Lacking the luck - Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel

File photo of Erapalli Prasanna and Padmakar Shivalkar (R)

Before there was Cricinfo, there was Sunil Gavaskar. For a ten-year old trying to learn more about the giants of the cricketing fraternity, nothing could be a better read than Idols – by far one of the most iconic pieces of cricket literature.

For a youngster in the late 90s, cricket meant ODIs. The ones whose parents actually took them to cricket coaching camps would brag about “enjoying Test cricket for the technique”.

The Ranji Trophy was not just out of the picture; it was completely out of the frame altogether.

Hence I always regarded Gavaskar’s inclusion of Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel in Idols with a certain degree of incredulity. I put down Shivalkar’s inclusion as a clear case of parochialism – both he and Gavaskar had played for Mumbai – while Goel’s selection was just to prove a point that Kapil Dev was not the greatest cricketer to have emerged out of Haryana. Of course Joginder Sharma would tell you he isn’t but that is an entirely different topic for another day.

As I grew up and as my cricketing heroes changed from Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh to Harsha Bhogle and Ramachandra Guha, I learnt more about Shivalkar and Goel. Both had been left-arm spinners born two years adrift of each other. Both were unfortunate to have been born in the same era as that of arguably the greatest practitioner of that art – Bishen Singh Bedi. They would have walked into any other team of that era or had they been born ten years earlier or later, into an Indian team as well.

Paddy, as he was popularly known as, could pitch the ball anywhere on the pitch he liked and get it to turn sharply. And by pitching anywhere on the pitch I do not mean he lacked control – in fact, it was quite the opposite. The best batsmen of the Ranji trophy repeatedly got bamboozled by Shivalkar as his 589 wickets at less than 20 a piece would testify.

My uncle, who is a professor of Physics at Calcutta University and who always used to get free tickets for the Ranji Trophy, claims that Shivalkar’s bowling could be used to teach trajectile motion – the way he varied his flight and turn. Paddy started late at the age of 21 but made up for it by playing well into his 40s. Today, everyone raises their eyebrows if a 42-year-old Pravin Tambe plays in the IPL; in the early 80s everyone would have raised their eyebrows if a 42-year-old Padmakar Shivalkar was not playing for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Naturally and expectedly, he finished as their all-time highest wicket taker and, 25 years down the line, shows no sign of relinquishing it to anyone else.

If Shivalkar was in the mould of Lance Gibbs, Rajinder Goel was all Derek Underwood. At the tender age of 16, Goel had everything – turn, flight and bounce. At 22, he was playing an unofficial Test against Ceylon and Bishen Singh Bedi was touted as the next Rajinder Goel.

All of that was to change over the next 10 years or so as Bedi cemented his place in the side while Goel looked on from the sidelines. The flaws in Bedi’s genius caught up with him and in 1974-75 Goel almost found himself in an Indian team – almost but not quite.

He took it in his stride and went back to first class cricket – only to discover that he had lost most of his zip and turn. At 32, it isn’t the most satisfying feeling and 216 wickets in 44 matches is the mark of a good bowler but not a great one.

Unperturbed, he changed his game switching to a flatter trajectory and bowling with greater accuracy. As a result, he turned out to be a nightmare for opposition batsmen on uncovered and bad pitches which reflected the malaise of cricket administration in India in the 70s. In the next 11 seasons he picked up 424 wickets in 78 matches crossing a number of milestones on the way – 400 wickets, highest wicket taker in the Ranji Trophy, 500 wickets, 600 wickets and finally the highest wicket taker in first-class cricket across the world. In his later years, Goel was a perfect foil to the pace bowling of Kapil and Chetan Sharma for the Haryana team and the trio formed a lethal combination on pitches across the country.

There is not much to choose between Shivalkar and Goel – both played one unofficial Test againt Ceylon (although not the same match), both are the highest wicket takers of all time for their respective state sides, both had careers spanning a length of 27 years and both were thwarted by Bedi in their efforts to play for India.

The romantic would choose Shivalkar for his mastery over his art; the practical would choose Goel for his unerring accuracy. The clinching factor would therefore have to be something as dramatic as a letter from a dacoit – when Goel crossed 600 wickets, he got a congratulatory letter from the dreaded dacoit Bukha Singh Yadav who was then situated in Gwalior Jail. I’m not sure that any other left arm spinner would have had such a captivated audience.