From the Cricket Archives : Amar Singh and Ladha Ramji
Allan Lazrado
and here's an account of him and his brother Ladha Ramji from the
archives of Cricketer International.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 1973
Cut to the double quick
Suresh Parekh recalls a pair of Indian pace-bowling brothers, with
talent and charisma to burn, whose enormous potential was tragically
never to be fulfilled at the highest level...
It is ironic that India, who have always struggled to unearth genuine
fast bowlers, lost their two greatest fast bowling sons, Ladha Amar
Singh and his brother Ladha Ramji, at the zenith of their careers.
Tall and heavily built with broad, powerful shoulders, Amar Singh, who
played in India's first ever Test at Lord's in 1932, and the one who
could have become the undisputed champion of fast bowling in the
history of Indian cricket, died prematurely at the age of 29. His
elder brother, Ramji, another firebrand of a fast bowler, played only
one Test for India due to politics and the egos of Indian royal
personalities.
Amar Singh was in a class of his own. His distinctive all-round
abilities were the stuff of folklore. Ramji, on the other hand, could
hardly bat but, as a genuine fast bowler, he was a terror; they were
the sort of cricketers who could walk into any side of their time. The
two fast bowlers had close relationships with royalty, yet both of
them suffered a lot at the hands of those who ran Indian cricket.
Amar Singh's performances in domestic cricket were so sublime that his
selection and inclusion for India's debut Test at Lord's in 1932 was
inevitable. But those were the days of the Maharajas and Ramji had
fallen foul of one of them. The wrath of the King fell on the
brothers. Amar Singh's name was included only at the eleventh hour
thanks to a noble job of negotiation by Kumar Duleepsinhji. And what a
selection it turned out to be. From a short run-up, he generated
lightning speed with swing and accuracy which, in partnership with
Mahomed Nissar, bewildered the hardened English professional
cricketers. He took the wickets of the legendary Walter Hammond,
Herbert Sutcliffe and Leslie Ames, and in Hammond's view, 'came off
the wicket like the crack of the doom'.
Amar Singh made 51 in the second innings, India's highest score, and
added 74 with Lall Singh for the eighth wicket in just 40 minutes
against Bill Voce, Bill Bowes, Freddie Brown, Hammond and Walter
Robins. The entire tour was memorable as he finished with 111 wickets
at an average of 20.78.
Amar Singh went on to play only seven Tests for India, taking 28
wickets at 30.64 with a strike-rate of a wicket every 63 balls. His
best series was against England when Douglas Jardine's side came to
India in 1933/34. At Madras, he took 7 for 86 in 44.4 overs in the
first innings and finished the three-Test series with 14 wickets. He
also hit an explosive 48 at Madras having been promoted to number
four, which helped him to become established as a true all-rounder.
This was the same series in which elder brother Ramji made his debut
at the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay. In that match, India paraded three
genuine fast bowlers in Nissar, Amar Singh and Ramji - a sight rarely
seen since.
Whilst Amar Singh achieved greater fame than the brother 10 years his
senior, those who saw the brothers bowl rated Ramji the quicker, a
more hostile and accomplished fast bowler. Amar Singh had the fast
bowler's aggression but was capable of remaining cool and composed;
Ramji was highly temperamental and believed that batsmen were there to
be dismissed or to be bloodied. He used to tell members of his family
that he believed Amar Singh to be a soft bowler who allowed batsmen to
score runs off his bowling, but that he would never allow that.
Ramji invited the wrath of the Maharajas with his outspoken views and
awesome fast bowling which they just could not play. One of Ramji's
early victims was the Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, the power
broker in Indian cricket in those days. Bhupinder Singh wanted his
bowlers to bowl as he instructed, so that he could score a few runs
easily. While other bowlers obliged with lollipops, Ramji continued to
bowl along his normal lines. This infuriated the Maharaja and the
umpires. Fielders started dropping catches while umpires turned down
lbw appeals and kept on calling no-balls whenever stumps were
uprooted. Ramji was so fed up that he brought out his most potent
weapon and bowled a vicious bouncer, the likes of which the Maharaja
had never faced.
Ramji was asked to leave the kingdom, but not for the first time.
Once, the Maharaja of Porbandar had invited a club team from England
to play a few friendly matches. Ramji and Amar Singh too were invited
to play for the home team. The Maharaja had specifically instructed
Ramji not to injure anyone as the English were their guests. On an
easy-paced wicket the visitors made more than 150 without loss before
lunch. But the jamsaheb of Nawanagar (now jamnagar), who had been
invited to watch the match, instructed Ramji to bowl a few
short-pitched deliveries, if only to create fear in their minds.
The moment the new ball was taken, Ramji was a different bowler. One
of his deliveries rose unexpectedly from a length to hit the batsman
on the chest and he fell to the ground. He was taken back on a
stretcher and was hospitalised in Porbandar before being shifted to
Bombay for better treatment. After regaining some health he was sent
to England where he died a few days later.
The incident upset the Maharaja of Porbandar. He ordered Ramji to
leave and threatened that if he was seen again in future, he would be
shot at. This incident took place in the 1926/27 season and Ramji
never returned to Porbandar except on one occasion in 1945 when
Viceroy Hencock donated the Hencock Cup in Rajkot. Ramji, along with
Amar Singh's nine-year-old son, Vijay Nakum, went to Porbandar to
extend the invitation of inaugurating the cup. When the message was
sent to the Maharaja, the reply came promptly: 'Go away, I just don't
want to see you.' When a second message was sent that Amar Singh's son
had also come, the Maharaja called young Vijay only. Ramji instucted
Vijay how to talk to the Maharaja and to give the invitation.
The Maharaja was happy to see Amar Singh's son and, while accepting
the invitation, asked if Vijay would bowl a few deliveries at him. But
His Highness remained adamant that he would not see Ramji. When he
came to Rajkot again, the Maharaja paid absolutely no attention to
Ramji and called Vijay to bowl at him as had been promised.
However, the same Maharaja later paid rich tribute to Ramji after his
death. At the historic Rajkumar College in Rajkot, he delivered an
address in which he told how cricket lovers always bemoaned the fact
that India cannot produce fast bowlers. But he said that he had seen
one hell of a fast bowler who was simply unrivalled, and that he had
seen one of his deliveries going for six byes. He was speaking of
Ramji.
Against Arthur Gilligan's team in 1925/26, Ramji had bowled
frighteningly fast. At Ajmer, he bowled so fast and menacingly on a
matting wicket that Gilligan had to request that Ramji be taken off so
as to prevent further injury to his late-order batsmen.
Ramji's only Test came against England at Bombay but he did not enjoy
much success. He was used in short spells, conceding 64 runs in 23
overs in the first innings without taking a wicket, and was not
required to bowl in the second innings. He had bowled well and
impressed all who saw him but wickets eluded him. His seemingly
unimpressive performance was a temporary setback, however, and he was
soon terrorising batsmen again. But the much awaited Test recall never
came.
The Jamsaheb of Nawanagar had a very special relationship with the
brothers and gave them jobs with the condition that they need not
worry about attending all the time. The Jamsaheb also offered them a
large house called Cricketers' Cottage free of charge, an offer which
the brothers could not accept, and the Jamsaheb was persuaded to
accept a token amount of money. A further link with royalty was the
deadly duo's friendship with the Khansaheb of Manavadar, who gave a
car to Amar Singh.
The brothers had attended the same Alfred High School as a certain
Mahatma Gandhi, and neither brother began as a fast bowler. Amar Singh
was a batsman and Ramji was a wicket-keeper. But the school's coach,
Velji Master, saw in Amar Singh a massive physique and insisted he
become a quick bowler. Ramji, while playing in a match between teams
put together by the Jamsaheb of Nawanagar and the Khansaheb of
Manavadar, was highly impressed by the exploits of Ghulam Nabi, a
Punjabi paceman, and decided to take up the art. The rest is history.
Amar Singh went on to take Lancashire league cricket by storm, whilst
Ramji enjoyed one of his finest hours for the Hindus in a Bombay
quadrangular tournament, taking 13 for 133 against the Europeans.
It was a tragedy that both met with unexpected and premature deaths.
Amar Singh, while attending a wedding at the home of the Khansaheb of
Manavadar, had been for a long swim when he suddenly fell ill and
caught a fever. The jamsaheb of Nawanagar came to see Amar Singh when
he was lying on a bed at the Cricketers' Cottage and he learned that
the fever had given rise to typhoid. Amar Singh died on May 21, 1940
at the age of only 29. From that day, Ramji never set foot in the
Cricketers' Cottage. After a few years he sold it for less than 50,000
rupees.
When his own playing days were over, Ramji contracted gangrene in his
right leg. He also had diabetes and yet he used to drink 40 to 45 cups
of tea a day. He was told by a doctor that his leg needed to be
amputated, but he refused and said that he would prefer to die rather
than to live with one leg. Family members tried their level best to
change his mind but it was not to be. The disease spread to both his
kidneys and he died on December 20, 1948.
Vijay Nakum, the son of Amar Singh, recently visited India's former
opening batsman Mushtaq Ali, who was a team-mate of his father.
Mushtaq told Vijay: 'I do see hundreds of cricketers today who are
equal to some of the great stalwarts of yesteryear, but I don't see a
second Amar Singh in any of them.'
Indeed, India may never produce another like Amar Singh, nor a bowler
as quick and deadly as Ramji.
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© The Cricketer 1973
From http://ind.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/APR/121218_CRICKETER_10APR2004.html
CiL
wrote:
>Amar Singh was India's first genuine fast bowler long before Kapil Dev
>and here's an account of him and his brother Ladha Ramji from the
>archives of Cricketer International.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Allan for the article, lots of interesting stories on Ramji.
THere was ofcourse Mohammed Nissar , the new ball parner of Amar singh
n much faster than him as well.. and as written in the article u
posted, Ramji was supposed to be faster than his brother.
btw on AMAR SINGH , I had posted these urls quite sometime back, Read
n enjoy!
1)Devil before Kapil by Ramachandra Guha
+++++++
Even while he lived, however, he was obsessed with the idea of death.
One who knew of this obsession was the great all-rounder, Learie
Constantine, his colleague and rival in the Lancashire League. When
Learie's club, Nelson, played Amar Singh's team, Colne, the West
Indian would come to the ground dressed in black. Naturally the Indian
would ask what had happened, and Constantine would answer that he had
just attended the funeral of a friend. This ruse was intended to put
his opponent off his game, to so disturb him psychologically that he
might not give of his best. Perhaps of all the tributes that ever came
Amar Singh's way this was the most remarkable; that Constantine, a
supremely gifted all-rounder himself, could not trust solely to his
cricketing skills when playing against him. '
to read more click
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/08/19/stories/0719028k.htm
2)Amar singh : He came, he saw, he conquered by HARESH PANDYA
it must be said Amar Singh was India's first `world-class' allrounder,
all factors considered. Although a batting allrounder, Amar Singh had
the honour to score India's maiden fifty in the heavyweight division
of cricket. And for good measure he achieved the feat in the country's
first ever Test at Lord's.
click
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/12/02/stories/0702028h.htm
3) When we think of great all-rounders like Vinoo Mankad and Kapil
Dev, we shouldn't forget Amar Singh, says KEKI N. DARUWALLA
Wisden noted Amar Singh could "curl in the air either from leg or off"
and was "causing (the ball) to come off the pitch at a tremendous
pace." In his book Cricket Between Two Wars Pelham Warner states
"On his form on this tour (1932) and again in 1936, Amar Singh would
have been a strong candidate for a World XI." He thought Amar was
probably as good as Barnes.
He wasn't treated too well and his death was untimely. According to
thestory I heard, Amar Singh played six sets of tennis, drank six
glassesof iced lemonade, had a cold water bath, slept under a ceiling
fan,caught pneumonia and died.
click
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/06/23/stories/2002062300350500.htm
CiL
----
But for light and song, for bliss and glory and
for lifting the soul, who else but Brian Lara?
---
CiL
I just noticed that u post from google, just in case u would like to
see new posts more faster than when it appears in google
use this
http://webnews.kornet.net/group.cgi?group=rec.sport.cricket&page=1
just refresh the page to see new posts. Some of the posts wont be
appear in a coherent format, but something better than nothing, na?!
most posts do r readable, not the content ofcourse..
you cant post via that, I think.
Best is ofcourse register for Free at http://news.individual.net/
and get a newsreader like Free FORTE AGENT or outlook express to use
and access the usenet.
CiL