Chetan Chauhan: The Cricketing Chattaan

Former India batsman Chetan Chauhan (Chetandra Pratap Singh Chauhan) passed away on Sunday due to complications related to Covid-19. He was admitted to a hospital in Gurugram on Friday night due to multiple organ failure and was immediately put on ventilator support. But he succumbed to the illness after almost 36 hours on Sunday as his brother Pushpendra Chauhan announced the news.

Born on July 21, 1947, Chetan Chauhan was an opening batsman who represented India in 40 Tests and 7 ODIs. He represented Indian cricket's north Indianness at a time when Bombay ruled, but he had begun in the west, growing up on the matting wickets of Pune and appearing for Maharashtra and West Zone. Chauhan's batting belonged to that time and place, built on the base of solid defence and back-foot play. His wicket was a treasure to be guarded, not a stage for entertainment.

Along with Sunil Gavaskar, he formed one of India's best opening partnerships in Test cricket. The pair added 3000+ Test runs, including 10-century opening partnerships. Chauhan and Gavaskar averaged 53.75 runs for the opening wicket, the highest for an opening pair (minimum 1200 runs) in Indian cricket history.

He made his debut against New Zealand in 1969 but was dropped after two Tests. Later in the season, he was chosen to play against Australia, but failed to perform and was dropped for a period of three years. He was once again drafted into the Indian team during 1972/73, owing to his stellar form in the Ranji season. Chauhan played 2 Tests against England but failed to make a mark and was once again dropped. In 1976–77, playing with a fractured jaw, he scored 158 against Haryana. Later that season, he scored 200 against Punjab and 147 versus Karnataka as well. Another hundred in Duleep Trophy early next season earned him a place in the Indian team going to Australia and then began Chauhan's most impressive period with the bat.

In his first match of the tour, he made 157 against Victoria, a gritty knock that included only two fours. He was selected in the playing eleven for the second Test and made 88 runs in his very first innings at Perth. From there on, he became Gavaskar's regular opening partner and only missed one Test match till the end of his career. Chauhan and Gavaskar's best opening partnership came against England in 1979. Chasing a mammoth target of 438 in the fourth innings at the Oval, they added 213 for the opening wicket. The match though ended in a draw as India missed the target by nine runs.

Playing against Australia in 1980-81, Chauhan made 249 runs in three Tests. His highest score in Tests came at Adelaide, where he missed out on his century by 3 runs. In the next Test at Melbourne, Chauhan and Gavaskar added 165 runs for the first wicket before the latter was given out lbw. Gavaskar was extremely unhappy with the decision and asked Chauhan to leave the field with him. Indian manager Wing Commander Shahid Durrani had to intervene and avoided an awkward situation by convincing Chauhan to go back. India toured New Zealand after this trip, where Chauhan could only manage one 50-plus score and that was the last we saw of him in the Indian team.

Chauhan may have garnered 2084 Test runs during his career, but he also holds the dubious distinction of being the first player in Test history to score 2000+ runs without a century. His last first-class game was the Ranji final against Bombay in 1985. Batting with a fractured finger, he made 98 and 54 in that match.

A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Chauhan was a Member of the Lok Sabha from Amroha (Uttar Pradesh) in 1991 and 1998. He is also a recipient of the Arjuna Award.

Chauhan is remembered for forging a successful opening partnership with the great Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar-Chauhan pair

The opening pair of Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan is the second-best pair in the history of Indian Test cricket. The duo added 3010 runs in 59 innings at an average of 53.75. There is also a 213-run partnership played in the 1979 historic Oval Test. The partnership was chased by a record target of 438 runs.

Gavaskar once gave an example of how keen Chouhan was. He told that in the Sydney Test against Australia in 1977, he and Chauhan, whom we fondly called Master, were batting. Geoff Thomson was considered the fastest bowler in the world at that time.

A ball from Thomson was slashed by Chauhan and the ball went across the boundary. All the players sitting in the pavilion shouted ‘Master’.

Gavaskar explained to Chauhan never to make Pacer angry. So, Chauhan said that he is also a Rajput, not afraid of him. After this, Thomson bowled fast and dangerously to Chauhan, but he was able to withstand his deliveries. When Chauhan was out after scoring 127 balls and scoring 42 runs, he had to go to the hospital because of a fracture in his thumb.

Most Test runs scored without a ton for a top order player: Shane Warne leads the list of players of who have scored the most Test runs without scoring a century. He scored 3154 runs in 145 Tests with a best of 99. However, Warne was a bowler and usually batted down the order. Chauhan was an opening batsman and played 40 Tests and scored 2084 runs with a best of 97. In the list of most runs without a Test hundred, Chauhan is only second to Warne. Chauhan had scored 16 fifties, out of which there were two 90s and five 80s.

Chauhan went on to become an ideal foil for Sunil Gavaskar at the top as they amassed 3127 runs at an average of 54.85 in 60 innings in tandem. They had 11 century stands in total, of which 10 were for the opening wicket. Their best opening stand of 213 came at The Oval Test of 1979, where Gavaskar s double nearly inspired India to an unlikely victory while chasing a huge score. Chauhan s career ended in 1981. At that point of time, the Gavaskar-Chauhan tandem were the third most successful pair in Test match history, behind Bill Lawry-Bob Simpson (586 runs ahead) and Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe (239 ahead).

Chauhan’s last Test came on the tour to New Zealand in 1980-81. Speaking to The Hindu, Chauhan said, “I don’t know why they did that to me. It was not loss of form because at the end of that tour of Australia and New Zealand I had outscored almost every other Indian batsman, except Sandeep Patil. I had an average of 41.50 but was dropped for the next series against England. That really shocked me.”

Post retirement, he has been an administrator, coach and a politician.

Political ambitions: Chauhan’s international career finished in 1981 and he played his last competitive match in 1985. He then moved into politics, joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). So far, he has been elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) twice from Almorah in Uttar Pradesh.

Coaching and playing in Adelaide: In the 1980s, Chauhan joined the Adelaide Cricket Club in the dual capacity of player and coach. Chauhan told The Hindu, “I was captain-coach of the club for a little over three years. Those days, when payment for cricketers in India was not very attractive, the money there [Adelaide] was good. My job in ANZ Bank and the performance bonus from each match fetched me a decent pay packet. I got to play some very good cricket. Players like Gordon Greenidge and Rodney Hogg played for us, and it was fun.”

Managing the Indian team: Chauhan has been appointed the manager of the Indian team on more than an occasion. His two most notable assignments were against Australia. In 2001, he was the team manager when India beat Australia in that historic Kolkata Test to turn the series around. In 2007-08, he was at the helm during the acrimonious tour Down Under that saw the Monkeygate scandal.

While Chauhan has good memories of Adelaide, given that he played some cricket there, he also has had to deal with the sadness of losing his 19-year-old son, Karan, in an accident in that city. When Chauhan was appointed manager of the Indian team to Australia in 2007-08, he told NDTV, “I lost my son. He was a young kid and we loved him. But I will be going back. I will go the place where he met with the accident and where he died, and I will go to the place where he was cremated. I went last year too, and I have made a promise that I will go every year.”

NIFT Chairman and the controversy: In June 2014, Chauhan, a BJP member, was appointed as the chairman of country’s premier fashion institute NIFT. With little or no experience of fashion industry, Chauhan’s appointment kicked up a storm as social media users trolled him left, right and centre, accusing the government of doing a favour on its party member.

Speaking about his on-field partner, Sunil Gavaskar said:

“There's one thing that few players of my generation and the one immediately after don't know - his contribution in getting tax exemptions for them. Both of us first met up with the late Shri R Venkataraman, who was the Finance minister of the country then, and requested him to consider a tax exemption for fees received for playing for India. I must add that it wasn't just for cricket but for all sportspersons who played for India. We explained how, when we were junior cricketers, we had to spend a lot of money on equipment, travel, coaches, etc. when we had no income at all.”

"Chetan always said that if we are asked what our best contribution to Indian cricket was, we should say that it was getting [tax] exemptions for the cricketing fraternity"

He further adds: “Shri Venkatramanji was most considerate and, in a notification,, he passed a ruling that gave us 75% standard deduction for a Test match fee, then an exemption on 50% of the tour fees which we received before leaving for a tour. The cherry on the cake though was the total exemption on the one-day match fees of INR 750 which we received those days. Mind you, we barely played a game or two of one-day internationals then. That notification was in place till about 1998, by which time the number of one-day internationals had increased dramatically as also as the fees which were around INR 1 lakh or so. So around the mid-90s, players were getting about INR 25 lakhs or more free of tax. Even after my retirement, I would give a copy of the notification to the newcomers in the Indian team for them to give to their accountants.”

“He had a wicked sense of humour too. His favourite song as we walked out to face some of the most hostile bowlers in the game was ‘muskura ladle muskura’ [smile little boy, smile]. That was his way of easing the nerves while confronting challenges.”

He concludes: “Now that my partner is no more how can I smile? May your soul have everlasting peace, partner.”

We, at Apeksha News Network pray the same for him: May he rest in unconditional peace!