Beyond Boundaries

Martin Chandler | 8:58am GMT 08 December 2024

Published: 2024
Pages: 204
Author: Patil, Sandeep and Murzello, Clayton
Publisher: Global Cricket School
Rating: 3.5 stars

My first question, being English, was who is Sandeep Patil? The name was familiar, and I realised he was an Indian Test cricketer from the late 1970s and early 1980s, but I couldn’t immediately remember anything else.

A quick look at Cricketarchive before the book arrived reminded me. I had assumed that the absence of any memories of him meant that he had either barely played in England and/or had done so without conspicuous success.

It turned out I was half right, in that Patil had played just two Tests in England, both in 1982, the forgettable second and third Tests which both ended as draws. As to a lack of success that certainly wasn’t the case. Patil batted once in each of the two games, and made 129* and 62 and in the course of that century he went from 73 to 104 in the space of nine balls, including one Bob Willis over in which he hit all six deliveries for four.

But even that wasn’t Patil’s most remarkable Test innings. That had happened a year and a half earlier in Adelaide when he scored 174 against the full fire and fury of Dennis Lillee, Len Pascoe and Rodney Hogg. It wasn’t so much the innings itself that deserved the plaudits but that it came after, in the previous Test, Patil being taken to hospital after receiving a sickening blow on the head from Pascoe. Today it would certainly have ended his match and probably his series. But there were no concussion protocols in those days and his captain, Sunny Gavaskar, called Patil to the ground to bat in the second innings – he only survived two deliveries, but it set his confidence back up for Adelaide.

In that far off English summer of 1982 Patil was only 25. We did see him again in 1986 but he was a peripheral figure on that summer’s tour. He enjoyed little in the way of success and, to his great disappointment, when a batting vacancy opened up in the Test side the place was given to the reserve wicketkeeper rather than to him

In fact Patil had still been only 28 when he had played the last of his 29 Tests, against England, this time at home at the Feroz Saha Kotla in Delhi, the second Test of the 1984/85 series. With scores of 30 and 41 in that match he was hardly a failure so, as I opened his autobiography, that certainly suggested an interesting back story.

It turns out that Patil’s international career was ended by his own hand, his choosing to retire in 1986. He felt that he had been treated badly by the selectors, and whilst that is always the sort of issue where the reader would prefer to be reading a well researched biography rather than an autobiography, it is difficult not to feel great sympathy for Patil on that score.

But it wasn’t as if Patil did not have other things to do. The man with the film star looks had indeed appeared in a substantial role once on the big screen, although on his own admission his acting skills were limited. Singing was another Patil pursuit, as indeed was art, not to mention more than one attempt at carving out a successful business career.

Having retired from the game Patil was persuaded to return for a few years with Madhya Pradesh and after that he enjoyed a long career as a coach, including a time as India’s head coach, albeit that was a job he concedes he did not make a great success of. He also had an interesting time as India’s chief selector.

As a coach a good deal of Patil’s time was spent in Kenya and, the game having disintegrated there since his day. His book is a salutary reminder that the rise and fall of Kenyan cricket is a subject that a decent writer could certainly turn into a worthwhile book.

But to return to Patil’s book it is one that I have to say I much enjoyed. He doesn’t waste words, the 204 pages housing as many as 63 chapters. None of them are particularly long but it must say something that the longest are on the subject of Patil’s own film appearance, the recently released film of the exploits of the 1983 World Cup winners*, Patil’s much later television appearance as presenter of a show in which he interviews and cooks for other cricketers, and not least an afterword from Patil’s wife of 40 years, Deepa.

One disappointment in the book is the lack of even a rudimentary statistical appendix, and the absence of an index, albeit predictable, does not help. On the other hand the book is very well illustrated with a varied selection of photographs a particularly striking one being that on page 35, a vivid explanation for why Syed Kirmani, one of the coolest looking cricketers of his time, decided to keep his head shaved.

*On that historic occasion Patil scored 27, the second highest score in India’s total of 183