Chennai, Apr 9 (PTI) India’s oldest living Test cricketer CD Gopinath died at the age of 96 here on Thursday, ending the last human link to the nation’s first Test-winning team.
Gopinath, who was the second oldest cricketer in the world after Australian legend Neil Harvey (97), is survived by his wife, children and grand-children.
Following his demise, Mumbai’s 95-year-old Chandrakant Patankar has become the country’s oldest cricketer. He played one Test, against New Zealand in 1955.
In the death of Gopinath, India has lost not just its oldest living Test cricketer but also the last personal link to a glorious chapter in the country’s rich cricketing history.
Four years back, Gopinath had a twinkle in his eye while recounting India’s first-ever Test triumph, an innings and eight-run win over England at Chepauk in 1952.
“See! That’s the benefit of a long life. You can keep adding and rewriting the story. Everyone will give me the age’s benefit, but you know, the benefit of doubt always goes to the batsman, doesn’t it?” he had quipped.
Even at 92 then, Gopinath remained a brilliant raconteur, who would narrate amusing stories about his brief eight-Test stint in India whites.
Of course, the brightest of them would be about those four glorious days in erstwhile Madras, now Chennai.
In the statistician’s book, Gopinath’s numbers will always remain modest — eight Tests, that yielded 242 runs with one fifty.
But, typically of him, Gopinath never felt bitter about a short career that started on a promising note with a 50 and 42 against England at the Brabourne in 1951.
However, a rather modest subsequent trip to England later in 1952 had its own unpleasant ramifications, keeping him more out of the team than in.
But Gopinath remained a significant figure in domestic cricket, scoring heavily and captaining Madras often.
He ended up with 4259 runs from 83 matches at an average of 42. He also tallied nine hundreds.
A notable moment in his career came when he made a brilliant, stroke-filled 175 in the second innings while visiting New Zealand for South Zone.
Friends from Kiwi land =============== The Kiwis had some fine players in the ranks such as Bert Sutcliffe, John Reid, John Alabaster and Parke Zinzan Harris, father of former NZ all-rounder Chris Harris.
Even though South lost the match, Gopinath’s innings earned him a lot of admirers from among the Antipodeans.
“Reid and Sutcliffe later met me in the dressing room and we had a good chat about the game then. The competition lasted only till the last ball of the day, after that we just wanted to get to know each other a little bit better and share some good time,” he had said.
A prized friends’ list featuring Sir Worrell =========================== Gopinath’s friends’ circle had four glittering names — former West Indian skipper Sir Frank Worrell, England batter Denis Compton and the Australian fast bowling pair Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.
His collection of memorabilia included a signed Australian Baggy Green by Lindwall.
However, his friendship with Worrell, the Windies captain in the first-ever tied Test against Australia at Brisbane in 1960, was a special one.
Gopinath attended the charity match for Worrell, conducted by county side Lancashire, and it was the Indian cricketer who collected money from the spectators.
Before that, he met the great West Indian at Colombo and shared a rickshaw ride around the city after 10pm.
Later, Worrell visited Gopinath’s house for dinner during a visit to Chennai and it was among his very few last public appearances before passing away. It left Gopinath a shattered man at that time.
Unearthing GRV =========== After his playing days, Gopinath served as chief of national selectors and the manager of the Indian team that toured England in 1979.
The tour became famous for India’s daring chase of 438 under the guidance of Sunil Gavaskar’s monumental 221. But India could only make 429 for eight as the Oval Test ended in a draw.
The match always had a special place in Gopinath’s memory and he would never be short of words while revering about Gavaskar’s technical purity.
However, Gopinath equally adored GR Viswanath, whom he played a significant part in discovering, for his technique against fast bowling.
The Tamil Nadu man always cherished GRV’s legendary innings of unbeaten 97 in which he tackled a ferocious spell by West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts (7/64).
It helped India post a 100-run win over the Caribbeans on a bouncy Chepauk wicket.
Gopinath was also a part of Tamil Nadu’s (Madras) first-ever Ranji Trophy win and following his death, only one cricketer who played in that season remains alive — the now US-based MK Murugesh.
But Gopinath was not a man happy to live in nostalgia. He keenly followed contemporary cricket and took a liking for IPL and the Chennai Super Kings.
“Everything changes with the team, cricket is not exception,” Gopinath would say, and he remained an ardent Mahendra Singh Dhoni fan.
“I pick CSK mainly because of MSD — not because of his cricketing brain but because of how he plays. He does not go strutting around the field jumping 10 feet high.
“He does not make obscene gestures. It makes me very uncomfortable when I see some of that,” Gopinath said last year during a CSK function.
The words carried the essence of Gopinath — a keenly competitive cricketer on the field and a thorough gentleman off it. PTI UNG PM PM PM
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