Two cricketers who busted their team's stress through music and humour

By K.R. Nayar

Cricket teams need players with them who can ease the tension in the team in any way....maybe through humour or even singing songs. Indian spinner Padmakar Shivalkar and England wicketkeeper Arthur Wood had the ability to lift their team's spirit, not just through their cricketing skills alone. They entertained their teammates without ever revealing their own sorrows and disappointments. 

Padmakar Shivalkar 

There are many cricketers who are a delight to be with as they can lift your spirits. During my club cricketing days, we had a cricketer named Shaheer Peeru Mohammad, who would beautifully sing some old melodious songs and transport us to a different world.  He would make it a point to sing on our way back home, especially if we lost a match.  That helped us wipe away our disappointment after the defeat.

Many club teams would have such players not for their cricketing skills but for their ability to entertain team-mates and help lower the tensions of a game. While details of matches that we played have faded away from our memories, what remains etched in our minds are these characters who would make our journey to and back from match venues memorable. 

Mumbai’s slow left-arm spinner, Padmakar Shivalkar, who bagged 589 first-class wickets but never got to play for India since his career coincided with that of Bishen Singh Bedi, was one such character. He was a passionate singer, and I remember travelling with him by train from Mumbai for a match and he had enthralled everyone around us by singing some melodious songs all the way. Bedi was so consistent in his performance that the Indian selectors never picked Shivalkar as the second left-arm spinner though they did pick two off-spinners in S. Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna together for many matches.

Sunil Gavaskar 

Shivalkar never displayed his disappointment at not getting India’s Test cap despite winning many matches for Mumbai. ‘Paddy’, as he was affectionately called by fellow cricketers, never revealed his sorrow and only made others happy with his songs. In his book 'Idols', Sunil Gavaskar narrates an incident when Shivalkar approached him to cut a disc with him. “He sang a particular song composed by Shantaram Nandgaonkar, which is about how one misses an opportunity if luck is not on one’s side. Paddy put his heart and soul in rendering that song. It was almost the story of his cricket career, how he came so close to getting an India cap but could not do so,” wrote Gavaskar, who also mentioned that "when Shivalkar runs in to bowl, one gets the impression he is humming a tune under his breath. In fact, he used to sing even when fielding at the boundary, probably practicing for an evening stage show since he used to be invited by many."

Arthur Wood, an Yorkshire and England wicketkeeper’s story, who played between 1938 and 1948, was similar to Shivalkar. He lifted the spirit of everyone through his humour, but unlike Shivalkar, he was fortunate to play in four Test matches despite having to wait till the age of 40. He was taken in as a last-minute replacement and had to take a taxi from Nottingham to London Oval for his debut against Australia. When the taxi driver asked him for his fare of seven pounds and 15 cents, he told the taxi driver he was only paying for the ride and not buying the taxi!

Arthur Wood

During matches, Wood would dive and collect the ball with a couple of somersaults and then appeal to lift the spirit of the bowlers. He once asked a batsman who missed three consecutive balls that almost brushed his stumps as to whether he had ever tried walking on water. In one instance, he told his teammate and spinner Hedley Verity, who was getting tensed on not getting a wicket, that he had caught the batsman in two minds. A curious Verity didn't get what he'd said. Then Wood explained: “The batsman doesn’t know whether to hit you for four or six.” That humour relaxed Verity who went on to bowl well in the rest of the match.

Very few knew that behind his humourous streak was a sad man. Woods’ wife was hospitalised for 20 years and till her death, he used to visit her at the hospital every day. Wood died on April Fool’s day in 1973 at the age of 74, a day when the whole world celebrates humour through jokes and hoaxes.

I am also reminded of Shivalkar, who is 80 years old now, remark about his disappointment: “Whatever I received, I considered it my fate; what I lost I chose to ignore. I kept pace with life, and blew the worries in smoke.”