Ramachandra Guha is one of India's leading historians. He is also one of India's finest writers on cricket. His books include Wickets in the East; he also edited The Picador Book of Cricket.
Senior Correspondent Ashish Magotra spoke to the Bangalore-based writer in an attempt to put into perspective what Vijay Hazare, one of India's greatest batsmen, meant to Indian cricket.
When you think about Vijay Hazare, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
The quality of his batsmanship and that of his character. I think we should remember both. A life lived with dignity and grace and also a cricketing career studded with great achievements.
They used to say Hazare was technically very correct as a batsman. Even more so than Rahul Dravid...
It's difficult to compare people across eras, especially so across such different eras. Dravid is playing 60 years after Hazare. But he was very correct, he was very orthodox, he could play all round the wicket, he could build innings and he was particularly good at playing long innings.
He had fantastic concentration and it can be said that if there is any cricketer who is in the Vijay Hazare mould then it is perhaps Dravid today and Vijay Manjrekar in between.
One of Hazare's great innings was the one in which he scored a triple hundred in his side's total of 387. Could you tell us a bit about that innings?
That innings was played during the second World War in the Bombay Pentangular for the Rest of India when he scored 309 not out out of 387. Probably in the history of international first class cricket no single batsman has dominated an innings like that. The rest was a very ordinary team apart from Hazare it had virtually no one of repute in comparison of the Hindus and Parsis, who were the really strong teams.
That was, of course, one of Hazare's great innings. Of course, he had other great innings to his credit -- his hundred in each innings against Australia at Adelaide in 1947/1948, his hundred against England in 1952 and many hundreds in unofficial Tests against Commonwealth teams. So he had a very good record extending over a period of 10-15 years.
Hazare's rivalry with Vijay Merchant is legendary. Was it just a case of two batsmen trying to prove who is the greater batsman?
I think not too much should be made of the rivalry. It happened because during the war when Test cricket was in abeyance and the Ranji Trophy hadn't really developed very much, the major tournament in the country was the Bombay Pentagular where Merchant played for the Hindus and Hazare played for the Rest.
It so happened that there was a period of time when Merchant set a record and Hazare broke it. Then, Merchant broke Hazare's record and Hazare broke Merchant's record in turn. So it was rivalry that was built up by the press and the press likes to build up rivalries. I think the fact that there was no Test cricket during that period lent these records a certain bit of competitive edge.
But it should also be said for Hazare as indeed for his great contemporaries Vinoo Mankad and Vijay Merchant that they lost six years of their career to the War. I mean, in any assessment of Hazare's record one must recognise that his best years were spent playing first class cricket and not Test cricket for no fault of his own. If he had been playing Test cricket between 1939 and 1945, I have no doubt that his record would have been even greater.
Where would you place Hazare among the best batsmen that India has produced?
He would be right there in the top seven or eight. In the middle-order there would be Dravid, G R Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Vijay Manjrekar. I'd say along with Vishwanath and Dravid, Hazare would be our finest middle order batsman not forgetting the sublime talents of Sachin Tendulkar, who is in a different league altogether.
And let's not forget, that unlike some of the others he was also a decent medium-pace bowler. In fact, he even got Bradman out in a Test match. He had a reasonable record as a bowler too. He was coached by Clarrie Grimmet (the great Australian leg-spinner who was the first to take 200 wickets in Test cricket) in 1938. He used to basically bowl off-cutters and Grimmet taught him how to bowl the leg-cutter.
They said of Hazare that he was stoic, rather quiet individual...
He was a man of great dignity and charm. I met him when he was very old. I went to Baroda to meet him and as always he carried himself with great dignity. In that sense, it is nice to think of him alongside Vishwanath and Dravid. He was a very self-effacing, quiet, dignified human being. And I think he ennobled the game as much with his character as with his batsmanship.
