The Hindu : Front Page : Tormentor of the South!

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 25, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Tormentor of the South!

J. R. Shridharan

STAR IN THE MAKING: Admirer of the spin-king.

GUNTUR: He admires Sri Lanka's maverick spin-king Muttaiah Muralidharan and likes to `take off' like Harbhajan Paaji.

This off-spinner Shaik Mahaboob Basha from Narasaraopet has made cricket pandits sit up and take a look at him for his stupendous on-pitch exploits. The 13-year-old made the lives of willow men from all over the South miserable at the BCCI's under-15 South Zone cricket tournament, concluded at Goa, as he repeatedly weaved a vicious web around their legs. Result: In five matches, he pocketed 61 wickets.

Son of Shaik Mastan, a mill mechanic, Basha used to frequent `Kodela Sivaprasada Rao Kreeada Pranganam' to watch cricketers of his age in action. "He reluctantly approached me. By observing his bowling action, I thought he could be a good off-spinner," says Masthan Reddy, Basha's coach. The Class VIII student of Sindhu School is all praise for former Andhra captain V. Vijayasaradhy, who was the team's coach at Goa. "Vijay Sir asked me to use the crease. He insisted that I add variety to my deliveries. The tactics to lure batsmen to come forward also paid rich benefits," says Basha, who incidentally lead the ACA team.

Basha took nine wickets against Kerala in the lung opener and later crippled Tamil Nadu by scalping 17 wickets. He took 11 against Karnataka; 10 against Goa and 14 against Hyderabad to emerge best performer of the tournament. Basha also proudly says that his `doosra' has come to his rescue, when the batsmen are after him. " Whenever, I saw batsmen playing across repeatedly, I bowled `doosras.' It worked," says a beaming Basha.

Traditional mould

Coach V.Vijayasaradhy says Basha is a gift to Andhra cricket and a future prospect for Indian cricket. "He is in the mould of a traditional off-spinner, blessed with a perfect height and loop," he says. The Andhra Cricket Association and the Guntur District Cricket Association are taking care of his educational cricket needs, says ACA's secretary N. Venkata Rao.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page