Why does India not produce match-winning spin bowlers any more, Aabhas Sharma asks B S Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan.
Which Indian spinner took the most wickets on the recent disastrous tour to England? The answer will surprise you. It wasn’t Harbhajan Singh who played in only two Test matches, nor was it was Amit Mishra who replaced him for the other two Tests. It was part-timer Suresh Raina (he failed in his main job — with the bat) who took five wickets with his slow left-arm deliveries.
Clearly, Indian spin has touched a new low. With the fast-bowlers too losing miles of pace within a year of debut and the spin attack floundering, seldom has the bowling department looked so short of options.
Forty-four years ago, another Indian team went to England under the late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, lost all the Tests, and was outplayed in most departments by the opposition. It was a tour to forget for all but one reason. In the third Test in Edgbaston, India fielded its famous spin quartet in full — left-armer Bishen Singh Bedi, off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan and leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrashekhar — for the first and only time in their careers. And living up to their reputation, they shared 18 of the 20 wickets that fell between themselves — one batsman was run out and the other was claimed by fast bowler Venkatraman Subramanya. Looking back on that memorable Test, Bedi says: “We knew that the batsmen were always on their toes with pressure from quality spinners at both ends. It was disappointing that we lost the match but all of us bowled very well.”
But now they find little to be happy about, given the state of spin in the country. In fact, the centre of gravity seems to have shifted away from India, the land where the four honed the art of spin bowling to perfection. The best spinners of recent times, Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralitharan, were from Australia and Sri Lanka respectively. Anil Kumble is the only genuine world-class spinner that the country has produced after the famous four, and to a certain extent, Harbhajan Singh. There have been promising spinners like Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Narendra Hirwani, but they proved no more than a flash in the pan.
Bedi puts the blame on the shorter formats of the game — one-day and T20 matches. “Spinners need to attack a lot but these short formats of the game are absolutely killing them. Do you expect a spinner to contain, take wickets or attack in four overs?” he asks. Look at Harbhajan Singh, he says. “He used to be an attacking bowler, but over the years that has changed.” Prasanna, who worked with Harbhajan early in his career, says the spinner is suffering because he isn’t getting his line and length correct: “He has become quite predictable in the last two years.” Bedi does have a point here. Spin bowling, in his heyday, was all about guile and deception. Spinners often let the batsmen hit them over the ropes in order to snare them. But one-day and T20 matches do not offer spinners that luxury.
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Bedi insists money is the root cause of all evil. “In domestic cricket, players aren’t paid that much and yet they can make twice that amount in one month of Indian Premier League or IPL. Youngsters are more interested in making a fast buck than in honing their skills,” he says. And spinners in limited-over cricket have a limited role to play. Prasanna, on his part, doesn’t resent the fact that cricketers make so much money now. “Cricket as a sport has changed completely from those days. We were there for the love of the game and money was always secondary,” he says.
That may not be entirely true. During the 80s and 90s, there wasn’t a lot of money, nor was there the lure of the IPL or T20; so why didn’t we produce quality spinners then? “We were lucky to play in an era where there were quality spinners coming through,” says Venkataraghavan. The spin quartet was a one-off, he believes. “You can’t blame T20 completely as times have changed and cricketers need to adapt accordingly,” he adds.
But is the Board of Control for Cricket in India, or the cricket associations of various states, willing to seek the guidance of these legendary bowlers to improve spin bowling? Venkataraghavan, who took 156 wickets in 57 Tests and later became an international umpire, is now the director of BCCI’s umpire committee. Bedi, who took 266 wickets in 67 Tests, is actively involved with cricket and is now the coach of the Jammu & Kashmir Ranji team. Prasanna, at 71 the oldest of the four, who took 189 wickets in 49 Tests, doesn’t hold any official position, while Chandrashekhar, who was rated the highest and took 242 wickets in 58 Tests, isn’t involved with cricket either. The quality of domestic cricket in general and spinners in particular worries both Bedi and Prasanna. “Good spinners need back up as well,” says Prasanna. Bedi adds: “Kumble had Harbhajan to support him. Who does Harbhajan have?” R Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha are spinners who have been knocking on the Indian team’s door. But will they re store Indian spin to its former glory? “Spin bowling is hard work and a spinner should always be thinking of outfoxing the batsmen on the pitch and in the mind,” says Prasanna. Talent alone will not take you anywhere, says Venkataraghavan. “We have had good spinners coming out but they lacked the mental strength to become great spinners,” says Bedi.
Coming from three of India’s best spinners, this is something to take note of.
