Come October, the Nation will be held captive by live action on the Cricket field between an ever-increasing number of participating cricket teams from the Nations of the World. The billion-dollar industry will organize scores of contests between so many teams and with it will pour moolah worth billions of dollars. The more than month-long Cricket World Cup will generate revenue figures that will pale down in comparison to the previous year’s figures. The commotion, frenzy and ecstasy will begin and the whole world will be gripped by cricket fever operating from India. Earlier, the gladiators would play the gentleman’s game but now it is a game of losing temper, abuse and sledging. The world of cricket had surely transformed but still carries the fragrance of the memories who believed it to be the gentleman’s game only. Swaroop Kishan Reu, the first Kashmiri Umpire, is one such gentleman who had the honour of umpiring in that glorious period.
Kashmiri Pandits adversely minuscule as their numbers may be have left no field where they have not made a mark and pursued their goals with a passion that makes them envious in the eyes of others and makes them justifiably qualified to enter into Halls of Fame of their respective fields. These days it is no measure of achievement to savour success in fields as diverse as films, media, event management, sports, fashion, technology, administration, corporate governance, legal profession and all the rest of them as the scale of avenues and opportunities has grown exponentially and as the economic powerhouse India is becoming produces such advantages and opportunities add infinitum but consider an era when amidst the dearth of opportunities it was nearly impossible to find ones way upwards and onwards and to maintain a degree of remaining at the top was indeed a formidable task.
Pandit Swaroop Kishan Reu was the first Kashmiri Pandit to have umpired for India in Cricket Tests as well as One-day matches. His forefathers belonged to Kashmir and he was born at Habba Kadal, Srinagar in 1930. Sh. B.N.Sharga (Baikunth Nath Sharga) who has done a yeoman’s service by compiling the records of those Kashmiris who brought laurels to Kashmiri Pandit community outside Kashmir. In his book” Kashmiri Panditon ke Anmol Rattan” he records that Swaroop Kishan Reu had an irresistible passion for cricket. Although trained in Law, his enthusiasm for the gentleman’s game was always there. He himself was part of Delhi University’s cricket team and played in the capacity of Batsman and wicketkeeper. Like Kashmiri Pandits, he inherited a trait to seek employment in the Central Government and retired from the AG office as an Accounts Officer.
Swaroop Kishan’s chance to represent India came when he made his debut as an umpire in the test match at Bangalore in 1978 (December 15-20) against Clive Lloyds West Indies team. Unfortunately, that Test match had to be abandoned due to riots. In the next Test match of this series at Madras (Now Chennai), he and fellow umpire J.D. Ghosh were criticized for allowing too many bouncers in the match by D.L. Haynes, causing severe injuries to the players. A year later in 1979 at the same ground, Swaroop Kishen and his fellow umpire and all players lay prostrate on the ground during the session of the game when suddenly swarms of bees attacked all of them! After that, there was no looking back. He umpired for One Day cricket matches also. This was the era when this format was gaining tremendous popularity and was to set the stage for making India a force to reckon with in the world of cricket both in terms of cultivating the stock of players, infrastructure and the management potential of the game.
Swaroop Kishan’s umpiring was considered highly efficient, and technically superb and he commanded the respect of greats of cricket like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Amarnath brothers and all the rest of them. In spite of his obese size, he would be the most sought-after umpire in an era when the game was making a transition to cutthroat competitiveness and discovering its commercial potential.
Kudos to people like Pandit Swaroop Kishan who exalted the institution of umpiring and thereby brought laurels to the Kashmiri community.
Swaroop Kishen may not have had the luxury of being associated with the game of cricket from high end technical setup of sleek modern day T.V Studios and amassing attractive paychecks for ruminating about, analysing and debating the game of cricket but the love and passion for the game would compel him to take course to the studios of Akashvani and Doordarshan where passionate participants and stalwarts like Dr. Narottam Puri, Chetan Chauhan, Susheel Jain and others would regale the listeners and viewers alike to the joys of cricket. Kashmir Rechords is sharing some of those rare pictures.
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