Mumbai: Godfrey Harold Hardy, the well-known British mathematician who famously invited Srinivasa Ramanujan to England after the latter wrote to him about discovering a new mathematics series, was also a cricket fan. In fact, he compared mathematicians to cricketers: for example, Isaac Newton fell in the Jack Hobbs Class, while Ramanujan was Bradman Class.
Also, in 1932, when Indian cricket began its international innings, the debut tour was surrounded in controversy and mystery over captaincy and team selection, and had to be postponed from 1931 to 1932 as arrangements had to be made.
These, and many more priceless anecdotes, facts and memorabilia are part of the Cricket Connects — India England Cricket Relations’, an exhibition under the UK India Year of Culture 2017 initiative being organised by the Union Ministry of Culture with The Nehru Centre, London and the Cultural Wing, High Commission of India, London.
The exhibition, curated by Shivaprasad Khened, director, Nehru Science Centre, Worli and an eight-member team, will be on display at various locations in the U.K. between June 12 and July 23. On Wednesday, it was on display in the conference room of Nehru Science Centre, Worli.
The exhibition panel on hits and misses gives details about various episodes between the two teams, including the unforgettable ‘Ganguly’s Moment of Infamy’ when he took off his shirt on the balcony at Lords to celebrate India’s win in the Natwest series final in 2002. Another refers to Gundappa Viswanath and Bob Taylor: umpire Hanumantha Rao had declared Taylor out, but Visawanath, who was standing in the slips, felt the batsman had not nicked the ball. He went up to Taylor and asked him, and on receiving ‘no’ as the answer, Viswanath went back to the umpire and asked for the call to be reversed.
The exhibition has been divided into 10 sections: Cricket Connects: Introduction, Cricket and Indian National Consciousness, India’s Baptism in International Cricket, Coming of Age, The Almighty Bat, Hits and Misses, Bilateral Ties, Cricket in the Age of Empire, Cricket World Cup: Ultimate Glory and the Indian Premier League.
It also offers clippings from archives of the Films Division such as The Victory Story , Vinod Mankad , Alastair Cook , Kevin Pietersen and Karun Nair . In addition, visitors will also have the opportunity to participate in a cricket quiz about India and England.
Mr. Shivaprasad said, “We developed a storyline and based on it, we wrote to different archives: the Government of India, The National Archives, Lords Museum, The Board of Control For Cricket In India, Photo Division, Maharashtra State Archives, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Marylebone Cricket Club Museum and Imperial War Museum. It took us three months to research, collect and put this together.” Ratnakar Shetty, General Manager, BCCI, said, “There is a connect between these two countries as far as cricket is concerned.”
Manish Desai, Director General, Films Division, said, “We had the opportunity to record history, and are happy to share these archives with the National Council of Science Museums. Some of these video clippings are even on display on the audio-visual panels.”
The exhibition is the third of its kind, with previous ones exhibitions being organised about Cricket Connect between India and South Africa in 2014 and India and Australia in 2016. It will open in London on June 12 at The Nehru Centre and will run till June 23. It will then move to Birmingham on July 1, and will be up till July 7 at the Indian High Commission. It will finally move to Edinburgh at the Indian High Commission from July 15 to July 23.
