By Mohan Guruswamy
I recall a rainy day in Marredpally, Secunderabad, when I was cycling back home, a big car pulled up alongside, and the man on the back seat asked me the way to Jaisimha’s house. Ever the wise guy, I said follow the flow of the water, it will take you to the street he lives on and it is the biggest house on it. Marredpally is built on a slope. My father’s house was on the high end and the Laxminarasu mansion was on the last road, and all water concourses flowed towards it. I looked a little quizzically at the man, so he told me he was actually going to meet Mr.Laxminarasu, but he was told to ask for Jaisimha’s house if he got lost. By then all roads also led to his house. Laxminarasu, a wealthy contractor, was becoming the son’s father. This was just before Jai’s selection for the DK Gaekwad led tour of England in 1959 under DK Gaekwad’s when India got whitewashed in the series.
As a ten-year-old, I had seen him play for South Zone against Gerry Alexander’s West Indies team at Hyderabad. This was the team that had Wes Hall, Roy Gilchrist, Gary Sobers and Rohan Kanhai. It was a no contest, but Jai did Hyderabad proud by holding on for a fifty. It won him a place in the Indian XI going to England. Jaisimha was just twenty when he debuted for India, but he was already a famous guy in Secunderabad. He was what we called those days, a real hero. He was handsome, sinewy, walked with a feline grace, collar turned up, hair tossed loosely and could give Dev Anand a run for his money. He would often be seen driving his father’s big Packard or on his Matchless motorcycle.
Jaisimha played Ranji cricket when he was still in Secunderabad’s Mahbub College High School. His father’s mansion had a tennis court and a swimming pool. My neighbor, the Davis Cup player SP Misra, another Marredpally figure, once told me that Jai could have become a top tennis player, but chose cricket. If I remember right, he beat Premjit Lal in the inter-university tennis team finals.
I was not much of a cricket player and even less of a watcher. But I grew up to 6’3’ with broad shoulders, and the few times I would run into him, Jaisimha would tell me to take up fast bowling. I was too lazy and smart enough to realize that I didn’t have it in me. Cricket is hard work and it is only once in a blue moon that a natural sportsman like Jai comes along.
But I played with him a few times. The first time at the Marredpally cricket grounds, because he was short of a player and I happened to be around. The next time I played with him was for the annual Nizam College old boys vs present boys match. The match was played on a coir matting pitch and we had a fast bowler called Khaja Naeemuddin who was knocking on the Ranji doors. The intensity of bowling depended on who was batting. When Jai came into bat, it was decided to give him the full treatment. He took the first snorter on his jaw, and when he saw us smirking, he wiped the blood and smiled. The next five balls went over the wall for sixes. The ignominy was compounded because each time the ball went over, one of us had to scramble over the compound wall and hunt for the ball in the bushes. Jai would wait patiently till it was found and repeat it again.
The last time I played with him was when I was living in Bombay. I persuaded my club, the Bombay Gymkhana, to invite a Secunderabad Club team for a match. The Secunderabad Club team was led by Jaisimha and had players like Murtuza Ali Baig, Habib Ahmed, MAK Pataudi with CS Shamlal as its manager. Once again Jai was falling short for a full team and Shamlal and myself were coopted. The Bombay Gymkhana had top notch team with Test players like the fast bowler Kailash Ghattani, batsman Yajurvendra Singh and Bablu Bhide. The Gymkhana took a drubbing mainly because Jai was on a song, both in bowling and batting. The Secunderabad Club team was billeted with various members of the Gymkhana and was feted that evening at the Club. Bombay was still officially dry and each visiting member was provided with a short-term permit and a lot of victuals flowed that evening. Jai was in great form and sang a few numbers
The last time I saw Jai in flannels sometime in the mid-seventies when Hyderabad was playing the Railways in Ranji knockout match at the Fateh Maidan. Habeeb Khan was playing for the Railways and the match was played after overnight rains. Hyderabad went in to bat first and were six down for less than fifty in an hour or so, when Jaisimha declared. The shrewd tactician that he was, he wanted to catch the Railways on the same wicket before the sun dried up the wicket. The Railways went past Hyderabad but were all out just after tea. I remember Jai telling us, “now we will play some cricket!” Hyderabad won. Cricket was more than show business those days. It was a game of the mind and a way of life. People like Jai played like through gentlemen, for the pleasure of it but hard and fair. I met him at his place in Sainikpuri a few days before he passed. He had a glass in his hand and insisted I have one too. I said something about being diabetic etc but Jaisimha had his way. It was impossible to say no to a champion and gentleman.
Mohan Guruswamy
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