Toast To A Match Winner

Destiny has played a major role in the life of B Chandrasekhar, Indias most destructive match winner. As a child polio affected his right arm, forcing him to become a medium pace spinner. Later, after he retired from active cricket, nature intervened again and in a freak accident he broke both his legs and now has to depend on crutches.

Chandra is one of Indias most popular players. He is deeply respected for his skills and personal qualities. Becoming a cricketer was never his aim, nobody taught him the game, he grew up playing cricket in his locality, but suddenly, in a few months, he moved from C division club to Dulpee Trophy. This sudden transformation left him quite dazed and perplexed. Now when he recalls those days, he says, I knew very little about bowling technique or cricket. I did not have spikes. I just bowled what came naturally to me.

 

Nature and polio fashioned his bowling style, explains Chandra: The weak right arm meant I had problems keeping it straight. I thought it would fall at the time of bowling, so the action of delivery had to be rapid and straight, close to my ear. I could not have bowled any other way.

Besides bowling at a fast pace Chandra did other things which were equally unique. Unlike regular spinners who grip the ball across the seam he held it along the seam, as a medium pacer does. Also, he thought nothing of mixing his deliveries and the occasional bouncers were a part of his armoury, to keep the batsmen guessing Id bowl everything, even off breaks, just to unsettle them.

This unconventional style bewildered even the best players. It was not easy to cope with an unorthodox, unpredictable bowler who hurled bombs. He depended more on instinct and did not care much about either the batsmen or the pitch. Subtleties of studying the pitch, the techniques of opposing players, were not for him what mattered was rhythm. I never bothered about these things and only concentrated on bowling wicket to wicket, thats all I told myself.

The ability to dismiss a good batsman on a perfectly good track made him a much feared bowler and the ultimate match winner. Former skipper Ti-ger Pataudi, when asked to choose one spinner out of Indias famous four, settled for Chandra without hesitation. So did colleague Prasanna. Both felt nobody was more dangerous when conditions favoured batsmen.

One of Chandras greatest triumphs has been his 6 for 38 at Oval in 1971. This led to Indias first victory in England. Now Chandra shrugs off his contribution by simply saying that it was a lucky day. He has taken 248 test wickets. Among his opponents, he remembers two with great respect: G Vishwanath because he was a great player capable of both attacking and defending, and Ken Barrington because he gave you no chance.

Following the accident he has to depend on crutches. But Chandra is trying to reorganise his life and hopes to resume his involvement with cricket.

He is unassuming to a fault, quite unlike many present day players. Surely the current breed of spinners could learn a few tricks from the master bowler. And the Indian team, searching for a test win, could benefit from the expertise of Indias greatest ever match winner.