The sub-continent’s fascination with cricket does not end here at Lord’s where India take on England today in the second Test at a venue which is celebrating its bicentenary. Since its inaugural Test here in 1932, India has been a regular visitor to these shores, so are Pakistan and Sri Lanka from the time they were made the full members of the ICC in 1951 and 1980 respectively.

Having learnt the game from the English, the first two teams visiting England in 1886 and in 1888 consisted of Parsis, only because of the rest of the Indian community were still in the process of learning the game properly.

Dhoni wants Indians to be tested in English conditions

But the first All-India team visited England in 1911 consisting of players from every community in India. Salamuddin Khan, Shafkat Hussain and Syed Hussain were their Muslim players.

The team, led by the Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh, played 23 matches on the tour, 14 of which were first-class. The Maharaja himself played only three matches though because of his activities outside the game, but their star performer was Palwankar

Baloo, an ‘untouchable’ who back home in India was not even allowed to have lunch alongside the high caste Hindus.

Instead he was made to sit on the ground outside the pavilion on the field and served food on banana leaves which attracted a lot of protest from his fans.

Baloo, a left-arm spinner of great merit, bagged 114 wickets on the 1911 England tour of which 75 were in first-class matches.

It was 16 years later, though, that India were given the full membership of the ICC and Baloo by then was in his retiring days and never played Test cricket.

From then to now the game, its players and the whole scenario has developed into a lot more professional business as players with great merit have come and gone. England still, though, have a better record than India in Tests having won 40 matches compared to India’s 20 in 108 Tests since 1932.

I have seen India bamboozled here at Lord’s for 42 runs in 1974, their lowest score in Tests. A debut century by Saurav Ganguly in 1996 was a great sight indeed, so was Dilip Vengsarkar scoring three centuries at Lord’s on consecutive tours. Kapil Dev’s four sixes in a row off Eddie Hemmings when India needed 24 runs to avoid the follow on were a treat to watch as was Sunil Gavaskar’s 188 in the MCC bicentenary match in 1987 and of course Gooch’s 333 and 123 against India in 1990, the only triple century scored in a Test match at Lord’s so far.

M.S. Dhoni’s men, having drawn the first Test of the series, will need a lot more application to dent England, a side which has its own ups and downs recently — both overseas and at home — with their captain Alastair Cook struggling to save his job.

For Dhoni’s men it’s only the beginning of India’s first five-match series in England in 55 years. However, the series has begun with a controversy in which James Anderson, the English fast bowler, has been accused by the Indian tourists of pushing and abusing all-rounder Ravinder Jadeja after an altercation on the second day of the Test. The Indians have levelled the charges of ICC code of conduct level 3 which, if proved right, could see Anderson banned for at least two Tests.

It is certainly not the sort of start which England or India could afford if this series is to be played in the right spirits.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2014