15 Facts about Vijay Hazare: India’s first post-war legend

Vijay Samuel Hazare, the legendary Indian cricketer, was a high-class right-handed batsman and a useful right-arm medium pace bowler. He also served the Indian team as its Captain during the years 1951-1953. He led the team in 14 matches during this period. He is well known for getting the Indian team its first victory in a Test match. He will be always remembered for his great performance on India’s first tour of Australia in 1947-48 when he scored a century in each innings of the Adelaide Test. It was a huge effort against the run of play.

1. Birth:

Vijay Hazare was born on March 11, 1915, in a Marathi Christian family, in the erstwhile 11-gun-salute Maratha princely state of Sangli on the banks of the river Krishna in southern Maharashtra. He got educated at the Presbyterian Mission Industrial School in Sangli and was a very religious Christian.

2. Early Impressions:

Hazare preferred cricket and football to books. He began as a medium-pacer who could also bowl leg-spin and his first employer, Maharaja Vikram Singh of Dewas, imported the legendary spinner from Australia, Clarrie Grimmett, to perfect Hazare’s wrist-spin and improve his batting. Grimmett advised him to concentrate on batting.

3. First Major Impact:

Although Hazare made his Ranji Trophy debut in the year (1934-35) of its inception, represented India in the unofficial Test in Lahore against Lord Tennyson’s side in 1937, played for Maharashtra against the MCC at Pune in 1933-34 and toured England with the Rajputana side in 1938, it was not until he scored 316 in a First-class game in 1939-40 that he made a big impact and announced himself.

4. Test Debut:

Hazare made his Test debut against England at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s, on the 22nd of June 1946. He scored 65 runs and took 2 wickets giving away 107 runs in the match. England won this match by 10 wickets.

5. The Run-machine title:

In the 1946 Test series in England, Hazare finished the tour with 1,344 runs at 49.77 and 56 wickets at 24.75. “Hazare is incapable of throwing away his wicket,” wrote John Arlott, the iconic English cricket commentator. “The century-mark, the double century-mark, are only milestones in an unvarying pace of scoring. Few critics will become lyrical about his style, but that will not worry him: he is concerned with scores and is developing into a most capable machine for making them.”

6. Success at home:

The “machine” went into full swing back home. Hazare (288) and Gul Mahomed struck a world-record 577-run fourth wicket stand against Holkar in 1946-47. He made 429 runs at 47.66 in five Tests and 1,056 at 48.00 in all first-class matches in Australia in 1947-48. He aggregated 534 runs at 67.87 against West Indies at home in 1948-49. His 134 in the second Test rescued India; his 122 in the fifth nearly won the match. In two series against a starry Commonwealth Team, he collected 1,311 runs. When he was captain against England in 1951-52, his dogged 100s at Delhi and Bombay were followed by glory in Madras – India had her first ever Test win.

7. Remarkable Achievements: 

Hazare was the 1st Indian batsman who scored a triple century in First-class Cricket, as K.S.Duleepsinhji was primarily considered as an English Cricketer. He also was the 1st Indian batsman to score a century in both the innings of a Test match. He achieved this feat in a Test match against Australia played at Adelaide on 23rd of January 1948, and scored 116 runs and 145 runs in both the innings respectively.  Hazare has also been the 1st Indian player to score a century in 3 Test matches in a row and score 50 centuries throughout his First-class career.

8. World War II:

When World War II brought cricket to a standstill, much of the credit for keeping the game alive in India must go to Hazare, who with Vijay Merchant took part in run-scoring duels that drew crowds of 20-30,000 to Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Hazare’s most productive domestic season was in 1943-44 when he scored 1,423 runs. He made scores of 248, 59, 309, 101, 223 and 87, reaching 1,000 runs in only four matches.

9. Don’s wicket:

Hazare held up the bowling end for India when they lacked pacemen. In the 1947-48 Adelaide Test, a memorable delivery surprised and bowled Sir Don Bradman, though not before Bradman had scored his double century. However, Hazare must have cherished the other time he bowled Bradman, for only 13, in a low-scoring rain-ruined match at Sydney in which India led for the first time in that series.

10. Test Stats:

Hazare played 30 Test matches and scored 2192 runs including 7 centuries and 9 half-centuries with an average of 46.65 runs and a highest score of 164 not out against England in Nagpur. During these matches, he also took 20 wickets giving away 1220 runs at an average of 61.00.

11. First-class career:

Hazare played a total of 238 matches and scored 18740 runs with an average of 58.38 runs and a highest score of 316 not out. He took 595 wickets and gave away 14645 runs with an average of 24.61 runs.

12. Batting Style:

Hazare proved adept on all manner of pitches, off front foot or back. Clean strokes – primarily the cut, hook and a glorious cover-drive -­ punctuated long periods of defence as he tired attacks before pressing forth. This ability to absorb and release pressure in a controlled manner was unmatched by most in world cricket at the time.

13. Captaincy:

From the Australian tour in 1948 till Pakistan visited in 1953, he averaged over 70 even when his famed concentration suffered due to the captaincy. It is generally said that he was not a natural captain and that the stress of leading the side at a time when Indian cricket was particularly turbulent took its toll on the silent, thoughtful man.

14. Princely patronage:

Princely patronage sustained Vijay Hazare all his life. He played for Maharashtra before, and for Baroda after, the war. He was a tiger hunter and captain in the army of Maharaja Pratapsinhrao Gaekwad of Baroda. He had an honorary life membership of the MCC. He wrote My Story, Cricket Replayed and A Long Innings.

15. Other Achievements:

After retiring from active cricket, Hazare served as a selector for the Indian team for some time. He along with Jasu Patel was the 1st Indian cricketer to have been conferred upon the Padma Shri award and to honor him a domestic cricket tournament has been named after him as Vijay Hazare Trophy. He died on 18th of December 2004, aged 89, of intestinal cancer at Baroda.