 An abundance of off spinners
Hyderabad has had a tradition of off spinners, sometimes two or three of the tribe fighting for a place in the side. Despite this abundance, there is generally no argument in any discussion among cricketers past and present, about who was the best of them all. The late Ghulam Ahmed has been acknowledged by common consent as by far the greatest exponent of the art and science of off-spin bowling Hyderabad has produced. In fact, Hyderabad’s most charismatic captain M L Jaisimha would go so far as to place Ghulam even higher than E A S Prasanna, at least in terms of sheer spinning ability. “You could hear the ball fizz out of his hand as you prepared to face him,” he once told me. Jai was a great admirer of Prasanna’s bowling and this was therefore the highest compliment, coming from him.
I have heard of, rather than watched, Jairam, the off spinner who followed Ghulam in his footsteps in the Ranji Trophy., except for stray glimpses from afar when I was very young. This dark complexioned, wiry, noticeably plebeian peddler of finger spin, was a game fighter, highly successful during his period, especially on matting wickets. He had a suspect action, something his captains fully exploited like true professionals, for whom all is fair in love and cricket, unless it is the opposition that is indulging in questionable tactics. Jairam’s greatest claim to fame was his consistent refusal to wear abdominal protection. He is reputed to have been felled, if that is indeed the correct verb, when hit in that region batting at No.11 for South Zone, by an express delivery from the West Indies fast bowler, Wes Hall.
My predecessor and good friend Noshir Mehta was one of the most successful bowlers of his kind in Hyderabad, with a collection of some 200 wickets in the Ranji Trophy and hardly a reward for his accomplishments as his career coincided with those of Prasanna and Venkataraghavan. Noshir bowled with great accuracy and a deceptive loop that enticed batsmen into indiscretions. He was also a clean hitter of the ball, and more than competent fielder in any position. With his natural athleticism, he was a good ball game player, playing a very good game of tennis even post-retirement from cricket.
Noshir and I played a few games together for Hyderabad, before he faded away from the scene. I was later joined in the eleven by Shivlal Yadav, from a working class background to start with, but endowed with shrewd native intelligence. He was a quick learner and a gutsy performer whether bowling, batting or fielding, never running away from a challenge. He had a nice, smooth action and some spinning ability, but lacked the subtleties that separate great from good bowlers. He batted courageously in crisis situations and was a brilliant fielder in the early part of his career.
Arshad Ayub was another off-spinner who made it from Hyderabad to the Indian team, replacing Shivlal, with a run of consistent performances in domestic cricket. At that level, he was a fine all-rounder, his magnificent form a huge factor in Hyderabad’s winning the Ranji Trophy under Narasimha Rao. As an off-spinner, Ayub was in the Venkataraghavan mould, very accurate, and delivering the ball from a height rather than flighting it much. He had a deadly faster ball or wrong ‘un, which came under the microscope sometimes. An excellent team man, Arshad was a champion performer for Hyderabad and enjoyed a decent run in Test cricket too.
The best of them did not ever play for India. Kanwaljit Singh, a few years younger than Arshad Ayub, was a genuine spinner of the ball, despite a slightly contorted action, arms and legs flailing about before he somehow finished in a smooth delivery stride. Kanwal had the misfortune of being a contemporary of both Shivlal and Arshad who kept him out of the state side for years. By the time he became a permanent fixture in the Hyderabad XI, so was Rajesh Chouhan in the Indian team, ironically under the captaincy of Hyderabad’s Mohammed Azharuddin. While another Hyderabadi, Venkatapathy Raju, a left arm spinner, broke into the Indian squad, Kanwaljit never did. He served Hyderabad with distinction for over a decade, finishing with more than 300 wickets.
Kanwaljit Singh seems to have been the last of the successful off spinners from Hyderabad, though a certain Noel David did make a brief, undistinguished appearance for India in the West Indies and elsewhere. I am sure there is good off-spin talent aplenty at Hyderabad given its tradition, but no one has so far hit the headlines on the national scene in recent years.
V Ramnarayan
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