Lord Marland, chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and proprietor of the prestigious The Cricketer Magazine, the all-about-cricket magazine and owner of Cricket Archive which holds the archive of every game ever played, agreed to enlighten this reporter around the exhibition currently touring the UK. Cricket, cinema and curry are the three elements that universally appeal to most Indians and British. From the beginning, cricket has been a unifying, if competitive, connection between the two nations. “Cricket Connects: India-England Cricket Relations”at the Nehru Centre explores the story of two nations focussing on cricket through each decade. A wonderful travelling collection of photographs depicting highlights of series, tests, cups and superstars, has been amassed to further celebrate the UK-India Year of Culture.
Marland remembers fondly the great spin bowler and run scorer of the 1970s—Sunil Gavaskar and the stunning spinning trio of Venkat, Chandra and Bedi. He complements India’s “coming of age” when the team captained by the inimitable Kapil Dev, won their first World Cup against the West Indies in 1983; England, to everyone’s surprise lost to India in the semis despite home advantage and the West Indies were overwhelmingly the bookies’ favourite, nobody had put India as the winner.
Today, it seems difficult for England to win in India and India to win in UK. Marland says that England’s green pitches are suited to swing, while India’s dry pitches are suited to spin; since India’s priority seems to be the short game, there is less time to come over and practise on local pitches unless the series is started earlier. At the display featuring the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Marland says Tendulkar and the Trinidadian Brian Lara were the most compelling batsmen ever and broke every record going.
Marland says: “India’s IPL leads the world in 20/20 cricket and for the past few years, the UK has been playing catch-up. UK has lagged behind with branding, merchandiseand transformation. It shows how badly the ECB was run by Giles Clark, he missed an opportunity to work with the IPL and be part of it, through falling out with the Indian authorities.”
The exhibition has been divided into 10 sections, including the National Consciousness, The Inaugural Test, Hits and Misses, The Cricket World Cup and The Almighty Bat. Cricket is more than a passion for most Indians, it infuses a nationalistic fervour and most Indians would like to beat Pakistan first and England second; conversely most Indian players would like to play at Lords and most British players would love to have an IPL contract. Marland’s parting advice was: “Cricket is a sport, all countries should remember to keep cricket out of politics.”
The exhibition now proceeds to Birmingham from 1-7 July and Edinburgh from 15- 23 July.