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 Twelfth man |
Hyderabad
Blues |
 The
man behind the ‘soda bottle’ glasses, the personnel officer, gave me a
piercing stare. He then spoke to me in a witheringly accusative tone: “The
cricket fellows want you for something or the other,” suggesting that either
they or I or both were up to no good. If it had been for the friendly
helpfulness of his assistant Sudhir, I would have never deciphered that cryptic
message. The young officer, a former cricketer and an elder brother of two
Andhra cricketers, explained to me that my earlier transfer from Anakapalle to
Vijayawada had been cancelled. I was now posted to the Hyderabad Local Head
Office of State Bank of India, as a replacement for one of five regular players,
away on cricket tours.
Govindraj, the pace bowler, and
Krishnamurti were part of the Indian team touring the West Indies, while batsman
Manohar Sharma, left arm spinner Mumtaz Husain and off spinner G Mohan were
touring East Africa with P R Man Singh’s Hyderabad Blues. Even without them,
the bank team was a formidable outfit, with most of its members already
initiated into first class cricket and some of them established stars just below
Test level.
Deputising for Govindraj, the
recently appointed captain of the side, was back-from retirement Habib Ahmed,
the tall, handsome manager of personal banking, a former Ranji Trophy player of
considerable charisma. Orthodox right hand batsman, brother of Abbas Ali Baig
and Oxford Blue Murtuza Ali Baig, his younger brother Mazhar Ali Baig, Nagesh
Hamand, Abid Zainulabuddin, Ali Hassan and Sultan Salim were the batsmen who
completed a fabulous line-up, while medium pace swing bowler Lyn Edwards, left
arm spinner Prabhakar Raju, and Nagesh with his off breaks were the leading
bowlers, with veteran Habib lending a helping hand when needed. This is the
scenario I walked into, and to my delight, it was the bowling department that
needed beefing up, that being my area of specialisation. Though each of the
bowlers was more than competent, I knew my bowling was in a higher league.
I had been posted to the
Hyderabad Circle of the State Bank of India as a probationary officer, and spent
nearly a year in a small town posting, unknown to the cricket people in the
bank. I had been away from cricket for nearly two years, and quite weak and
unfit after severe amoebiasis. A fortuitous set of incredible coincidences had
brought me to Hyderabad with a chance to join the cricket team. I had played for
Madras University and Juniors as an off spinner but that was more or less
certainly the highest I would reach in my home state, thanks to the presence of
Test off spinner S Venkataraghavan.
All my hopes were to be dashed
soon. Though Nagesh - the first cricketer I met in the bank along with Ali
Hassan, both my rivals in the previous year’s inter-association junior match
between Madras and Hyderabad - and other friends like Lyn and Salim took an
interest in my career and encouraged me, the people who mattered, i.e., the
captain and other seniors were not overly impressed, mainly because they did not
attend nets where I was able to show glimpses of my ability. A couple of
indifferent overs in an early match - after a 2-year long layoff - were enough
for them to write me off.
The result was that I was only
used as a stopgap, and even dropped whenever the bank was able to rope in
outsiders they believed were better players. Quite often, I ended up doing
twelfth man duty, something I had never done before, having been regarded as one
of the better prospects in my home state. It was a most disappointing start to
my second innings in cricket.
V Ramnarayan
wordcraft@vsnl.com
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