Solly’s looking for you, Vinod!

A Yorkshire on Sunday picture of Sachin Tendulkar, Solly Adam (centre) and Vinod Kambli from the book

The life of Vinod Ganpat Kambli exemplifies a strange combination of poverty, neglect, and lack of respect and love, besides the indomitable spirit to excel. Vinod is a former Indian cricketer who unfortunately had to face tragic circumstances in his life despite possessing extraordinary cricketing talents that could have earned him a place among the greatest cricketers in history. The reasons for Vinod's downfall could be both personal and familial, as well as social and political.

Whatever the reasons, sadly, his greatest potentials were not properly channelled, nor his exceptional talents utilised properly, resulting in his tragic decline.
Otherwise, he was someone who could have emerged as a cricket legend. Sunil Gavaskar was a great admirer of Vinod's talents, and so was Ravi Shastri. Ravi would often share stories about Vinod and his potential for the game. Having such a wonderful track record, and upon the recommendations from Sunil and Ravi, I signed Vinod for Spen Victoria team to play for the 1991 season, where I was the captain of the team. When Vinod joined Spen Victoria, he was just 19 years old, with a frail and skinny composure.

Doubts dispelled

Many of our teammates, including Chris Pickles, were sceptical about his cricketing abilities, though I was completely aware of Vinod's exceptional talents; Chris would often comment that ‘his arms look like chicken legs.' But all their doubts were dispelled in the very first match he played against the Yorkshire Bank team.
I also have a vivid memory of another match against the Yorkshire Bank team, where we had to face one of the renowned bowlers in the Bradford League, Paul Grayson, who had played for multiple county teams, including Yorkshire and Essex. Vinod, however, started hitting Paul's deliveries out of the ground repeatedly, causing Paul to stop bowling and position himself as a fielder at the fine leg. At the end of the match, I asked Paul why he abruptly stopped bowling. Paul replied candidly, "Solly, I have upcoming county matches to play in, and this young lad is effortlessly hitting me out of the ground, even against my best deliveries. I did not want to shatter my confidence."

Also Read: "The ball will go outside the ground like we used to play in Shivaji Park", says Vinod Kambli

Vinod Kambli in 2003. Pic/mid-day archives

£700 as rewards

With this outstanding performance, he earned a total of £700 from match fees and other financial rewards for the 199I season. It was quite a lot of money in those days around 60,000 Indian Rupees. I travelled to India to hand over the entire lot to his father. His father was so happy and said, he had never seen that lot in his entire life. However, Vinod, when he returned to India, took all the money from his father and spent it with his friends. Vinod never cared money, nor did he have any respect for commodities. At the end of each season, Vinod would generously give away all his cricket gear - bat, pads and gloves, including his mementos and trophies at my home, before returning to India.

Following this (1992) World Cup, he came back to England to play again for Spen Victoria for the 1992 season in the Bradford League. He showcased his batting talents in that season as well, where he scored 683 runs.

Vinod became an integral part of my family. He would stay at our house and seamlessly blend into our regular family routines, like any other member of my family, like buying things for the house from the market, joining us for meals and to be a part of family gatherings. Over time, Vinod developed a close friendship with my youngest son, Sohail.

Vinod also received contract offer with better package from yet another club, which played under a different league. I even suggested him to move there as it was more lucrative for him. But he wanted to remain with Spen Victoria, as this club played under Bradford League which provides higher standard cricket than that of that new offer, so that he could sharpen his cricketing talents for international Test cricket. Though he hailed from a socio-economically underprivileged family, without even proper housing, money never held any importance for him; the only aim for him was to find a place in the Indian Test team. One day, when a group of Bombay cricketers were having lunch at my house, they asked Vinod, why would he not consider working on weekdays when there were no matches. To that, the response of Vinod was loud and clear: "I will earn money when I play Test matches for India, and I don't want to divert my focus into part-time jobs."

True to his words, Vinod was selected for the Indian Test team in I993. In addition to cricket, Vinod had a passion for dancing and singing and he would delight us all with his performances at home, keeping everyone happy.

Vinod was a complete teetotaller and was a quiet personality; he would simply greet everyone with a hello and then silently retreat into the background. My heart melts when I recall Vinod's address before the English media, where he referred to me as his ‘fatherly figure.' I begin to well up when I think of the tragic story of this bright child, who could have had a promising career in cricket. I feel that Vinod had the potential to become one of the greatest players in cricket history. He would have been no less than his friend and cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar.

Dark reasons?

But I cannot blame anyone for his decline, as its reasons might be as dark and varied as it could be, which even the rays of the sun cannot penetrate through. Anyway, it is futile to do an autopsy at this hour, as his demise as a cricketer while he was still young, is impossible to revive. This story often leaves a pessimistic image on us, as life is not always as colourful and joyful as a rainbow, but sometimes it would be as ugly and dreadful as a Mare the Norse Nightmare.

Of late, I have attempted several times to contact Vinod, but unfortunately, I have not received any response from him. If by chance Vinod gets to see this at least, I want him to know that we have a lot of love for him, and every member of our family would love to see him and talk to him, to reunite with him. Vinod, we all miss you, my dear!

Reproduced with permission from Solly Adam (A Passionate Cricketer from Yorkshire) - Beyond Boundaries by Vara Vantapati, published by Nirvana Publishers, Hyderabad

Who is Solly Adam?

Solly Adam, 78, migrated from Surat to the United Kingdom in 1963. He has helped over 400 players from India and Pakistan get club contracts in England. The Yorkshire resident's services to cricket earned him and his wife Maryam an invitation from the Queen to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in 2014. He had a big role to play in getting Sachin Tendulkar to play for Yorkshire in 1992.