Memories of Denis Compton in Mhow and Indore

                                           
Denis Compton and other MCC players practice at the nets in Adelaide, 29 October 1954. Ashes Test Series 1954-1955. Sydney Morning Herald Picture by Harry Martin. Public domain. 

The great English cricketer Denis Compton was posted at the Officers' Training School, OTS, Mhow as a PT instructor during the World War II  years. As he was eligible to play in the Ranji Trophy for the Holkar team of Indore the Army would give him leave so he could play.

He was a member of the Holkar team which played against Bombay in the 1945 Ranji Trophy final. Denis had scored 20 and 249 not out in this match but the Holkar team lost this high scoring match. Denis still holds the record for the highest fourth innings score in the Ranji Trophy.
The Bombay team included a Parsi player named Rustom Sorabji Cooper who had scored 52 and 104 in that final - a match which Bombay won by 374 runs.

In 2012 Nick Compton, the grandson of Denis, had visited India as part of  the England team. He met Rustom Sorabji Cooper in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) who shared with him his interaction with Denis and how they had played with and against each other. Click here and read this nostalgia invoking article by Derek Abraham published in DNA Nov 1, 2012.

If I remember correctly Nick had played one match against the Cricket Club of India which had Abbas Ali as a player. Abbas Ali is the grandson of the late Syed Mushtaq Ali who played Test cricket for India from 1934 to 1952 and was known as the Errol Flynn of Indian cricket. Mushtaq Ali and Denis Compton played together in the Ranji Trophy as members of the Holkar team.

200 years of Mhow: The Battle of Mahidpur and the Treaty of Mandsaur

Dec 21 2017 was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Mahidpur (Third Anglo Maratha War) in which the Holkar Army led by their young king Malhar Rao Holkar II lost to the East India Company Army led by Sir Thomas Hislop and Major General John Malcolm.

On 6 January 1818 the Treaty of Mandsaur was signed by Sir John Malcolm on behalf of the East India Company and Minister Tatya Jog on behalf of the ruler Malhar Rao Holkar II. Article 7 of this treaty led to the creation of Mhow Cantonment. This is how it reads: Article 7. In consideration of the cessions made by this Treaty, the British Government binds itself to support a field force to maintain the internal tranquility of the territories of Mulhar Rao Holkar and to defend them from foreign enemies; this force shall be of such strength as shall be judged adequate to the object. It shall be stationed where the British Government determines to be best, and (In; Maharajah Mulhar Rao Holkar agrees to grant some place of security as a depot for its stores. (Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Mandsaur) 

This is how the Wikipedia entry on the same battle reads:

The Battle of Mahidpur was fought during the Third Anglo-Maratha Warbetween the Holkar faction of the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company at Mahidpur, a town in the Malwa region, on 21 December 1817.

On 21 December 1817, the British, led by Sir Thomas Hislop, attacked the Holkar army led by 11-year-old Maharaja Malhar Rao Holkar II, 22-year-old Hari Rao Holkar and 20-year-old Bhima Bai Holkar. The Holkar artillery, led by Roshan Beg, attacked them with a long line of 63 cannons. At one point, the British were on the verge of losing the battle. However, they were helped by Gafur Khan, a traitor in the Holkar's camp. Khan deserted the battlefield with the force under his command. After this, the Holkars were decisively defeated.^[1]

Malhar Rao II, Tatya Jog and others escaped to Alot.^[1] A peace treaty was signed on 6 January 1818 at Mandsaur. Holkars accepted all the terms laid down by Britishers in the Treaty of Mandsaur. At the conclusion of this Third Anglo-Maratha War, the Holkars lost much of their territory to the British and were incorporated into the British Raj as a princely state of the Central India Agency.

This battle led to the final destruction of Maratha power. Baji Rao II, who was trying to consolidate Marathas, finally surrendered in June 1818. British abolished the position of Peshwa, and Marathas were limited to the small kingdom of Satarauntil its annexation to Bombay state in 1848.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mahidpur