Remembering Vijay Samuel Hazare

For someone to have a reputable domestic tournament named after them, they must have achieved some remarkable things in their glory days, right? In plainly modest terms, I can say that Vijay Hazare was one of the founding members of Indian cricket, going all the way back to the time after the Second World War.

Image credits: CricTracker

Born in 1915, Vijay Hazare was the first captain of the Indian Cricket Team. He captained India in 14 of the 30 Tests he played and was the man who led India to it’s first Test victory in the 1951-52 series against England.

The captain’s curse

Although Vijay Hazare made a name for himself by becoming the team’s first leader, that too in extremely tumultuous times, his tenure wasn’t a widely successful one. The Indian team was had barely begun to find it’s roots in this new game when Hazare led India, and some of his teammates believed that filling the shoes of the captain restricted him from becoming a better batter. His teammate Vijay Merchant, who would later go on to take the reins of captaincy from him, said that captaincy prevented Hazare from becoming India’s finest batsman, and quoted it as “one of the tragedies of cricket."

However, that’s not the idea his numbers present us with. In his 30 outings as a Test batter, he scored 2,192 runs at a stunning average of 47.65. That average was unheard of back in the day, especially from a subcontinental player. His overall First-Class numbers are even more impressive, as he scored 18,740 runs at an average of 58. 7 of his 60 FC centuries came during the Second World War. Only three Indian batters have a First-Class average greater than Hazare; Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Dravid.

His bowling in international games wasn’t one to remember, but his FC record rightfully deems him as an all-rounder; 595 wickets at an average of 24! A fun little fact about Hazare’s bowling: he picked Bradman’s wicket thrice across International and county games.

One of Vijay Hazare's teammates, Polly Umrigar, when asked to recall batting with him for India, quoted the following:

"It was a treat to bat with him as he had a very sound defence and gave you a lot of confidence when batting with him. Whether he scored a century or got out early he had the same stoic expression on his face."

A boatload of records

I don't think it is possible to amass all his accomplishments in one feature, but I'll try my best.

Hazare became the first Indian to get to 1,000 Test runs and was also the fastest to reach the milestone at the time, in just 25 innings. He was the first Indian to score a triple-hundred in First-Class cricket and the first to score a century in each innings of a Test match. He was also the first to score 50 First-Class centuries and that record remained uncontested for many, many years.

His 577-run stand with Gul Mahmood was the highest partnership for any wicket in First-Class cricket till Jayawardene and Sangakkara broke it with their 624-run duet against South Africa.

He, along with Jasubhai Patel, were the first cricketers to be conferred with the Padma Shri. For a while after seeking retirement from professional cricket, Vijay Hazare assumed the duties of a Test selector.

On 13th December, 2000, Vijay Hazare added another feather to his cap when he became the first recipient of the Castrol Lifetime Achievement award. The man was in a league of his own, in his days and the years to come. A perfect analogy for him would be: Hazare is to the new generation of batters what Rockerfeller is to the new day tech billionaires.