IN
our country the people have a
great fascination for the game of
cricket. They watch this game
with great passion that is why it is
being generally regarded as the second
religion of the country, All the
T.V. channels now regularly telecast
their programmes based on this
game in which experts express their
viewpoints on the finer aspects of this
game. It has now become a source of
earning big fortunes almost overnight.
Many cricket players have
become millionaires and own big posh
bungalows besides a fleet of imported
luxury cars as very big money is involved
in this game. The first
Kashmiri Pandit to make a mark in
this game as an umpire on international
horizon was Pt. Swaroop
Kishen Reu, who earned a place for
himself in the Wisden Cricketer’s Almanac
for his unbiased and analytical
decisions based on his deep knowledge
about the rules of the game.
The history of cricket in India is
really very interesting. The British
sailors brought this wonderful game
to our country in the 18th century.
They used to play this game at the
Bombay port for their recreation and
enjoyment. The first recorded cricket
match was played between British
soldiers and English settlers in India
in 1751. The first cricket club in
India was established at Calcutta in
1792 known as Calcutta Cricket
Club. It was the second cricket club
after M.C.C. of England in the world.
Parsis of Bombay were the first to be
attracted towards this new game.
They learnt the techniques of this
game very soon and to make it popular
in the country formed the Oriental
Cricket Club in Bombay in 1848.
After sometime another cricket club
by the name of Young Zoroastrians’
Club was formed by the young Parsi
boys to play cricket . The Hindu boys
then formed their own club in 1866
to play this game which was duly
named as Hindu Gymkhana.
The cricket lover Parsi youngmen
again were the first to send their team
on a tour to England in 1886 under
the captaincy of one Dr.Patel to play
matches there . This cricket team of
Parsis again went to England in 1888
and won several matches there,
which impressed the Englishmen so
much that they sent their team to
Bombay to play a match against the
Parsis of the city and surprisingly
again the Parsis defeated Englishmen
in this friendly match . Gradually
this took the shape of an annual
Presidency cricket match between
the Englishmen and the Parsis of
Bombay, which became triangular
affair in 1907 when the Hindus also
started participating in this tournament.
This became a quadrangular
tournament in 1912 when the Muslims
also joined it to enjoy this game.
It was in 1911 that an all India
cricket team visited England under
the captaincy of Maharaja Bhupendra
Singh of Patiala consisting of star
cricketers of that period . In 1926 two
members of the Calcutta Cricket
Club went to London to seek the
membership of the then Imperial
Cricket Conference for proper recognition
of their club . Although technically
and legally it was not an official
delegation from India yet Lord
Harris who was the Chairman of
I.C.C. then allowed M.C.C. to send a
cricket team to India with Arthur
Gilligam as its captain. This M.C.C.
team played cricket matches against
an all India team as well as Hindu
Gymkhana .
To make this game of cricket
popular in the whole country a meeting
of the delegates from Sind, Punjab,
Patiala, Delhi, United Provinces,
Rajputana , Alwar, Bhopal, Gwalior,
Baroda, Kathiawar and Central India
was held on 21st November 1927
at Delhi in which it was decided to
form an all India body to control the
affairs of cricket in the country and
to give a fillip to this game, Consequently
in December 1928 the Board
of Control for Cricket in India known
as BCCI was duly constituted to govern
and guide the activities of cricket
in the country. Mr. R. E. Grant
Govan an Englishman became the
first President of B.C.C.I.
India played its first official Test
match against England at Lords between
June 25-28, 1932. The captain
of the Indian team was legendary
Col. C.K. Naidu whereas the English
side was led by D.R. Jardine. India
lost this Test match by 158 runs. The
M.C.C. team then visited India in
1933-34. Thus India was then recognized
as the
6th cricket playing country
in the world. That is how the
game of cricket had established its
firm footing in our country.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu had a
great passion for the game of cricket
right from his childhood. His grandfather
Pt. Shyam Kishen Reu was a
highly religious and orthodox person,
who was the resident of Habba Kadal
locality in the Srinagar district of
Kashmir valley. He was married
with Ragya the sister of Pt. Kishan
Lal Ruggu, who was the first Indian
to become the manager of Cooperative
Paper Mill, Lucknow during the
British period, Pt. Shyam Kishen
Reu had a son Tej Kishen besides two
daughters one of whom was Mrs.
Inderpati Razdan.
Pt. Shyam Kishen Reu’s son Pt.
Tej Kishen Reu, who was born around
1908, after completing his studies
came to Delhi around 1940 and got
employment in the Indian railways .
He was married with Dulari, the
daughter of Pt. Ragya Prasad Zadu
of Lahore. He built a house at 1835
Mohalla Imli, Chowk Mubarak Shah
near Bazaar Sita Ram, which had a
big concentration of the population
of Kashmiri Pandits in Delhi then.
Pt Tej Kishen Reu had three sons
Gyan Nath, Swaroop Kishen and
Iqbal Kishen.
Pt Tej Kishen Reu’s eldest son Dr.
Gyan Nath Reu was born around
1928. He did his M.A. from the Delhi
University and then took up a job in
the P
&
T department at Delhi. He
retired from active service in 1988
as an assistant director . He also did
a diploma course in homoeopathy and
was a practising homoeopathic doctor.
He was married with Geeta Dar.
He had a son Gopal Reu and a grandson
Rahul Reu, He died in 1984 at
Delhi.
Pt Tej Kishen Reu’s youngest son
Pt. Iqbal Kishen Reu was born
around 1932. He was employed in the
railways and had a thorough knowledge
of Kashmiri
Karm Kand. He
was a practising Kul Purohit and
used to perform religious rituals of
his
jajmans, After performing the
marriage of Priyanka Gandhi with
Robert Vadra in 1996 according to
K.P's traditions he left this job. He
then on the request of Justice Pratap
Narain Bakshi the founder President
of All India Kashmiri Samaj trained
Pt. Jeevan Dar of Allahabad in
Karmkanda to
carry on his legacy.
After Pt. Jeevan Dar’s death his wife
Mrs. Poonam Dar has taken up the
batton. She also publishes a
Kashmiri almanac every year for the
benefit of the community. Pt. Iqbal
Kishen Reu died in 2004 at Delhi after
a long illness. He was unmarried.
Pt. Tej Kishen Reu’s second son
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu was born on
13th July 1930 in his ancestral house
in Habba Kadal locality of the
Srinagar district in Kashmir. He had
his schooling in Delhi, where his father
was posted. He did his B.Com
and LL.B. from the Delhi University
He then took up a job in the office of
Accountant General of India and due
to his sincerity and hard work became
an Accounts Officer in it.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu had a
great love for, the game of cricket
right from his childhood . He was a
member of the Delhi University
cricket team as a batsman cum
wicket keeper. He made his debut as
an umpire in December 15-20, 1978
Test match at Bangalore in the first
series against the West Indies led by
Clive Lloyd but unfortunately that
Test match had to be abandoned due
to riots. In the next Test match of
this series at Madras he and the other
umpire J.D. Ghosh were criticized by
the experts and commentators for allowing
too many bouncers in the
match by D.L. Haynes, causing severe
injuries to the players. This
West Indies team had cricket stalwarts
of that period like M.D.
Marshall, A.B. Williams, Jwel
Gardner, Michel Holding and Sir
Vivien Richards, etc.
A year later in 1979 at the same
ground Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu, his
fellow umpire and players had to lay
prostrate on the ground during the
session of the game when swarms of
bees attacked all of them suddenly
to save themselves from their sting,
which was really a very peculiar sight
to watch.
As an umpire Pt. Swaroop Kishen
Reu was a witness to numerous Test
records which were achieved in the
history of Test cricket right before
his eyes mainly by Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Kishen Reu was generally
considered to be a lucky umpire
for India. But in his 13th
Test in 1983-84 at Kanpur
India lost the match. In the
Test series against England
in 1981-82 in the fourth Test
match at Calcutta he stood
in the Eden Garden ground
as an umpire before a record
crowd of about 4 lac spectators
throughout its five days,
which is a world record. A
further niche was carved at
Bombay in 1983-84 series
when he erased the feeling of
indecision felt by his fellow
umpire M. V. Gothosker after
an Indian appeal against
Haynes for handling the ball.
It was fourth such dismissal
in the history of Test cricket.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu
being a law graduate used to
apply his legal and analytical
mind while enforcing
rules and regulations of the
game as laid down by the
I.C.C. on the ground. He once
took to task Imran Khan the
skipper of Pakistan for tampering
with the ball. His last
Test as an umpire was at
Bombay, from November 28
to December 3 in the 1984-
85 series against England led
by David Gower . He stood
on the ground as an umpire
in 17 Test matches which is
an Indian record shared with
another Indian umpire B.
Satyaji Rao.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu
apart from performing the
duties as an umpire in Test
matches also had the opportunity
to do the same job in
One Day International
matches as well. His first
ODI was India verses England
at Jallundhar on 20th
December 1981 and his last
ODI was England verses Pakistan
at Sharjah on 26th
May 1985. In the ODI played
at Jallundhar in the Gandhi
Stadium in 1981-82 series
the Indian side was led by
Sunil Gavaskar with Dileep
Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Kirti
Azad, Sandeep Patil, Ravi
Shastri and Madan Lal as its
members. The captain of the
England’s team was Kitch
Fletcher and Graham Gort,
Geof Boycott, Ian Bothom,
David Gower, Mike Getting
and Geoff Cook were its members.
India won this ODI by
6 wickets.
In recognition of his outstanding
services for the
game of cricket he was
awarded Padma Shree in
1986 by the President of India
Gyani Zail Singh. He
then started leading a retired
life. He died on 21st November
1992 at the age of 62
years at Delhi due to Cancer.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu
got married in 1960 with
Sunita who was the daughter
of Pt. Shibban Lai Handoo
of Delhi. He had three sons
Sanjeev, Sunil, and Susheel.
Sanjeev Reu is holding a
high post in Tata International
and is married with
Savita. He has a son Yugal
and a daughter Latika. Sunil
Reu is working in Dubai and
is married with Jyoti.
Susheel Reu is employed in
Atlas Cycles of Jallundhar
He is married with Sheetal
and has a son Saransh and a
daughter Srishti.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu
was a jolly good fellow. He
was quite obese, so could be
very easily identified on the
cricket grounds. Teresa
Mclean in his book
The Men
in White Coats has written
that with his huge girth lending
him a Sydney
Greenstreet profile, Swaroop
Kishen was perhaps the most
instantly recognized umpire
ever to take the field in a
Test match not with standing
one or two extroverts of
recent years, and a rear view
of him was chosen to grace
the dust jacket of this book
on umpires and umpiring .
It was a real treat to observe
him pedalling bicycle in the
lanes and bylanes of Delhi
with folds of flesh hanging on
both the sides of its seat covering
it completely from public
view.
Pt. Swaroop Kishen Reu
had a great sense of wit and
humour. To cut jokes was his
favourite pastime. He was
also famous for chewing tobacco.
He was great foodie.
Kashmiri delicacies were his
greatest weakness so he loved
to cook the Kashmiri dishes
at home, like an expert chef.
He was a man of many
traits. Though he was a soft
spoken person who never lost
his temper, yet he was very
firm in his decisions, such
people are always remembered
for their peculiar habits
and characteristics.
The game of cricket mixed
with glamour has become a
big business now than a mere
sport. Newly introduced
young scantly dressed and
curvaceous cheer leaders
from America and other foreign
countries who pump an
extra dose of adrenaline in
your blood vessels while
watching a match has given
an entirely new dimension to
this game. There was a time
when slaves used to be auctioned
in the markets of different
countries of Central
Asia. Now star cricketers are
being auctioned in presence
of film actions and industrialists
who make bids for
them. Some of the money
minded cricketers even do
not care for national honours.
This is the new face of this
gentleman’s game, which it
used to be once upon a time.
Abraham Lincoln has very
rightly said that in the end
it’s not the years in your life
that count, it is the life in your years.
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