The best after Subhash Gupte

News of Baloo Gupte’s death a couple of months ago at the age of 70 brought back memories of two unconnected incidents. The first was a swashbuckling innings in December 1964 by M Lakhi of the Madras Cricket Association Colts, during which the burly lefthander hoisted the leg spinner out of the small Cross Maidan ground at Bombay for three huge sixes. Lakhi was a promising all rounder of Madras then and Baloo was the less known Gupte, playing cricket under the shadow of elder brother Subhash Gupte, whom Sir Garry Sobers rates as a better
wrist spinner than Shane Warne.

The second incident involved that great ambassador of cricket from Barbados, when he was in Chennai a few years ago to assist VV Kumar at the MAC Spin Academy. One evening during that visit, Sir Garfield entertained a group of members of the Madras Cricket Club‑‑fortunate enough to be invited by the club’s secretary to join him at dinner—with some delightful cricket stories, real and apocryphal. Of course, most of the awestruck audience used the opportunity to ask their distinguished guest all manner of questions to gain an insight into his views on cricket and life in general. One of them, Mahidhar Reddy, a keen cricket enthusiast, actually fell at the great all rounder’s feet in typical south Indian namaskaram, reserved for the elderly and the great. (I mention this here, as Mahidhar was quite upset with me for not mentioning his act of obeisance in an earlier account of our encounter with Sobers). Unfortunately, Sobers’ wonderful anecdotes cannot be repeated here as the author forbade us from doing so, stating they were not for public consumption. “You know, an evening like this with me would have cost maybe a thousand pounds at a subscription dinner in London,” he said half-seriously.

Sometime during that evening, Sobers asked us who we thought was the best orthodox Indian leg spinner after Subhash Gupte. Was it Baloo Gupte?

Sir Garry became thoughtful when some of us answered in a spontaneous chorus, “No, it was VV Kumar.” “Why do you say, so?” he asked, “what made VV such a good bowler?” Each of us had his own answer to that question. VV’s phenomenal accuracy, quite unusual for a wrist spinner, was mentioned. His determination to get on top of any batsman who played him well was another plus point we brought up. I gave my own personal example, of how he haunted me at the nets for a whole season, after I, a mere tailender, managed by sheer fluke, to play some attacking shots successfully off his bowling one evening at practice.

Others described how VV made the ball hang in the air, confusing the batsman as to whether he must go forward or back to negotiate his flight and spin. Someone mentioned his two different googlies, and another his domination of the top batsmen in the South Zone, until one rare day, when V Subramanyam of Karnataka tamed him to make a double century in the Ranji Trophy league. We remembered how he teased batsmen, enjoying the challenge of trapping them at their own strong points. For instance, he loved snaring strong sweepers on the sweep shot, even if it meant giving away a few boundaries in the process. We told Sobers how VV was equally good at traditional as well as one-day cricket, in which version he could bowl more economically than the quicker bowlers and the finger spinners.

In the end, Sobers was quite convinced that Kumar was India’s best leg spinner after Gupte, and but for the unorthodox genius of BS Chandrasekhar, might have had a long innings as a Test bowler, instead of the two appearances he actually made in international cricket. “Let me share a secret with you,” he said, “I had already guessed how good VV must have been in his youth after seeing him at his own coaching camp. And I think he’s the most improved bowler at the camp!”