In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at South Africa’s tour of India in 1996-97.
India continued their winning run at home, pulling off a close win at Ahmedabad. South Africa came back with a dominating win in Calcutta. And India rounded off the series with a resounding victory in Kanpur.
We talk about the all-too-familiar orientalist attitudes of visiting teams of that era, the revolving-door of openers for India, the Test debuts of Laxman and Klusener, of Indian cricketers whose careers met an unlikely end in this series, Kumble’s perfect cover drive, Srinath’s breathtaking spells, and the singular thrill of watching Azhar counter-attack.
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Aftab Khanna (@aftabkhanna)
Deepak Rao (@RaoDepk)
Related:
Javagal Srinath 6/21 in Ahmedabad, 1996 – Youtube video
Wolf in sheep’s clothing – Tom Eaton on Javagal Srinath
Mohammad Azharuddin 109 (77) in Calcutta, 1996 – Youtube video
Azharuddin’s incredible Eden classic on a burning deck – Arunabha Sengupta
Mohammad Azharuddin 163 in Kanpur, 1996 – Youtube video
Azharuddin 106 in Adelaide, 1992 – Youtube video
Azharuddin 121 at Lord’s, 1990 – Youtube video
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Lead image from here
Here’s a Hyderabadi story:
Azhar, VVS, P. Gopichand->Three sportsman
All Saints, Little Flower, St. Pauls-> three sister schools run by the Monfort Missionaries in Hyderabad.
Fir a very long time All Saints had Azhar and the other two schools did not have such a famous sportsman. Then, VVS, who studied in my school- Little Flower High School came along- soon after being selected, or maybe soon after his debut, he came as a guest to some function at school-everybody went crazy- I think he sat a long time that afternoon in the staff room signing autographs on any/random sheets of paper for several hundred students.
Then came 2001- I was appearing for my board exams(Class X, the last grade in the school) and VVS played the 281 innings, and Gopichand won the All England championship. All three schools were on an equal footing finally 🙂
Wonderful. And another Hyderabadi (from HPS) calling the Kolkata Test from the ABC commentary booth 🙂