to Bombay, and then he gets a train to Pune.

He's going kind of against the grain into history. And is he somebody who is, you know, an instantly familiar figure like an Indian cricketer today? I mean, is he someone who will arrive at a station and the whole station will stop stop the massacre and go and get his autograph or not? He's not at this point. He's not, no, it's not a thing that everyone would know and people can tell he's Muslim.

I mean, they can tell if he says his name. But what you have at this point in time is that you have people being stopped appallingly on trains and being asked what their name is and sometimes being asked to prove that they haven't been circumcised or they have been circumcised to prove what nationality they are. Or what faith they are, rather. And he's caught up in that violent thugs. who are out for blood set upon him when they believe that he's a Muslim, just a bit of background

on that. And then who steps in to save him, Tim, because it's gorgeous. So we should say he gets to this, he gets to this training camp and there's a monsoon. And so he's not even, there's not, the practices cancelled, kind of regardless of the political situation. But actually, it's on the way back that he almost dies. He's getting the train, but he's from Puno to Bombay, but he gets to train with. Qatari Nairdu, the Indian cricketer and a Hindu, and Faisal, people find out, he's being attacked, and Nadi literally defends and keeps Faisal alive with his cricket bat. He just swings at them with a bat. I mean, it's amazing.

It's incredible. And obviously, cricket back, you can do a lot of damage, but yeah, it's incredible. Is there a movie about this? No, but there should be. It's such a gorgeous story. There's another moment when a station master gives him a Sikh symbol, the Kada, to try and show that he's a Sikh, because he's obviously North Indian, if he's in Puna. People can tell by how tall he is and how fair he is that he's North Indian. But they don't know whether he's Punjabi Sikh or Hindu. So he's given this Sikh symbol.

And the two things between Qatari and I do and the Sikh symbol, he survives. He survives and he's safe. After partition, you know, what will happen is that you will have people who play cricket on the same side who were teammates who, you know, battled together shoulder to shoulder, who will find themselves on opposing teams. And there's also going to be a lot of speculation about which team will be stronger as a result of this. There was a lot of stuff said about diet

and who could do what because of what they ate after partition. Just talk us through a little bit of that because I find that fascinating. So in the 1930s, when India are starting out in test cricket, they have some very good fast bowlers. They're Muslim fast bowlers. From very soon after partition, so the first, I could find in 1952, VJ Merchant, one of India's finest players, but a batsman, he says,

He says, he says, you know, the tragedy of partition is it's to deprive India of their fast bowling stocks. He says, you know, India often relied for fast bowling on the North Indian people because of their height and physique are better equipped for this kind of bowling than the crickters of central or south India. Now the supply, the source of supply has ceased. So it becomes almost a self-perpetuating thing that India, without access to people who are now in Pakistan, they can't get the fast bowlers. I heard they went even further than that, that you can't expect a fast bowler to come from India because they're all vegetarian. And it's the meat eaters who have the strength and the speed. I mean, is that the kind of guff that was flying around at the time?

Absolutely. It becomes self-preferating and that India kind of stops trying to produce fast bowlers and then adopts this strategy of having lots of spinballs, which becomes the character of Indian cricket. But this was actually, it was always dead Indian cricket, but it wasn't as much a part of it before partitioned as afterwards. Explain to me why someone could be a spinboiler but not a fast bowler because they're vegetarian or meat eat. I don't get this. Well, it's about strength. It's about strength and muscle, isn't it, Tim?

I mean, that's what it comes down to. Say you're a top cricketer. People would probably assume you're a spin bowler rather than a fastball. Is that? Am I meant to take... It's not an insult. Spinballs are the great thinkers. The understanding that I have growing up with a dad who was mad about cricket, absolutely mad about cricket,

is that spin bowlers were the chess players, that they thought about where they were placing the board. and they could place the ball with such accuracy and play tactically, whereas the fast bowlers fired cannons at the batsman. They were just too quick, like lightning speed and really hard. You had a real job as a batsman, both deadly in their own way. But India at this point sort of goes down, interestingly, the spin bowling route, and Pakistan sticks with pace. Is that true today?

You still have the Royal Pindy Express, I remember. What was his name? Sherbahtar. I mean, to fast-word massively, but in your last... this century have actually on earth a really great soccer fast bowlers, and that has led India to become much more effective than they were historically. But Pakistan, until 2000, do a lot better than India in test cricket, and they have these fastballs, India doesn't really in the same way. So it's remarkable how long this image, it's true in terms of what we see on the field.

And I think there is a sense of perception becomes a reality. If you tell people that India can produce fast balls and young kids who are going to cricket think, I'm not going to be a fastballer. Yeah, and it just carries on. When I first arrived in Delhi, there was a very handsome figure on the party circuit called Tiger Potodi, who was the nob of Potodi. And he was married to the equally glamorous Shumila Tagore, who was one of the very first Indian women to wear bikinis on early films water skiing in the 1950s. And it's still very much around. And she's still impossibly beautiful.

I mean, really. These were very much the idols of Indian cricket in the kind of 1960s, weren't they? Tell us more about Tiger Potoldi. So, yeah, for those who don't know, what was he good at? How important was he to the Indian side? Yeah, so he's this legendary, legendary figure. The eye story is that he's 21. He's driving with teammates down in Sussex.

People in the car get out 200 metres away from where they're dropping off. And he says, I'll just stay in. I can't be able to have a walk. And then there's a car crash. He loses one eye. So he, and he's this incredibly talented batsman. And yet with one eye, he's suddenly. to forge a very good career as a test cricketer. And some people think, had he maintained

both eyes fully, he could have been one of the absolute stellar, stellar greats of all time as a cricketer. We talked about the sort of nepo babies of the 1930s. Well, he has that background, but he actually has cricketing pedigree as well. But he grows up in a palace with 150 rooms. The family have over 100 servants. You know, seven or eight personal servants from childhood. and he is a chat with Ian Chappell, who's the very kind of rugged Australian captain at one point when Chappell's like, but what do you,

because this is an era when there's not really fully, fully professional players outside England. So Chappel says, but what's your job? What do you actually do? And he just says, Ian, I'm a bloody print.

And that shuts up, Chappell. But Todd, he's not shy about flouting his credentials. So he throw once. He arrives and he's asked, who can vouch for you? The ultimate kind of mic drop moment. He just says, The Queen.

The Queen. Ask the Queen. Yes, she'll know me. And of course, yeah, his father's played for both England in that Body Lion series we talked about before in the previous episode and then as Captain India in 1944 as well. So he's this charismatic figure. He's a Muslim captain as well, which is interesting dynamic too. Little side story to bring the beginning of this story in the end together.

It was at that same palace, which he had 100 servants in, that Amir Khan filmed his next film after Lagarde, which was Mungal Pundi, starring the Yars. Sam Durimple then aged about four to four. We played it, had a small role as Rani Mukaji's son. And just finally, before we wrap this all up, where do India and Pakistan stand now when it comes to test cricket, and particularly when they face each other? Is there something going on there? Yeah, India, Pakistan are not currently playing against each other because the last test was in 2007. This is obviously called often the Asian ashes and bigger than the ashes and stuff. But I think the cricket, the test cricket that's played between the countries have been very, very dull and attritional.

and basically there's this fear of defeat has marked these games. So, you know, in all test cricket history, 30% of matches are drawn. India, Pakistan, it's 64%. You know, at one point there's 15 draws in 16 in the 1980s, and captains are just always sat half series unless they win. And the kind of fear of defeat has been the kind of driving force more than the sense of chasing victory. It was always said that Imran Khan got his job as Prime Minister, wasn't it really,

because he was the only person that defeated India in a test. There are few other, but it was, yeah, he did very, very well against India. 82, and you could hear the... Yeah, 82, he did an legendary performance against India in 82, that's right. And you could hear the roar of victories, sort of 30 miles into India was the story. So loud was the exclamation from Lahore. That's really interesting that neither side wants to take on the hatred of their own nation when they go back if they lose to the other country, so they play to a draw.

And they've both got that weighing on them. If you prepare a certain type of wicket of pitch, it's harder to get to get batsmen out and it encourages a safe cricket. And both countries would prepare these. Until 1992, you don't have neutral umpars in test matches. And players from both sides say that the umpars are biased against them. So you go to India, it's an Indian umpire. If you go to Pakistan, it's Pakistani umpah. So with Jared Miandad, he is a great Pakistani batsman.

So normally the LBW rule is if you're hit on the leg in front of the stumps, you're giving out LBW. but he thinks the umpires are so biased that if he's hit on the leg anywhere, regardless of where the stomps are, he'll be giving at LBW. So before going to India, he practices without pads. Basically, because he's saying, I can't be hit on the leg, so I'll be given out. So it actually impacts how the players play as well, and there's this fear of defeat as well. So the politics is there massively,

and there's this incredible bit of history where the first visit that Jinnah's daughter ever makes to Pakistan is in 2004 for India v. Pakistan cricket match. There's so many interesting stories. And, you know, there's a story of Lathamangeshka, who is the songbird of India, choosing her flat because it had a view over Lord's Cricket Ground because she was such a crazy cricket fan. And we could go on and on. It's been an absolute delight. Tim's book is called Test Cricket A History. It's out right now.

Paperback's coming out pretty soon. Get it for Christmas present before. Get it for a Christmas present. If you're with the club, you'll meet Tim again. And if not, it's been so great at having you. Till the next time we meet is goodbye from me, Anita Arnan. And goodbye from me, William Drupal. Thanks.