The incredible life of Lall Singh

What do they know of cricket who only cricket knowndash CLR JamesIt all started with a chance meeting with BritishMalaysian Ian Syer the cofounder of Beijingrsquos buzzing burger joint cum bustling bistro Plan B and the longtime president of the Beijing Cricket Club in 2016 One fine afternoon while manning the bar counter and having introductory chitterchatter cricketcrazy Syer casually told me ldquoYou know my motherrsquos uncle had played Test cricket for Indiardquo Replying to an inquisitive mindrsquos spontaneous ldquoWhordquo the Beijinger who is married to a Chinese nonchalantly remarked ldquoWe used to call him Lall unclehellipLall Singh Gillrdquo A flabbergasted me instantly reacted ldquoWTFrdquoTariq Shamsi whose father married Lall Singhrsquos nieceOf course like many cricket history aficionados and pundits I had always found the first lsquoTurbanatorrsquo of Indian cricket who stole some thunder in Indiarsquos maiden Test match at Lordrsquos in 1932 an enigma Singhrsquos was always a partiallysolved mysteryArguably one of the pioneering utility players for India Singh had scored 15 and 29 respectively in the landmark Test whose 90th anniversary we celebrate from June 25 and took one catch in his sidersquos historic debut before putting together a quickfire 74run partnership with Amar Singh in just 40 minutes while fighting for a losing cause in the second innings of the Test that was eventually won by Douglas Jardinersquos formidable side by 158 runs But the turbanclad 22yearoldrsquos magnificent fielding to run Frank Woolley out in the opening hour remained one of the earliest highlights of Indiarsquos impressive initiation into Test cricket In his seminal work of History of Indian Cricket author Edward Docker described Singhrsquos sensational manoeuvring at midon ldquoThe Sikh was an extraordinary quick mover who glided over the ground like a snake and his pickup and return to rsquokeeper Navle Janardan just beat Woolley homemdash193rdquoJazz singer Myrtle Watkins later known by her stage name Paquita who Lall Singh had an affair with Pic courtesyPersonal collection of Tariq ShamsiHowever after playing just that solitary Test at Lordrsquos the man with a nimble pair of legs and safe pair of hands went into oblivion faster than his sudden landing in the Indian cricket virtually from nowhere With the hope of playing Indiarsquos firstever Test on the Indian soil Singh returned to India in October 1933 ldquoat his own expenserdquo but tragedy as it turned out later was synonymous with the exuberant cricketerrsquos life ldquoHe was unfortunately not qualified to play for India under the existing Test rules as he cannot claim either birth or residential qualification When he was in England last year as a member of the Indian team the Imperial Cricket Conference granted a special sanction for him to play for India in the one Test match on the condition that this was not to be regarded as a precedentrdquo The Bombay Chronicle reportedThere began both the misery as well as the mystery of the man who was once dubbed by the media as one of the best fielders in the world A discarded Singh literally faded into oblivion Richard Cashman wrote in his book Patrons Players and the Crowd that Singh ran a nightclub in Paris with his wife In his magnum opus A History of Indian Cricket Mihir Bose penned ldquoThere were stories of his running a nightclub in Parisrdquo But the identity of that ldquowiferdquo and the reason behind running that niterie in Paris remained unknown unverified and undocumented until Syer introduced me to Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi author of the book Sikhs in Malaysia A Comprehensive History published last year Malhi whose chefdrsquooeuvre has a comprehensive chapter on Singh informed ldquoSingh had an affair with an African American jazz singer named Myrtle Watkins later known by her stage name Paquita Watkins who came to India during the winter of 1935 used to perform at the Harbour Bar in Taj Mahal Hotel and instantly bowled over the lsquopicturesquersquo cricketerrdquoA sheet of caricatures of the 1932 Indian team in England Pic courtesyPersonal collection of Tariq ShamsildquoSingh left for Paris in March 1936 to be with his prima donna paramour in the City of Love and subsequently ran a nightclub in the French capital before parting ways with his American partner and returned to Malaya now Malaysia in 1939rdquo the Malaysian author mentioned ldquoMy granduncle was never married to Watkins but they were in a livein relationship for a few yearsrdquo clarified Captain Tariq Shamsi whose mother was Singhrsquos elder brother Santha Singh Gillrsquos elder daughter Ajmer Kaur who changed her name to Neelum Shamsi following her marriage as per Islamic ritual and father was Brigadier Baseer ShamsiInterestingly Dubaibased retired Pakistan Army officer Captain Tariq Shamsi was one of the last missing pieces of my jigsaw puzzle to complete the biographical sketch on the inconspicuous but incredible life of Singh Shamsirsquos Wikipedia entries without citation did convince me that he was the same Tariq B Shamsi whose father Brigadier Shamsi got married to Singhrsquos niece when he was posted in Kuala Lumpur from Burma now Myanmar as a Captain in the eighth Punjab Regiment of the British Indian Army However it was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack for an Indian civilian like me to find a retired Pakistan Army officer with the frosty relationship between the two neighbouring countries reaching an unusually frigid state But after four years of intense search and earnest outreach activities rounds after rounds of Google searches and eventually an unreplied message to a random American phone number that turned out to be of a Pakistan Army veteran resulted in an early morning message from none other than his ldquocourse materdquo Captain Shamsi Once Dubaibased Shamsi obliged to my interview request what followed next was an edgeoftheseat story of the magnificentturnedtragic life of the everjovial Indian Test cricketer Lall Singh with Tariq Shamsirsquos mother and his niece Pic courtesyPersonal collection of Tariq ShamsildquoHe was born with a silver spoon as the Gills were one of Malaysiarsquos most prominent and affluent thirdgeneration Indianorigin families They had close family ties with the Patiala royals which eventually helped him pursue his career in India under the aegis of the allpowerful Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patialardquo Shamsi articulated While talking about Singhrsquos baptism with cricket Malhi summarized ldquoLallrsquos cricket journey began at the age of 14 when he played for the prestigious Victoria Institution When he was hardly 16 he made the Selangor team and the Federated Malay States XI By 1931 Lall was already a wellknown cricketer in Malaya and caught the eye of Maharaja of Patiala and the other Indian cricket patrons ahead of the trials for the England tour in early 1932rdquo The rest as they say is historyHowever the fag end of Singhrsquos shortlived Test and firstclass career coincided with the beginning of his intercontinental and interracial romance with Watkins The Alabamaborn and Baltimorebased singerdancer who was born as Myrtle Dillard before her marriage to a certain Cephus Watkins arrived in Mumbai from Venice for six months with Leon Abbeyrsquos orchestra in September 1935 but faced some work permit issues before she also joined by Opal Cooper started performing at the Harbour Bar at Taj Mahal Hotel and its nextdoor neighbour Greenrsquos where the current Taj Mahal Tower was built Ballroom A sprightly Singh was staying in Mumbai those days to play for the Hindus at the Bombay Quadrangular tournament and the matches against Jack Ryderrsquos touring Australian side ldquoMy happygolucky grand uncle loved his drinks and was a frequent visitor to the famous watering hole at Taj Hotel where he was smitten by the jazz artist who had just overcome a bout of malariardquo Shamsi said After scoring a magnificent century in the Bombay Quadrangular Singh played the first unofficial Test against Jack Ryderrsquos Australian team in Mumbai in December 1935 But that turned out to be his last appearance for the Indian team as ldquothere was a murder attempt on Singh in early 1936rdquoldquoHis proximity to the mighty Maharaja of Patiala made some people within his coterie jealous about my grand uncle who was serving the majesty as his aidedecamprdquo Shamsi claimedThat was the tipping point in Singhrsquos life He was grievously injured but survived Meanwhile in America Watkinsrsquos estranged husband died of stomach cancer ldquoSingh left no stone unturned to woo her and he somehow convinced the damsel in distress to make a new beginning in Parisrdquo his grandnephew who had many memorable meetings with Singh and spent quality time with him in London and Paris revealed adding ldquoHe once took me to the nightclub that he set up for Watkins and I still remember it was on the Boulevard SaintMichel after he transferred the property to a new ownerrdquo But after their breakup and the World War breaking out in Europe Singh returned to his hometown of Kuala Lumpur where his life took a terribly tragic turnldquoIn June 1942 my maternal grandfather SS Gill was arrested for helping British Army officers escape from Malaya to Singapore His brothers Bishen Singh Gill and LS as Singh was known in the family were also arrested All their assets including three houses a rubber plantation and a gold mine were confiscated by the Japanese Within three months SS Gill and BS Gill were hanged by the Japanese occupation forces and Singh who was spared from death due to his stature was sent to a slave labour camp in Borneordquo Shamsi narrated adding ldquoSingh managed to escape from the captivity of the ferocious Japanese invaders and returned to Kuala Lumpur in August 1945 Believe it or not he was one of the six survivors among the 2500odd prisoners thanks to his daredevil fleeing act from the jaws of death When he was reunited with his mother and two nieces my mother Ajmer Kaur and her younger sister Amer Kaur he was a mere skeleton of the person he used to be He had been tortured so badly that his own mother initially refused to recognise him as her frail son without a turbanrdquo The Pakistan Army veteranrsquos emotional words on the phone about his largerthanlife Malaysian granduncle ldquoIncidentally my flamboyant granduncle who caught many eyes for his snowwhite turban in England in 1932 was forced to shave his head and beard while in Japanese captivity and after that he never again grew his hair or beard or wore a turban until his deathrdquoShamsi continued ldquoOnce Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on September 5 1945 Singh was left with looking after his ailing mother and two nieces as the family had been left penniless due to the Japanese occupation of Malaya The uncompromising Sikh with his amour propre had never worked in his life before and was too proud to knock on anyonersquos door for help But after his motherrsquos death in 1946 abject property forced him to start looking for a job and the only one he could find in that postwarravaged Malaya was that of groundsman at the prestigious Selangor Club in Kuala LumpurrdquoHowever a few years later in 1950 the former Indian Test cricketer was said to have been spotted by Sultan Sir Hishamuddin Alam Shah AlHaj the Sultan of Selangor at the club and the royal who was a friend of the Gill family was shocked to see Singh working as a groundsman Hearing his penury and plight the Sultan subsequently rehabilitated the estates of the Gill family to Singh following a cumbersome process ranging three years and involving the transfer of most of the estates fixed and moveable assets belonging to his departed mother ldquoSince then Singh had lived with much dignity until dying peacefully on November 19 1985rdquo Malhi commented Interestingly he was one of the oldest players to attend the Golden Jubilee Test in Mumbai then Bombay in 1980 after being invited by the BCCIShamsi stated ldquoAlthough he hardly spoke about his cricketing career the humble man used to passionately follow Indian cricket and was in touch with the likes of Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad for a long time The blithesome bohemian spent the rest of his life travelling abroad mostly to his favourite holiday retreat of Paris in summerldquoHowever the heartbroken man never got married and died a bachelor In the last days of his life he was looked after well by a Chinese couple in Kuala LumpurrdquoNonetheless Singh lived his later life kingsize The highspirited Sardar whose cricketing career in India was primarily attributed to the King of Patiala Shamsi quipped ldquowas particularly fond of his Patiala Pegs and unfailingly raised a toast during his regular visits to Selangor Clubrdquo