Outside the tongue-twisting ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium that sits among the green hills of Visakhapatnam stands a gold statue of CK Nayudu, the first man to captain India back in 1932 and whose ancestral roots were here in Andhra Pradesh.
Nayudu probably would have approved of this England team, the plinth on which his statue sits denoting, among other feats, the 153 struck for the Hindus against MCC at the Bombay Gymkhana in late 1926. An innings that helped convince the game’s custodians that India were ready for Test status, it featured 14 fours, 11 sixes and a century brought up in 65 minutes. Bazball eat your heart out.
