Madhav Apte played seven Tests for India, all alongside Vijay Hazare. As a youngster and then as an opening batsman for India, Apte always looked up to Hazare. Here, he pays tribute to his former skipper; a man he never really got to know.
I played with Vijay Hazare as well as under him. He was our captain in the West Indies in 1953. Apart from that, I saw a lot of his batting in wartime in the Pentangulars, in the Ranji Trophy. Without any doubt he was one of the greatest batsmen of his time.
Hazare had sound defense, a flowing style and a range of strokes and enormous concentration that, I suppose, has to be necessary for those who play long innings. He had three triple hundreds in his career and many double hundreds. He was a great batsman.
A quiet gentleman, he was extremely unassuming and very reserved. Although we spent four-and-a-half months in the West Indies together I cannot remember any occasion when he would participate in any kind of conversation.
In those times, junior cricketers always held the seniors in awe. If I had to make a comparison, Hazare was obviously senior but so was Vinoo Mankad. But Mankad was more outgoing, you could joke with him, talk with him. Not with Hazare. One always held him in great awe. So in that sense one never really got very close to him.
He and I had almost a hundred run partnership in a game against Trinidad. I was batting 30 odd, tried to lift the ball, and was caught. As I was passing by all he said to me in typical Marathi was, "Kay Rao (What Rao), having batted so well to throw away your wicket like this?"
Anybody throwing away one's wicket was just not done. In Hazare's rule book lifting a ball was almost a sin. That was the game of that era.
He was a useful bowler. I wouldn't call him a great bowler and he wazs not the sharpest of fielders, but as far his batting went, the bat looked broader than most of the others.
He was a very fine gentleman; a man of few words and immaculately dressed. Anything that he did had to be perfect. Even his bat would be well polished at the end of the day's play, spotless when he went out to bat the following day. His dress would be extremely well ironed, no fancy colour trousers or that kind of thing. Everything was spic and span.
He was always helpful, although a little reserved. If you went up to him for any advice he would give it to you very gladly. In that sense, he was very helpful to the youngsters.
The times were different. This huddle, these team meetings; all that was not there. We would have just one meeting before the match started or probably one before the tour began where the team manager would do more talking than the captain himself.
The captain's instructions to the players would be restricted to on field activities. Or if he was batting at the other end and the other batsman did something wrong he would ask them to watch out.
He would always lead by example.
What would make the careers of people in that era greater than what they appear is that firstly there was no protective gear, which meant you were always at a physical danger. For Hazare to score two hundreds against the fastest of fast bowlers like (Ray) Lindwall and (Keith) Miller in those conditions had to be a class act. Also, wickets were uncovered and were not tailormade to suit the home team or doctored against the opposition.
You have to evaluate the careers of batsmen of that era from that point of view. Vijay Hazare must stand out.
Madhav Apte spoke to Cricket Correspondent Deepti Patwardhan in Mumbai.
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