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Pankaj: Bengal's Forgotten Cricket Legend
A biography of India cricket star Pankaj Roy.
'... Pankaj Roy lived in an era where everything was not covered by the media ... this book is really special as it will be a nice insight into the struggles he went through, the kind of cricket he played, the thinking that he had ...' - Mahendra Singh Dhoni
'I found the book unbelievably good and finished it almost in one reading.' - Manna De
'My misfortune I have never seen Pankaj Roy play. I believe this book will fulfil that yearning.'
- Sachin Tendulkar
'... Pankaj Roy lived in an era where everything was not covered by the media ... this book is really special as it will be a nice insight into the struggles he went through, the kind of cricket he played, the thinking that he had ...' - Mahendra Singh Dhoni
'I found the book unbelievably good and finished it almost in one reading.' - Manna De
'My misfortune I have never seen Pankaj Roy play. I believe this book will fulfil that yearning.'
- Sachin Tendulkar
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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October 1, 2021
Asked to comment just before this book was published, Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar stated, 'My misfortune I have never seen Pankaj Roy play.' Well, I was luckier than Sachin as I saw Pankaj play for one full season when I was a boy when he was professional at my club, Blackpool. And that was the reason for acquiring this book as I have always felt that Pankaj had been undervalued in cricketing terms.
Author Gautam Bhattacharya sets out to prove this point and he does to a degree but it is without doubt the most bizarre cricket book that I have read. It flits about all over the place and there is far too much reference to the modern game and writing of modern day players rather than concentrating on Pankaj's career and his achievements. That is not to say that it does not do that, yes, it does but the thread is well interrupted by the stream of other more modern material.
Many cricketing aficionados will remember or recall Pankaj for his infamous Test series against England in 1952 when Fred Trueman was his nemesis. Pankaj had the misfortune to acquire five ducks in his seven innings in the series (making 19 and 35 in the other two innings) and this after scoring two centuries in his debut series of 1951/52 against Nigel Howard's MCC team.
His breakthrough in Indian cricket had him labelled as the newest discovery in Indian cricket and as a Bengali this was a little surprising to many; he was even regarded as a monument of Bengal's pride at the national level. The reason for this surprise was that politics had always played a part in Indian cricket and players from the east seemed to be less favoured; the author spends considerable time on this topic throughout the book and gives many examples of players who could perhaps have become Test players had they been from other parts of India.
Despite his problems in England in 1952, Pankaj continued to play Test cricket and at Chennai in January 1956 he shared a world record opening partnership with Vinoo Mankad (another player I was lucky enough to see - but only on one occasion). The pair put on 413, to which Pankaj's contribution was 173. And on the 1959 Indian tour of England (when I was lucky enough to catch up with him again), he captained the Test side at Lord's when the regular skipper, D K Gaekwad, was injured. Unfortunately in the second innings that man Trueman appeared again and had him caught by Peter May at slip for another duck!
Pankaj's first-class career continued until 1968 by which time he had scored 33 centuries and amassed almost 12,000 runs. And although his Test career was interspersed with those ducks, over the span of his entire career, only Farokh Engineer as an opening batsman in the Indian Test side managed to score more runs than him (2,611 to 2,442) but even then it was at a lesser average (31.08 to 32.56).
There are plenty of anecdotes and reminiscences from former players in the book and Gautam Bhattacharya has done Indian cricket a good service by recording Pankaj's life and deeds but perhaps the book would have been more pertinent had it been confined to the man himself. However, he has left us with an abiding memory and fitting tribute to Pankaj in that he '... on his own knowingly or unknowingly, changed the entire outlook of Bengal cricket'. This latter fact is something that another Indian cricketing hero from Bengal, Sourav Ganguly, acknowledges in a concise and fitting foreword.
To finish the book off there is a lovely afterword by Pankaj's son Pranab Roy (also a Test cricketer) who saw his father as filling his life with good fortune and who sees the book as 'an offering of my love, respect and gratitude towards my father, my guru'.
Author Gautam Bhattacharya sets out to prove this point and he does to a degree but it is without doubt the most bizarre cricket book that I have read. It flits about all over the place and there is far too much reference to the modern game and writing of modern day players rather than concentrating on Pankaj's career and his achievements. That is not to say that it does not do that, yes, it does but the thread is well interrupted by the stream of other more modern material.
Many cricketing aficionados will remember or recall Pankaj for his infamous Test series against England in 1952 when Fred Trueman was his nemesis. Pankaj had the misfortune to acquire five ducks in his seven innings in the series (making 19 and 35 in the other two innings) and this after scoring two centuries in his debut series of 1951/52 against Nigel Howard's MCC team.
His breakthrough in Indian cricket had him labelled as the newest discovery in Indian cricket and as a Bengali this was a little surprising to many; he was even regarded as a monument of Bengal's pride at the national level. The reason for this surprise was that politics had always played a part in Indian cricket and players from the east seemed to be less favoured; the author spends considerable time on this topic throughout the book and gives many examples of players who could perhaps have become Test players had they been from other parts of India.
Despite his problems in England in 1952, Pankaj continued to play Test cricket and at Chennai in January 1956 he shared a world record opening partnership with Vinoo Mankad (another player I was lucky enough to see - but only on one occasion). The pair put on 413, to which Pankaj's contribution was 173. And on the 1959 Indian tour of England (when I was lucky enough to catch up with him again), he captained the Test side at Lord's when the regular skipper, D K Gaekwad, was injured. Unfortunately in the second innings that man Trueman appeared again and had him caught by Peter May at slip for another duck!
Pankaj's first-class career continued until 1968 by which time he had scored 33 centuries and amassed almost 12,000 runs. And although his Test career was interspersed with those ducks, over the span of his entire career, only Farokh Engineer as an opening batsman in the Indian Test side managed to score more runs than him (2,611 to 2,442) but even then it was at a lesser average (31.08 to 32.56).
There are plenty of anecdotes and reminiscences from former players in the book and Gautam Bhattacharya has done Indian cricket a good service by recording Pankaj's life and deeds but perhaps the book would have been more pertinent had it been confined to the man himself. However, he has left us with an abiding memory and fitting tribute to Pankaj in that he '... on his own knowingly or unknowingly, changed the entire outlook of Bengal cricket'. This latter fact is something that another Indian cricketing hero from Bengal, Sourav Ganguly, acknowledges in a concise and fitting foreword.
To finish the book off there is a lovely afterword by Pankaj's son Pranab Roy (also a Test cricketer) who saw his father as filling his life with good fortune and who sees the book as 'an offering of my love, respect and gratitude towards my father, my guru'.
Want to read
December 25, 2020Unfinished.
Book is in Kolkata, at my father's place. Will be completed once I am back there...
Book is in Kolkata, at my father's place. Will be completed once I am back there...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews