Cricket in a time warp

By Rajadhyax

I was relaxing the other day at the local club, chatting to some ‘golden oldies’ or people who had reached Ranji Trophy level or thereabouts in their hey day; people who know their cricket well. T20 World Cup had just started and naturally the discussion veered off to this form of cricket. To my surprise, instead of cribbing about the shortest version of the game, they lamented that it was not there in their time. When I asked what would have happened had it been there, it opened a floodgate of discussion. The main element of it being that there were past cricketers who would have fitted far better in ODIs or T20 but they were wasted since the longer version was the only form of cricket that existed back then. Here is a sample of what they said.

With developments in cricket like use of helmets and better protective gear on the equipment side or 30-yard circle and field restrictions on technical side, some past cricketers would have done far better than their eventual Test match statistics. Much of the lack of aggression of yore was due to lack of such factors in the game. Skippers today are telling their players to “play their natural game” while captains in that era told the players to “stay there” or “don’t rush”. Some cricketers would have excelled under a captain like MS Dhoni.

Salim Durrani could hit the cricket ball as hard and as disdainfully as Yusuf Pathan, according to them. On his day he could clobber sixes on demand and the reputation of bowlers never mattered to the man, who eventually dabbled with films. He was also good with his fast spin and at a time when fielding was a weak link in the Indian side he was exceptionally good at it. He could even keep wickets if needed. So he was an all-round cricketer in the strictest sense of the word. My old friends who have seen him play thought he was tailor made for T20.

The other guy they highly spoke about was Bapu Nadkarni, whose world record of 21 consecutive maiden overs in a test match is still unbeaten, after so many other records have been bettered. He used to watch the batsman’s feet so closely in his bowling stride that he adjusted the line and length every time the batsman showed even a hint of a prior foot movement. In that case he could have made an incredible bowler when batsmen try to hit you over the boundary line.

According to them, wicket-keeper-batsman Budhi Kunderan was an inherently attacking batsman who opened the innings. He was a decent keeper who could sweep pacemen in an era when helmets also did not exist in cricket. He was more in the mould of a K.Shrikant than a Sehwag and was never scared of his opposition. In the five-day games his aggressive style was sometimes criticised, but had he played in ODIs or T20, he would have achieved much more.

Another man they all spoke about with admiration was Mohammed Nissar. Speed guns did not exist that time, but these old guys who saw him bowl, vouch that he would bowl consistently over 90 mph. And the strange thing being that at that express speed he could still control the swing and bowl far accurately than the speedsters of present day, they stated with vehemence. So had he opened in T20, he may not have given room to free the arms and would have become a difficult man to contend with.

Many other names cropped up in the discussion. Master strategist Nawab of Pataudi Jr. could have become an excellent skipper since he could keep his cool in the most trying circumstances and was a natural motivator. Subash Gupte’s big leg breaks and deceptive googlies would have been very difficult to hit against. Chandrasekhar’s unusual, windmill-like action and deadly top spinners would have made him a major wicket taker in a game where defending is not an option for the batsmen. Abbas Ali Baig would have come in handy due to his rock solid batting and quick silver fielding style. The chat eventually closed with guys like Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil who played ODIs but not in T20 and were big hitters who could kill the opposition on their day.

I know that putting cricket in a time warp is not necessarily a good idea. But some of the prepositions made for very exciting hypothetical possibilities.

But the most satisfactory thing for me being that even the golden oldies are liking T20. And with the T20 World Cup being on, they are not moving away from their TV screens.