Chetan Chauhan Singh — the stylish, wristy and nudgy opening batsman of the Indian cricket team, and the popular BJP leader based in Uttar Pradesh as the Yogi government minister, has become another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was my childhood hero along with Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Eknath Solkar and Abid Ali. India has lost a worthy and versatile son in him.
When he came to Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, as the chief guest of the final of Sardar Hargopal Singh Annual Cricket Tournament, a couple of years ago, I was fortunate to have had a heart-to-heart talk with him on his cricketing and political career that I thought of transforming into an interview, which owing to the work pressure and daily mundane demands, couldn’t do. Right from my childhood, I knew that after many unsuccessful opening partnerships of Ramnath Parker, Farokh Engineer, Dileep Sardesai, etc, stability was cemented by Gavaskar and Chauhan.
According to S.M.H. Kirmani, the wicketkeeper of the Indian cricket team, Chetan Chauhan was India›s Imran Khan in politics but unlike him, he wasn’t lucky to have reached that pinnacle in Indian politics. “Nevertheless, Chetan certainly deserved a better status than just being a minister in a state,” said Kirmani, reminding how he was one of the most fearless openers not only of India but the world, especially the way he had faced some of the fastest bowlers including Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding.
Chetan told me the story of his unfortunate early ouster from the Indian cricket team. He told me in a sagacious tone that at times both cricket and politics had become something equivalent to “whoring”. Gautam Gambhir, once my student at the same school, too shared how a bickering regarding captainship in the three formats of the game ended up in him being discriminated against by the bigwigs of India’s current cricketing establishment.
Considered one of the flamboyant and gutsy batsmen of Indian cricket who would dare to hit the bouncers, unlike other Indian batsmen who would be mortally scared of facing them, Chetan played 40 Test matches and seven ODIs. He was Sunil Gavaskar’s longest playing opening partner during the 1970s and early 1980s. Chetan Chauhan and Gavaskar scored over 3,000 runs together with 10 century stands in Tests. In his long and illustrious career, Chauhan scored 2,084 Test runs at an average of 31.57 with 97 being his highest score. Many times, he was in the 90s but wasn’t lucky to be a centurion.
An interesting record of sorts held by him was that Chetan Chauhan happened to be the first player in Test history to score more than 2000 runs without a hundred. In domestic cricket, he was a lavish scorer and outside India, he had built a reputation of being a tenacious fighter and scorer. The best cricketing moment of Chetan’s life, in his words, was the 213-run stand he put up with Gavaskar at The Oval in 1979, breaking the then previous record for the highest opening wicket partnership that was held by Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali (203 runs) at Old Trafford.
Chauhan served in many capacities as an expert cricket guide and trainer, especially for Delhi’s schoolchildren. He also came to Modern School many times. He looked after the DDCA (Delhi & Districts Cricket Association), was the president, vice-president, secretary. Besides, he was also the chief selector plus the manager of the Indian cricket team during its tour of Australia in 2001.
In politics, he was a favourite minister of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who gave him the responsibility of the Sainik Welfare, Home Guards, PRD and Civil Security in the state cabinet. Till last year, he served as the sports minister of the state.
The author is the Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, grandnephew of Bharat Ratna Maulana Azad, community worker and columnist.