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Stalwarts of spin
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They enchanted spectators with their flight, googly, guile and wile. S. THYAGARAJAN on the illustrious spinners of yesteryear
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CRICKET IS not merely about the balance between batting and bowling. It is also about pace and spin as instruments to conquer that fascinating element — the art of batting. It is not a coincidence, therefore, that the two academies for spin and pace are based in this metropolis, benefiting from the presence of such luminaries as Dennis Lillee, V. V. Kumar and Erapalli Prasanna.
In a city that has carved out its cricketing identity, pace and spin always complemented each other. If pace and swing held their own glamour from the days of Gopalan, Rangachari, Kannayiram, Mohan Rai, Prabhakar Rao, down to Sekhar, Vasu, Kumaran and now, Balaji, there were illustrious spinners who enchanted spectators with a range and variety that underscored the values of a marvellous facet of cricket.
Purveyors of spin who charmed the chroniclers were more than a mere handful, large enough to match the achievements of the speedsters. The author of quality spin bowling, left arm at that, in Chennai was the English coach from Sussex, A. F. Wensley. Old-timers recall with awe how Wensley, more often than not, landed the ball on a coin placed at a spot in front of the batting crease. There are those who tend to conclude that the classicism of left armer A. G. Ram Singh was inspired by the proficiency of Wensley. Even Vinoo Mankad is said to have modelled his approach on Wensley. Till the advent of V. V. Kumar, inarguably the best leg spinner from this part of the Vindhyas, in the late Fifties, it was Ram Singh's magic of flight, accuracy and consistency that were touted as the essence of spin bowling.
No talk of leg spin can ignore the contribution to its growth from the stalwarts of that era, represented by N. J. Venkatesan — popularly known as "Kundru" — and B. S. Krishna Rao. While the former was known for his breaks and googlies, Krishna Rao captured the attention for the lob — the term for flight in those days. Of course, a lot many even today assert that G. Parthasarathy (GP) was an outstanding exponent who bowled leg breaks that simply roared towards the batsmen from a blind spot on a matting wicket. "The ball used to hiss off the pitch like a cobra," mused one of GP's admirers. Parankusam was another star off-spinner of that time.
The post-Independence era, however, brought to spin bowling a touch of sophistication, a pattern that projected control, guiles and wiles. A. K. Sarangapani captured the popular imagination along with left arm spinner M. K. Murugesh. Both played a stellar role in Madras winning the first ever Ranji Trophy Championship at Indore against Holkar in 1954. Murugesh gained immortality with a splendid match haul of eight for 211 in that final. For a spinner, Murugesh, who bowled left arm, was a wee bit faster through the air, and what really flummoxed the batsman was the faster delivery that shamed a genuine pace bowler.
The spinners at this point of time were fortunate to have captains such as Balu Alaganan and C. D. Gopinath, whose faith in this form of attack was unshakable. It is debatable whether the class, charm and calibre of V. V. Kumar would have blossomed the way it did if Gopinath were not at the helm. From the days in P. S. High School, Vivekananda College and Law College, V.V. was a treat to behold. With a short and quick run-up, he bowled with a boyish zest, taking delight in perplexing the batsmen with break — whose variation and angles troubled everyone, including that genius Garfield Sobers — flight and concealed googlies. Season after season, Kumar was the toast of the team. Taking advantage of the league format from knock out, Kumar lapped up wickets with amazing regularity to become the first bowler to cross the 400 mark in Ranji Trophy.
V. V. Kumar's place in the State team was so secure that it was impossible for a really talented spinner like P. Subramanyam ("Goofy" to friends) to get the State cap. Subbu, courting striking successes in collegiate tournaments for the Madras Christian College, gained a place in the Combined Universities team that played against West Indies at Nagpur in 1958. There was a surfeit of off-spinners too at this point, what with the skipper, Kripal Singh, acquiring the spinner's tag. Kripal might not have fulfilled the norms of a classic off-break bowler, but his ingenuity in identifying the areas of deficiency in a batsman was striking. This was also the period for the emergence of a crop of off-spinners like R. Chandrasekharan from Vivekananda, Bhimenpet RC and then State Bank. But he struggled to retain his State cap in the face of fierce competition. Najam Hussain and Vasudevamurthy from Mysore also figured prominently on the local scene. Off-spinner K. Rajendran was another among the wickets for Christian, Pachaiyappa's, Alwarpet CC, and the Madras Cricket Club. Satwender Singh wheeled his arm now and then prompting veterans to recall the efficacy of his father, Ram Singh. The boom continued in the Sixties with more and more efficient, energetic and enterprising spinners coming of age. Outstanding of the lot was S. Venkatraghavan.
Perspicuous, pugnacious and persistent, Venkat showed the determination to go up the ladder by sheer dint of hard work. From P. S. High School, Vivekananda College, and then from Engineering College, Guindy, Venkat left his imprint at every stage to reach the pinnacle of leading the country, the first from this State to do so. With VV, he formed a formidable spin combination that galvanised the domestic scene for over a decade. While their predecessors suffered from want of opportunities to demonstrate their proficiency, VV and Venkat benefited a great deal by the league-cum-knock-out format and competitions like the Duleep Trophy. That they together totalled 947 wickets in Ranji Trophy alone underlines the dominance of spin. Venkat had a tally of 530 (average 18.23) with VV accounting for 417 (average 18.17). During this period V. Ramnarayan was another off-spinner who made a mark in the local cricket scene but fierce competition saw him shift base to Hyderabad.
The sequence of spinners calling the shots continued in the Eighties too with Sunil Subramaniam (243 wickets), Venkatramana (199) and S. Vasudevan (177 wickets) holding centre-stage.
It will be a Herculean task to recall every spinner who invited notice in those halcyon days. On the inter-collegiate scene, few matched the consistency of Balakrishna Rao, a master of flight from Pachaiyappa's and Jolly Rovers, or the spin of A. K. Vijayraghavan of Thyagaraya in the late Fifties.
All these only go to show that the glamour of pace matched the romance of spin in right measure in almost every venue which attracted a fair number of spectators unlike the empty grounds that one is shocked to see these days.
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