Ask any batsman, big or small, whether he’d enjoyed playing fast bowling, in all its potent grandeur, and lethal in every way possible, when protective gear, helmets and bouncer laws were not in vogue — you’d not get a frank, honest answer.
The reason is simple. We, human beings, never accept our inherent weakness — this may just as well be labelled as being a ‘blot’ on any batsman’s cricketing make-up, especially when the player in question has a stature of his own. The ‘quip’ would often be — and, it is — “Who does not have nerves when facing laser-sharp fast bowling, or armoury, which has the potential to wounding a batsman’s existence and psyche?” Modern cricket isn’t exempt, with its astronaut’s attire.
Chandu Borde (born July 21, 1934) was a batsman of a rare stock — an attractive and unruffled right-hander, who played the best and ‘worst’ of fast bowlers, with a sense of unusual calm, skill and supreme confidence. Borde was artistic, fearless and practical. And, here’s why:
The year 1958-59. The West Indians, the calypso charmers, were in India, with a deadly combine of the likes of the awesome Roy Gilchrist and ‘pace-like-fire’ Wesley Hall, who had scuttled the mental shock-absorbers of many an Indian batsman. Such was the duo’s phenomenal fire-power that local batsmen did not know what hit them — the speed of Gilchrist, or the sight of his diabolical run-up, mechanics ofmotion, or fiery throttle, ‘a one-man army.’
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