Indian cricket team in England in 1936

The Indian cricket team toured England in the 1936 season and played 28 first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

fixtures, winning only four whilst losing 12 and drawing 12.

India played three Test matches

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

and lost the series to England 2-0 with one match drawn. England won the First Test by 9 wickets at Lord's

Lord's Cricket Ground

Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...

; the Second Test at Old Trafford was drawn; England won the Third Test at The Oval

The Oval

The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

by 9 wickets.

The team was captained by the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram

Maharajkumar of Vizianagram

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju , better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, was an Indian cricketer, cricket administrator and politician.- Childhood :...

, aka Vizzy, who was neither the greatest player nor the greatest captain of all time. But the team did include several top-class players such as Vijay Merchant

Vijay Merchant

Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...

, Mushtaq Ali

Mushtaq Ali

Syed Mushtaq Ali was a former Indian cricketer, and an aggressive Test batsman. Ali holds the distinction of scoring the first Test century by any Indian overseas, when he hit a ton for the team in 1936 at Manchester in England.A Wisden Special Award winner, he scored four first class hundreds in...

and CK Nayudu

C. K. Nayudu

Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu , also known as CK, was an Indian cricketer who served as India's first Test captain. He was born in Nagpur, Maharashtra and died in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He played first-class cricket regularly till 1958, and returned for one last time in 1963 at the age of 68...

Controversy

Another top-class player was Lala Amarnath

Lala Amarnath

Nanik Amarnath Bhardwaj was an Indian Test cricketer. He was the first cricketer to score a Test century for the Indian cricket team, which he achieved on debut...

but the tour was marred by controversy as recorded in A Right Royal Indian Mess on CricInfo, with Amarnath being sent home early for spurious "disciplinary" reasons. Ultimately, after a long saga of closed ranks and establishment incompetence, he was completely exonerated.

External sources

CricketArchive – tour summaries

Controversy

External sources

Further reading