Our generation had more courage: Contractor

Determination is Nari Contractor’s middle name. But for it, he would not have survived and continued to play even after being felled by a nasty bouncer from Charles Griffith at Barbados in a 1961-62 India-West Indies Test. Shortly before being bestowed with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the BCCI, the 73-year-old took time out to discuss cricket — past, present and future — with Vijay Tagore.

Excerpts...

Lifetime achievement award... How does it feel?

Apart from anything else, it feels great to be recognized and that matters to me most.
How do you look at the game — past, present and future?

Cricket itself has changed. Everything — equipment, rules, infrastructure, format. In our time, a bowler could bowl seven bouncers in an over. We did not have television. The bats are much better.

A six could be credited to the batsman in our time. Now it’s more because of the bat. We did not have ODIs. The one-dayers has not only changed the complexion of the game but has ensured that the game survived.

But for Kerry Packer, cricket would have struggled to survive. Now that Twenty20 has come into existence, cricket will continue to flourish.

Are you happy with the current state of the game in the country?

The World Cup was unfortunate. Unluckily enough, when the team left for the West Indies, the players were not in the best shape.

Batsmen were not scoring enough runs and bowlers were not taking wickets. Things have improved. There is all possible support from the establishment.

You have cricket from under-12 age group. Now we’ve a indoor stadium where there are seven types of wickets. One can see himself practise and improve. All possible care is being taken to improve the state of the game. So it can only get better.

You were known to be a solid bat. Your take on Indian batsmen?

My biggest asset was my determination. I would not say Sachin and Rahul could score as many runs without that kind of determination but the facilities today are different. The bats are of different make and the helmet did not exist in our time.

So it is not right to compare generations. But I think we had more courage.

You have seen so many generations of cricketers. Any cricketer or cricketers who impressed you most?

Kapil Dev and Vinoo Mankad were great all-rounders. I will place Mankad slightly ahead of Kapil because of the time during which he played the game and the opposition he played against.

Anil Kumble and BS Chandrasekhar are good but I would rate Subhash Gupte much higher. He could bowl six types of leg-spin in an over. Now we can’t see any such bowler. Sunil (Gavaksar) and Sachin (Tendulkar) are outstanding.

I would place Vijay Hazare in the same bracket. He would have scored as many runs had he got the same number of matches to play. Now we talk of overdose of cricket. In our time, it was underdose.

What do you remember of that bouncer from Griffith?

People say I ducked. I did not duck. I moved on to my backfoot. There was no sightscreen in Barbados and I lost sight of the ball which hit me square on my temple.

After that…

It was big struggle. But my determination saw me through. I was hell-bent on playing cricket again. One side of my body was paralysed but I must thank Dr Chundy.

He gave me a programme which I adhered to strictly. I was happy that I could play first-class cricket once again. I was perhaps the only cricketer who scored a century in both his first and last first-class matches. I ended my career on a high.

Do you think today’s fast bowlers are as dangerous as those in your days?

As I said, the rules have changed. Due to backfoot rule, a bowler could overstep the popping crease in our time. Which means he could bowl from 20 yards rather than 22 yards. Now a bowler cannot overstep.

And then there is this bouncer rule. Above all, in our time daily there were only 75 overs to be bowled. Now they have to complete 90 overs. That is extra work. So the game has become more batsman-friendly now.