The Gentle Man of Steel

Vishy. The very name sends thousands of Indian cricket fans into ecstasy, reliving memories of Little Master GR Viswanath's wristy artistry, often placing the pleasure he gave them above the mastery of the other Little Master Sunil Gavaskar that invariably gave Indian batting solidity. Yet Vishy recently said,"I hail from the Bhadravati region of Karnataka with its steel plant. I am made of steel," the kind of statement you do not associate with this gentle little giant. Speaking on the same occasion, the belated offer to him of honorary membership of the Madras Cricket Club late last year, I recalled his brave 124 and 33 against the West Indian quicks on a nasty Chepauk wicket back in 1978-79 despite being bruised black and blue. R Mohan who spoke later remarked that those used to be Vishy's favourite colours in a cheeky reference to the colours of a couple of iconic labels. Was it a coincidence, then, that Viswanath was an acknowledged walker like Johnny?

During my felicitation speech, I narrated another Vishy episode that had the audience in splits. My book Third Man has a picture of me taking a return catch to dismiss Viswanath after a scintillating 67 in a Ranji match at Bangalore's KSCA Stadium. During the Hyderabad launch of the book, my old friend VM Shamraj who had been our team manager during that game in 1976 asked me,"Do you remember what Vishy said to you that night at dinner?" I did not remember, but Shamraj very kindly refreshed my memory. The audience at MCC had another good laugh when I said, "Being ever the perfect gentleman, Vishy said, "Well done, Ram! You made an easy catch look difficult." Later, in a display of his soft side, the man of steel denied having made the statement.

I first watched Viswanath in action in two Duleep Trophy matches back in 1968. In the first, he showed his class against Dilip Doshi and company of East Zone at Eden Gardens, and in the second, he gave a mature display of defiance and correct batsmanship against a quality North Zone attack led by Bishan Bedi. they were both little gems that exuded class. Teammate Tiger Pataudi must have been impressed, for not very long later, Vishy made his Test debut at Kanpur against Australia. He was not very well known in Madras then, and the Physical Director of my college had a dig at me when Vishy failed in the first innings after I had gone on and on about his great promise. "Enna saar, unga hero cipher adichuttare!" (I don't think this needs translation) And I'm proud to say I shot back, "Wait pannungo, second inningsle hundred adippaan!"

The first time I faced Vishy on a cricket field was an SBI inter circle match between Madras and Hyderabad. GRV was leading a strong Madras side that included Test cricketers AG Milkha Singh and VV Kumar. At the end of the match one of my Hyderabad teammates said, "Vishy, how did it feel captaining the team for the first time?" Pat came the reply, "It was great. I led from one end, and VV led from the other", referring to the leg spinner's reluctance to part with the ball.

Much has been written about Vishy's batting and qualities of head and heart. Of his batting I can only add that he had at least two shots for every ball. Listen to the words of my late Hyderabad teammate Vijaya Paul describing that knock of 67 I mentioned earlier. "Our medium pacers, especially veteran Syed Abid Ali, attacked him with three slips and a gully as he came in to bat. Abid was bowling some beautiful outswingers, which Vishy imperiously despatched to the midwicket boundary with his wrists of steel. Soon the slips came out one by one, and before long, the onside was packed with defensive fielders. The master then quickly came up with a delightful Plan B. With hardly any obvious change in his approach, he started working the outswingers through the now-depleted slip cordon for fours while seeming to look towards the onside!" I also remember John Arlott's wonderful gravelly voice drawing the listener's attention to "little Viswanath's" forearms. "Strong like those of an ironmonger," he said.

I close with another story involving GRV and Abid Ali. During the Ahmedabad Test against Sri Lanka in 1976, Viswanath played a ball to midwicket and found Abid charging down the wicket even as Vishy was shouting "No" at the top of his voice. Abid stopped close to Vishy and asked,
"Kya bole?"

Many happy returns, Vishy. Thank you for all the wonderful cricket you played.