Bengal’s Forgotten Cricket Legend. The cover proclaims, and rightly too. Pankaj Roy has remained a forgotten cricketer, until this sincere effort by sports scribe Gautam Bhattacharya with valuable inputs from Pranab Roy. “You may call it a son’s tribute to a father,” says Pranab, who also opened the innings for India.
Why a book on Pankaj Roy now, 13 years after his death? The author and Pranab wanted to put things in perspective. “I shared the family’s sentiments that a Bengali icon and an important part of Indian cricketing history was somehow forgotten so early. As if Bengal’s cricketing history began and ended with Sourav Ganguly,” says Gautam, a widely travelled and respected cricket writer.
The book dwells on many subjects; various phases of Pankaj Roy’s career, a well-researched effort that saw Gautam speak to cricketers of different eras. “It was a journey that educated me on various aspects of Indian cricket,” remarks Gautam.
As Pranab explains, “My father was a low-profile person and this book throws light on his personality, off and on the field. It tells the reader what kind of cricketer he was, what kind of person he was. I can tell you he always focussed on the job, which was giving India a solid start. We have taken care to concentrate on factual presentation of his journey. I spoke to many people and they had kind words for my father. He was a good man and this book highlights this fact.”
It helped Gautam that he knew Pankaj Roy. “I knew Pankajda close to 15 years. I later found out there were three Pankaj Roys; a gutsy, technically perfect opener, a National selector and a North Calcutta bred citizen, extremely lovable but the brilliance of Pankajda got clouded. Bengal loved a bare-chested Sourav Ganguly standing on the Lord’s balcony rather than a world record holder Pankaj Roy,” Gautam observes and puts it across in the book aptly.
Published by Supernova, the book has some readable segments, especially some controversial references to the tumultuous developments in the Indian dressing room. There are some vignettes that show the gutsy part of Pankaj Roy like driving through the dense forests of Jim Corbett National Park at night with wife and sons.
Gautam discovers many stories for the book. “I never knew that Pankajda did not like Polly Umrigar from the bottom of his heart. That he held Hemu Adhikari responsible for some of his misfortunes. It also allowed me to discover the divided state of Indian cricket in an independent country.”
But the most poignant part of the book, which suffers from poor editing, comes from Rahul Dravid’s views on falling four runs short of the Pankaj Roy-Vinoo Mankad partnership of 413 runs (against New Zealand at Madras in 1956). Says Dravid, “I did not feel sad. In fact, I thought that even though Viru (Virender Sehwag) lost his wicket, I could at least be part of a 400-run partnership. It is a wonder how they (Mankad-Roy) scored those runs. They had no facilities like trainer and masseur.” Dravid and Sehwag had put up 410 runs for the opening partnership against Pakistan at Lahore in 2006.
There are many interesting anecdotes and interviews in this informative book. “A treasure house for the future generations and those who did not meet or watch my father. It will serve as a fine reference book,” sums up Pranab.
