Not many are aware that the late Chetan Chauhan came to the rescue of a young Navjot Singh Sidhu, medium pacers Yograj Singh and Rajinder Ghai in the days following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The incident took place when the North Zone team was returning from Pune after the Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone. The final had been cancelled in view of the tense situation that prevailed in the country after the assassination.
Recalling the incident, former Haryana off-spinner, Sarkar Talwar said, "We were travelling from Pune to Delhi and the journey took four days. The train made several unscheduled stops and on several occasions, mobs entered the compartment looking for people from a certain community.
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"Chetan Ji, being the senior-most member of the team and a known face, realised the gravity of the situation. Truly, he led from the front and faced the miscreants head-on. Once the crowd recognised him, they would show their respects and move away."
"I remember Navjot was very scared. Chetan Ji ensured Yograj and Ghai were safe and not spotted by the mob. He showed tremendous guts in a situation that left most of us unnerved.
"After all, he was a gutsy cricketer. I recall a Delhi-Haryana Ranji Trophy match at Rai (October 1976). Chetan Ji came to the crease with a broken jaw and scored a century (158 not out) against us. He scored two more centuries in the next two matches (200 against Punjab and 147 against Karnataka). He took Ranji Trophy matches as seriously as Test matches.
"I don't think we'll see another fine human being and a cricketer of such calibre again," concluded Talwar.
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