INTERVIEW
Follow UsLegend and match-winner are two terms used pretty loosely in the game of cricket these days. Not that today’s era doesn’t have legends or match-winners, but this title is often assigned too soon to a player, maybe with a couple of good performances.
“A bowler who runs through sides is a real match-winner”
Turning the clock back, former Indian captain and ace batsman, Dilip Vengsarkar took us down memory lane to talk about Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, an Indian cricketer who can be called a legend as well as a match-winner. “A bowler who runs through sides is a real match-winner. Someone who can take seven-eight wickets and win the match. I think Chandra was one such bowler”, said Vengsarkar.
Well, Vengsarkar is bang on the target. Chandra has been part of an Indian Test victory on 14 occasions, taking 98 wickets at an average of 19.27 in them. With 16 five-wicket hauls in 58 Tests, he is at number five in the list of Indian bowlers to have taken five wickets maximum times. His tally of 35 wickets in the five-match home Test series against England in 1972-73 is still the highest in one series for an Indian.
But to describe Chandra within the boundaries of statistics would be similar to talk about his favorite singer Mukesh’s song only with the number of beats. Chandra’s bowling was like an enigma for even some of the all-time great batsmen. Viv Richards had once famously remarked, “Shit, this bloke, I can’t read him.”
“That was the best exhibition of spin bowling that I have ever played in my life”
Vengsarkar recalled one of his many encounters with Chandra in the Irani Cup match between Karnataka and the Rest of India in 1978. Although he scored 151, he was in awe of the guile and artistry in Chandra’s bowling. “That was the best exhibition of spin bowling that I have ever played in my life”, he elaborated.
As per him, the absence of neutral umpires and technologies in those days took away many of Chandra’s wickets. Old-timers would recall that Chandra, after being frustrated with the umpiring in New Zealand in 1976, had once said, “I know he is bowled but is he out?” Vengsarkar stated that the standard of umpiring was the same everywhere. “You all talk about Chandra’s performance at Melbourne (when he took 12 wickets in 1977), but he was equally good at Brisbane and Perth earlier. Had it not been for the umpiring, he would have got more wickets in those matches. I remember that the umpires wouldn’t give Bob Simpson out. He easily batted 2-3 times per innings”, he commented on Chandra’s performance in 1977-78 against Australia Down Under.
“The unique thing about his bowling was the speed at which he used to turn the ball and the bounce that he would get.”
“So, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that had DRS been there in those days, Chandra would have easily taken 800 wickets”, concluded Vengsarkar. This statement would be true for the other three spinners – Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan of the famed quartet that Chandra was part of.
But everyone, including those three, considers Chandra to be unique. While Bedi saw God in Chandra’s bowling, Prasanna had once told me, “Chandra is Chandra. For me both X and Y axis is Chandra.” Vengsarkar’s analysis as a batsman was, “The unique thing about his bowling was the speed at which he used to turn the ball and the bounce that he would get.”
With such a talent to take wickets in a heap, Chandra was a captain’s delight. His attitude towards the game was amazing and he would be ready to bowl from any end with the field provided by the captain. Essentially, that was his personality, an absolute gentleman and a humble person. Like Vengsarkar told, “At the end of the day, he would quietly immerse into songs of Mukesh. That was probably his way of relaxing.”
Today as he turns 76 years old (incidentally he had taken 52 Test wickets in 1976), I am sure he would be relaxing with a Mukesh number. Wishing him a happy and healthy life ahead and I am sure remembering his feats, many of his fans would be singing,
“Tum jo humare meet na hote, (Had you not been there my friend)
Ye mere geet na hote, (this song wouldn’t have been there)
Hanske jo tum ye rang na bharte, (Had you not smiled and added colors)
Khwaab ye mere, khwaab na hote, (This dream wouldn’t have been there)”
