Palvankar Balu was an Indian cricketer of the 19th century. He was the first person from the Dalit community to make a notable mark in the world of sports. He bowled left-arm orthodox spin and could swing the ball both ways.
Biography/Wiki
Palvankar Balu was born on 19 March 1876 in Dharwad, Karnataka, India. He defeated the caste prejudice in the society and became one of the essential cricketers for India at that time. He died on 4 July 1955 in Bombay, India. He was 79 years old at the time of his death. With his left-arm spin, he troubled the batsmen on a batsman-friendly pitch. In his career he played for the All India team of Hindustan and Maharaja of Patiala.
Palvankar Balu with Maharaja of Patiala’s All India Team
Apart from cricket, he also played an important role in improving the status of lower castes and untouchables in the society. He also took part in politics and had close relations with freedom fighters like BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi.
Family
He was born into a family of leather workers; Although his father worked in the army. His family name Palwankar comes from his native village Palawan. He grew up with three brothers, Babaji Palvankar Shivram, Palvankar Ganpat and Palvankar Vitthal, who were all cricketers.
Palvankar Vittal
Vitthal later became the captain of the Hindu team. He was married and had a son, YB Palavankar.
religion and caste
He believed in Hindu religion and belonged to the Dalit caste. During that time, there was a lot of caste discrimination in India and hence they had to face a lot of difficulties in pursuing cricket. His skills and performance were often ignored and he was even dropped from the team because of his caste. He rose above this and became a face of the movement for the upliftment of the lower castes and the untouchables.
livelihood
He got his first job looking after the pitch at a cricket club for Parsis in Pune (then Poona). He used to earn ₹3 per month. In 1892, he moved to The Poona Club, a cricket club for Europeans, where he set practice nets, mowed and cleaned the pitch and occasionally marked tennis courts.
Palvankar Balu with his team in Poona gym
Mr. Tross, one of the Europeans, encouraged him to bowl in the nets. His slow-left-arm bowling impressed many, especially captain JG Greig. It is believed that whenever Balu dismissed him, Grigg would give him eight annas. He bowled a lot in the nets but was never given a chance to bat, as batting was considered the preserve of the elite at that time. Due to caste prejudice, he was not selected in the Hindu side, but his impressive performance was too good to ignore. He made his first-class debut for the Hindus against the Europeans on 8 February 1906.
Palvankar Balu with All India Team
He played for the Hindu side in all the famous matches of 1906 and 1907 against the Europeans at the Bombay Gymkhana. The Hindus defeated the Europeans by 109 and 238 runs respectively. He took 114 wickets at an average of 18.84 on the England tour in 1911.
Palvankar Balu with the team in 1911
From 1905/06 to 1920/21 he took 179 wickets at an average of 15.21 and also became the first Indian Dalit cricketer.
Politics
He was friends with BR Ambedkar, another Dalit, who was one of the most influential leaders who changed the caste system. Their relationship deteriorated over time over disagreements on how to dismantle the caste system, although Ambedkar always considered Balu a hero of the Dalits. In the pre-independence era, he became involved in politics and strongly supported Mahatma Gandhi and his Home Rule movement.
palvankar sand
In October 1933, he contested the Bombay Municipality seat on the Hindu Mahasabha ticket, but was unsuccessful. In 1937, Balu again contested against BR Ambedkar for the “Scheduled Caste” seat in the Bombay Legislative Assembly, which he lost by a close margin of 13,245 to 11,225 votes.
fact
- He played his last first-class match for the Hindus against the Parsis on 8 December 1920.
- In 2018, a biopic on him was announced, produced by Preeti Sinha and directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. On this Tigmanshu said,
I love telling stories about unsung heroes. Like Paan Singh, Balu Palvankar is also unknown outside the cricket world. His story is the story of India and what could be a better backdrop than cricket.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn