In the first-ever Test played, in March 1877, Australia had a player born in British India, Bransby Cooper, from Dhaka. A hard-hitting batsman, who once put on 283 runs with W.G. Grace in England, he made 15 and three in that Test.
Cooper is remembered today mainly as an answer to a trivia question, but a man born in Melbourne a few years later, Frank Tarrant, has a deeper historical connection with Indian cricket. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the winners of a Test series between the two countries honours two giants, each with an intimate connection with the other’s country. Tarrant deserves recognition too.
He was an all-rounder, probably the finest never to have played Test cricket. In the words of Wisden, he “swapped Melbourne for Marylebone” playing for Middlesex where he achieved the season’s double (1000 runs and 100 wickets) eight times. He once took ten wickets each in five matches in a row. He also played for his native Victoria, and significantly, had a third career in India.
Opening the doors
It is his work in India that calls for a ‘Tarrant Medal’ perhaps to be awarded to the best players in an India-Australia Test series. It would be a way of honouring an Australian who did much for Indian cricket. Tarrant has been called ‘India’s oldest cricket friend’. He was responsible for getting Australia to send a team to India for the first time in 1935-36, and opening the doors to one of the most intense rivalries of modern times. He oversaw the laying of pitches and the outfield at the Brabourne Stadium.
By then he had already woven himself into the fabric of Indian cricket. He worked with the Maharajah of Patiala to introduce India to Test cricket, and coached the Indian team for their debut in England in 1932. Tarrant predicted the team would win half their matches. India won nine, lost eight and drew nine of their 26 first class matches.
Umpiring in India
Tarrant also umpired in India’s first two home Tests, against England, but was kept out of the third after England captain Douglas Jardine objected.
This was because Tarrant had warned Jardine against using Bodyline tactics (this was the first series after that much-reviled tactic was used in Australia which involved bowling at the body of the batsmen). The fast bowlers were Nobby Clark and Stan Nichols. Tarrant stood his ground. Jardine cabled the MCC, and Tarrant was replaced for the final Test.
Tarrant’s sheer chutzpah in his dealings with the cricket boards of Australia and India hastened the inauguration of cricket ties between the two countries. In his biography of Tarrant, the Australian writer and Indophile Mike Coward speaks of Tarrant’s “momentous, selfless and undervalued service to the development of Indian cricket on the international stage.”
Tarrant set himself up as an interpreter of the Indian board and its fresh energies to Australia while also making the Indians aware of the conservative nature of Australia’s board. When the tour finally got underway, “the Maharajas and Nawabs opened their kingdoms, their swollen coffers, and their hearts to the visitors,” writes Coward. Led by the 46-year-old Jack Ryder, the visitors won 11 of 17 first class matches and lost three, two of which were against a team promoted as an ‘Indian XI’.
But the scores were incidental. It was the pioneering effort that mattered. Eight members of that squad had played Test cricket, and the five most experienced — Ryder, Charlie McCartney, Bert Ironmonger, Ron Oxenham and ‘Stork’ Hendry had 87 Tests among them. In his final press conference, Ryder predicted that India would, one day become a powerful cricketing nation.
Impressive record
Tarrant arrived in India in 1908 as coach and consultant to the Patialas. On debut for the Europeans in the Quadrangular Tournament he scored 49 and claimed 10 for 15 in an innings win over the Muslims. He was still playing in the tournament at 56. In a 37-year first class career, he finished with 17,952 runs and 1512 wickets with 33 centuries and 38 ten-wicket hauls.
Tarrant’s cricketing credentials are excellent; his pioneering work as coach, umpire, groundsman, administrator, bridge-builder are exemplary. It would be fitting if the Tarrant Medal were to be awarded to one Indian cricketer and one Australian in each series. Tarrant has earned this.
