“All-Indian” contingent on tour after England in 1911 New Delhi: It was the summer of 1911. When the ships passed through the gray waters of the Atlantic, on board one of them was a team that carried not only cricket equipment, but hope for a nation still in chains.It was an expedition that planted a colonized nation on the cricket fields of the empire, the very first Indian cricket tour in England.The rudder was 19 -year -old Maharaja Bhupinder Singh from Patiala. But the young prince played little, bowed to tour soon, quoted illnesses and princely duties. Go beyond the border with our YouTube channel. Subscribe!The real leader on the pitch was the remarkable Palwankar Baloo, the spinner of the left arm, whose rotation and confused regional dough and his own life story, as a Dalitian cricket that resisted the caste barriers, mixed like any shift.The team was the epitome of Indian diversity, while Parsis, Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs played side by side at a time when the unity was rare. It was a cricket, more than a politics that for the first time caused the Indians to dream together.The tour itself? Mixed bag. Twenty -three first -class matches, six wins, fifteen defeats, two draws. But the numbers do not say the whole story.The Indians fought not only for seasoned English professionals, but also wet goals, biting colds and the weight were pioneers in the nation of great popularity.
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Baloo glowed the brightest, bagged over 100 goals and earned a flash of respect of English scribes.Batters like S. Colah and J. Masters had their moments, but largely the Indian willow fought against moving balls and the greenest surfaces.Yet every match felt more than life. In Leicestershire in Yorkshire and other regional areas throughout England, the view of the Indian XI, which captivated the field, a quiet statement that the colonized could compete with the colonizer, at least on the cricket field.Critics pointed to their uneven field, their uneven fitness, inexperience. But at home, these men were heroes.In the big story of the Indian cricket, 1911 is often a footnote, overshadowed by later triumphs.
Kuldeep Yadav indicates a goal friendly in front of England before the England test series
But that was this tour that sowed seeds. Two decades later, India would play her first test in 1932. Another century would be an India’s cricket world.But it all began with a summer cruise when eleven Indians first wore their white in the country of empire.
