England flew out to India as unfancied underdogs, but, against a backdrop of assassination and unrest, clinched a comeback series win.
It was still dark outside, but the phone next to Baxter's head in his Delhi hotel room was ringing, loudly and insistently.
Yet, through the turmoil, the tour stayed on the road, taking in 16 venues, 12 first-class matches and six one-day internationals from Guwahati in the north-eastern Assam region of India, to Colombo in Sri Lanka, via all compass points in between.On several occasions, the tour looked certain to be cancelled only to be resurrected.
The previous winter in New Zealand, tabloid editors had deployed news reporters to track Botham in the very reasonable hope of uncovering salacious stories that might dominate the front, rather than back, pages. Botham was a superstar and stories about him, especially scurrilous ones, sold papers. Botham decided to take a break from cricket rather than endure similar in India.
It was down to Baxter - more used to the gentle pace of a Test match - to verify whether or not one of the world's most recognisable and influential politicians was alive or dead. "Suddenly the owner, who was a Sikh gentleman, came around to all the folks who were sitting in the dining area and said 'you've got to leave. I'm shutting down'. He said there is news that Mrs Gandhi has been shot and there's a danger of riots," Wakankar remembers.
"Gandhi was shot only about two miles from where the hotel was and there were fires billowing up. Our imaginations started to wander and think, well, what's going on here?" remembers Marks. With no-one willing to be the first to jump ship, the tour stayed on track, admittedly with a switch in location.
"So we did our interview there and thereafter for the rest of the tour, David would always say to me if we wanted an interview, let's find a bathroom." Such functions were a regular and often tedious chore for touring sides but Marks remembers this one differently. "It was a small affair in his flat," he says. "Norris obviously knew his cricket. He was relishing the event. It wasn't a duty call for him and we all remembered having a really great time."
"He was English and we were wondering why was he under threat?" remembers Marks. "Why would this happen to him? It was a cumulative effect. With what had happened at the end of October and now we've got our Deputy High Commissioner, who we have got to know the previous evening, being assassinated. Most people thought 'well, we'll be going home now'".
So the Test match went ahead and the series began. England started brightly before Fowler was out caught and bowled by Sivaramakrishnan, the mystery leg spinner who had troubled them 11 days before, and was now making his debut. Despite their eventual heavy loss, there was a crucial silver lining for England. Gatting, in his 54th Test match innings, finally made his first hundred. Averaging just over 24 going into the series, he was a controversial selection who had frustrated England fans with unfulfilled promise."They made him vice captain," Marks says. "So Gatt suddenly goes from a slightly peripheral, exasperating talent to the main man who's going in at three.
"Bhopal is probably as close to an atomic disaster that that one could ever have", says Wakankar. "A repeated occurrence of minor accidents had created a situation which was a tinderbox. It was just waiting to happen. And finally it did on that fateful night. Its effects remain to this day. The home side compiled a competitive 307 in their first innings but when England batted, the predicted disintegration of the pitch never materialised. Instead, thanks to a masterful 160 by opener Robinson - his first Test hundred - the tourists secured a lead of 109.
India lost their last six wickets for just 28 runs leaving England with just 125 to win in two hours. Had India batted another 20 minutes they would surely have made the game safe. Instead, England romped to their victory target in just 23.4 overs with time and eight wickets to spare. The crowd was incensed. Blaming Gavaskar for the lack of ambition and infuriated that their swashbuckling hero Kapil had been omitted, they hurled fruit and insults at the Indian captain.
Had India been spooked by the reaction to the dropping of Kapil? Had England got in their heads? Either way they were bowled out well before the end of the first day for a sub-par 272 with Foster taking 6-104. Taking to the field with a first-innings lead of 380 and with plenty of time left in the game thanks to India's attacking approach, victory was just a matter of time.
"But it wasn't", says Marks. "There was a rumour going around that the groundsman had a cousin who was quite a good cricketer, who Sunil Gavaskar had never taken any notice of and never selected. This was his vengeance. He was going to produce a flat wicket."
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