“As we look out here, I can picture myself running in from the river end and bowling,” says Binny, who was a professional for Carlisle in the summer of 1982. “When I saw the kids out there yesterday, running around, fielding and bowling, I thought I’d put on my tracksuit or my whites. I still feel like my mind is willing, but the body isn’t…”
This is a trip rich in memories for Binny, one of the most senior figures in world cricket. This week, at the conclusion of the First Test between England and India at Headingley, he journeyed from Yorkshire to Cumbria. On Wednesday and Thursday, he met old team-mates, the families of friends no longer with us, ladies who made the teas and others connected to his long-ago but still precious Carlisle summer.
Binny played for Carlisle in an era when top professionals bestrode the club scene. Teams in Lancashire benefited from household names but Cumbrian sides also had their share. In the early 1980s, for instance, the Australian all-rounder Greg Matthews turned out for Whitehaven. Binny, an all-rounder who had made his Test debut for India in 1979, headed further north.
“The Indian team were touring England that year, and I was dropped out of the team,” he says. “That’s why I picked Carlisle, to come and play with them. I picked it, basically, to come and learn.
Binny returned to Carlisle this week to relive memories of the 1982 summer he spent at the club (Image: Jon Colman)
“Everybody spoke about English conditions, how difficult it was to bat. I remember seeing Chris Old, Geoff Arnold and Mike Hendrick bowling…it wasn’t easy to play. I wanted to come and see what it was like.
“The conditions were tough. It made me tighten up my batting. When I bowled, I found that the lengths I had been bowling in India were wrong here. I found the ball to swing and also seam a little more. It really helped me to enhance my game at that point in time.”
Binny was a stellar signing for Carlisle in the North Lancashire League. “We’ve had some good pros in the league, and some good ones at Carlisle, but he’s the best we’ve ever had,” says Dave Musgrave, who played in the same XI as Binny and is here at Edenside to chat with his old team-mate.
“He used to walk around the ground and say, ‘Hundred wicket today, Muzzy’. And he was usually as good as his word. He was a team man, and he knew the wickets. He was brilliant to have. And his knowledge was unbelievable.”
Binny was keen to adjust to English conditions and perform well enough to earn an India recall. The following summer, the 1983 World Cup would be played in England, but he says he was not focused on that whilst in Carlisle. “It was just part of my learning experience,” he says.
Binny had played Test cricket before joining Carlisle as a professional in 1982 (Image: News & Star)
“I was made to feel at home straight away. Everybody was keen, everybody was cricket-oriented. They were like a bunch of professional cricketers, which surprised me, considering it was just a league.
“I spent a lot of time at the club, to practice and coach the young cricketers. The club members were always looking out for me, making sure I was comfortable.”
Binny lived on Wigton Road and was joined by his wife and two young daughters for the second half of the summer. By then he had produced inspirational performances to help Carlisle top the league.
“There were some good pros around, but we always seemed to be on top,” he says. “We fought well and won a lot of games. I was told that that [quality] wasn’t there in the team in the past, that we gave in easily to the opposition. But everybody gave their heart to it.
“I remember one game when we played Vickerstown. They had a Pakistani Test player and we were not given much of a chance. I managed to get a hundred and that spinner…we nullified him. He was never in the game. That was one of the better games we played. It was towards the end, when we were winning most of the games.”
Binny’s displays helped Carlisle win the North Lancashire League in 1982 (Image: News & Star)
Binny is appreciative of the embrace he received from his team-mates, while colleagues also respected the Indian star. “The first Saturday he was here, after a game, he took us all up to Ali’s Tandoori, which had just opened in Stanwix,” says Dave Musgrave.
“They were terrific guys,” Binny responds. “It’s not only that we enjoyed our cricket – we enjoyed ourselves off the field.
“Everybody was keen to see me happy. I was far away from home and coming into different conditions. It was really nice. I have so much respect for them. It’s why I always want to come and look them up – come to Carlisle just to relive that atmosphere again.”
Binny performed well enough, over the season, to earn an India recall. This meant he missed the final game of the Cumbrian summer – but Carlisle, captained by Mike Battersby, had done enough to win the North Lancashire League.
“I went back home and had a fantastic season,” he says. “I owe it to this experience in Carlisle, because I learned about different situations to bat in, about where to bowl. As a club pro, your job is to be much more than a player. You are taking the role of a sub-leader, which I enjoyed as well.”
Binny was a champion with Carlisle, and was then propelled to stunning achievement with his country. In 1983, he was in India’s one-day squad for the World Cup. He proceeded to enjoy a terrific summer in England, becoming the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 18. At Lord’s, he helped Kapil Dev’s India upend a glittering West Indies team – Viv Richards, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall et al – to win the trophy for the first time. Binny’s fast-medium bowling accounted for Clive Lloyd’s wicket in the final.
Binny, front left, with the India team that won the World Cup in England in 1983 (Image: PA)
Again, he credits some of his cup-winning progress to Carlisle. “In India, we [fast/medium pacers] were known as the shine removers. That was the joke. Our spinners did all the hard work. What I learned from [1982] was to get the ball at the right length, pitch it in the right place to swing and seam at the same time. A short ball in England doesn’t make any sense.
“I learned that very quickly. Batting-wise, I wasn’t going to play too many shots. That’s also what I learned. When I went back from Carlisle, I became one of the top three performers in the country, and that’s why I went to the World Cup. So coming here helped a lot.”
All this occurred in a career which flourished to the tune of 27 Tests and 72 ODIs – yet Binny never lost his connections to Carlisle. Another former Carlisle player who became a close friend, Chris Packham, recalls how, during the World Cup, several of the Carlisle team went to Old Trafford to watch India play, then Binny invited them to dine with many of the Indian team afterwards. “He was a brilliant cricketer, but also a brilliant person, and he’s the same now,” Chris says.
Binny played 27 Tests for India and is now the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (Image: PA)
In subsequent years Binny came back to Edenside, whether to open the Jimmy Little Pavilion in 1984, to be part of another India tour in 1986 or, in 1988, to bring a number of Indian under-17 and under-19 players to play at Carlisle. Among them were future Test stars Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad. When time has allowed in later years, as Binny progressed from the playing side of cricket to its administrative positions, he has made a beeline for the Great Border City again during Indian tours.
“I’d always dash to Carlisle, spend a day or two here,” he says. “It was such a lovely memory that I had here, that I wanted to relive it. Many of the players I played with have moved on, and some have passed away. So it is always a good opportunity to come and see who’s still here, and spend some time here.
“Everything has changed since I first came to England – all the grounds look different, whether the Test grounds or even here at Carlisle. It seems bigger now. But the atmosphere is still the same. People are still the same.”
At Headingley last week, Binny spotted some of his Carlisle pals, such as Musgrave, and beckoned them over. Some of them were duly treated to an afternoon in the company of other greats, such as Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Sir Ian Botham. The friendship being so strong, these were only gentle insights into the powerful position Binny now holds.
His tenure as BCCI president ends later this summer, and he will return to India before the Test series finishes. His Carlisle trip, then, was timely – likewise the opportunity to ask him about England’s dramatic victory at Headingley under the stirring captaincy of Ben Stokes, who grew up in Cockermouth.
Binny this week caught up with players, families and tea ladies from his time at Carlisle some 43 years ago (Image: Jon Colman)
“Over three-and-a-half days, I think we were ahead,” Binny says. “We got runs on the board and had England in trouble. But we didn’t really bowl well in the second innings. We were probably short of one spinner. Yet England did well to come back and play such positive cricket.
“We have a lot of work to do, I think, to get back our bowling interaction. [Jasprit] Bumrah is still not fully recovered from his injury, but he is still one of the best bowlers. I think another spinner back in the side, and a little bit of shuffling in the bowling, and we should be okay.”
Binny evidently respects Stokes. “In the first innings, he was the best bowler, the only one who was getting batsmen in trouble with his movement off the pitch. Injuries have held him back a little bit, but he’s a very shrewd captain, leads from the front, and is a fantastic cricketer who has the right approach to the game.”
Stokes is another who graced the Cumbrian club scene before hitting the heights. “Exactly – that’s the learning experience he will have picked up,” Binny says. “Growing up as a cricketer, that’s where you learn your skills. That’s where it comes from.”
After Binny’s last day in Carlisle, he prepares to travel to Birmingham for the Second Test, which starts next Wednesday. On a quiet afternoon at Edenside, then, the meaning of this trip is profoundly expressed.
“This morning,” he says, “I met up with a few of the wives of the cricketers who have passed away. It was very touching. The families, from my memory, were always very fond of each other. It’s nice to spend time here, reminiscing about cricket, talking about the old days.
“Hopefully we’ll be back again. All of us are getting old – we’re well past the twilight of our lives. But we can still talk about what happened 43 years ago. It’s so clear in our minds.”