Hemu Adhikari
ADHIKARI , Lieutenant-Colonel HEMCHANDRA RAMACHANDRA, died on October 25, 2003, aged 84
15-Apr-2004
ADHIKARI, Lieutenant-Colonel HEMCHANDRA RAMACHANDRA, died on
October 25, 2003, aged 84. Hemu Adhikari played in 21 Tests for India, bringing
a military man's stay-at-your-post sense of duty to Indian cricket of the late 1940s
and 1950s when the national team was frequently on the brink of rout and flight.
His finest hour came in one of the
darkest times of all, when India's
batsmen were frightened by Wes Hall
and Roy Gilchrist in the 1958-59 home
series against West Indies and, at 39,
he became the fourth captain in the five
Tests. He was not even the obvious
choice for this role - the selectors
almost went for G. S. Ramchand - and
Adhikari only accepted after prompting
from his wife and his commanding
officer. But he led by example with
innings of 63 and 40, took three
wickets with leg-breaks scarcely seen
in Test cricket, and secured a draw to
halt West Indies' three-match winning
sequence. Despite his success, he did
not make himself available for the 1959
tour of England which turned out even
more disastrously. Adhikari had played
only two Tests in the previous six years,
partly because of army commitments,
but his leadership qualities had been
much in evidence as he guided Services
to two successive Ranji Trophy finals.
In his early days, he had won three Ranji Trophies with Baroda. At that stage he was renowned for his strokeplay,
but in Test cricket he usually had to concentrate on crisis management: his only
Test century came at Delhi in the maiden Test between India and West Indies in
1948-49 when his 114 not out just failed to save the follow-on; he again organised
the resistance in the second innings with a prolonged 29 not out against a
background chant of "Well played Ad-hi-ka-ri". He struggled as vice-captain in
England in 1952 but against Pakistan that winter he tasted his only two Test wins,
making 81 not out at Delhi in an 80-minute stand of 109 with Ghulam Ahmed,
still India's highest last-wicket partnership. After retiring from the army, Adhikari
became national coach and was manager of the triumphant 1971 tour of England.
His style involved strict discipline, an emphasis on fielding and, in the words of
Bapu Nadkarni, "not bothering about what anybody else thought". He was also
occasionally heard as a radio summariser in a style the Daily Telegraph described
as "somewhat Delphic".