THE ORIGINAL WALL

Before Rahul Dravid came along, Dilip Vengsarkar was the bulwark around which the rest of the Indian team batted in the 1970s and 1980s.

- ANIL THAKRANEY

True to his nickname “Colonel”, he would stand resolute at the crease, quietly amassing runs at the No 3 or No 4 positions in his no-nonsense, methodical style.

Best known for his flowing drive, Vengsarkar’s dependability allowed the more celebrated players like Gundappa Viswanath, Mohinder Amarnath and Kapil Dev to freely play their strokes. He played 116 Test matches and scored nearly 7,000 runs with 17 centuries, six of which came against the lethal fast bowling attack of the West Indies team.

Then there’s his love affair with the Lord’s cricket ground, where he scored three consecutive Test centuries – a feat no visiting player to England has achieved, not even Sir Don Bradman. An unfortunate injury during the early stages of the 1983 World Cup ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. Sipping coffee on the verandah overlooking the Mumbai Cricket Association’s maidan in Bandra- Kurla Complex, keeping a sharp eye on young cricketers honing their skills, Vengsarkar shares rare memories from that World Cup, and speaks passionately about his cricket academies and the upcoming Hindi film ’83, scheduled for release in April this year.

Are you excited about ’83? Your character is a part of the film.

Yes. Adinath Kothare [the Marathi actor who plays the role of Vengsarkar] had come to see me a few times, he wanted to know about my injury, the expectations before the tournament and how we won.

Tell us about the injury.

During the league match at the Oval against the West Indies, we were chasing a score of 280 plus. I was playing really well, Mohinder Amarnath and I were building a partnership and we thought we could chase down the target. I tried to glide one ball from Malcolm