One that drifted away

"Bete haath upar rakhna bowling action mein (Keep your bowling arm high)," Kanwaljit Singh tells a young spinner at the Hyderabad nets session. "Sir, when should I call you again?" the boy asks just before leaving. Kanwaljit grins and says, "You don't have to call me. Keep practising hard, I will get in touch with your coach and I will call you."

It could well have been the national selectors telling Kanwaljit that on several occasions during his 20-year first-class career as an offspinner for Hyderabad. For Kanwal, as he is affectionately known, the call never came. He finally retired from first-class cricket in 2000-01, with 369 wickets to his name, and is now Hyderabad's bowling consultant.

Kanwaljit was arguably the best Hyderabad offspinner, after V Ramnarayan, who never played for India. Where Ramnarayan lost out to Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan, Kanwaljit had to contend initially with Shivlal Yadav and Arshad Ayub. Later, he says, lesser spinners got preference over him. "There were some pathetic spinners who played for the country, some were even under the scanner for their action," says Kanwaljit. "I don't know what favoured them. It's still a mystery to me why they played and I missed out. Probably I was not destined to play."

Hyderabad had a fine tradition of offspinners and at times, they were spoiled for choice. The late Ghulam Ahmed was the first, someone ML Jaisimha rated higher than Prasanna in some respects. "You could hear the ball fizz out of his hand as you prepared to face him," he once told Ramnarayan. Then there was Ramnarayan himself, the best after Ghulam, who played alongside another offspinner, Naushir Mehta. Yadav, Ayub and Kanwaljit followed.

Ramnarayan rates Kanwaljit as the best of the spinners that followed him. "He was a genuine spinner of the ball, despite a slightly contorted action, arms and legs flailing about, he somehow finished in a smooth delivery stride. He had the guile and the great ability to flight, loop and spin. I would rate him higher than Shivlal."

What does Kanwaljit think about the duo he always lost out to? "Shiv was one of the best spinners I bowled alongside. By the time I got into the scene, he had already played for the country and deserved to play. The competition with him only helped me get better."

But he prefers to not comment about Ayub. When prodded, he says, "Ayub theek hai (He's all right) ... I don't have much to say about him. I don't know why I was passed over for him. While I was playing with him there was nothing exceptional about him.

"For the first 10 years I didn't know what was happening. Any other bowler would have quit. When I was young, I was too young; when I was the right age I was never considered and then I was too old."

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Ramnarayan had left Tamil Nadu and moved to Hyderabad to break into first-class cricket. Kanwaljit did the reverse in a bid to further his career. When Venkataraghavan retired, Kanwaljit thought he would get chances in Tamil Nadu and moved in 1986-87. It's a decision he now regrets because, as he explains, the outsider tag was used to keep him out.

To make matters worse, after a 50-year title drought, Hyderabad won the Ranji Trophy that season - for the second and, to date, last time. Kanwaljit had again missed out. He returned to Hyderabad after the bitter experience.

Once Yadav retired, Kanwaljit started to get more opportunities to bowl. "Around '93-94 I was beginning to bowl really well again. I always felt I would play for my country. I looked at others who played for India and I always thought I would also get a chance. But ..." his voice trails off.

The door seemed to open up in 1994-95 when he was drafted into the India A team for the third 'Test' against England A. He warmed to the occasion, picking up 2 for 35 and 4 for 49. John Emburey termed him "brilliant'' while Alan Wells, the captain of that side, said, "If India has a better offspinner I would like to see. Kanwaljit has a lethal faster one, like a whistle.''

It appeared that his time to whistle would come in 1997 when Madan Lal, then a national selector, tried to push his case for the tour of West Indies. Instead Noel David (Noel who?, Tendulkar is believed to have asked) got a berth.

Ramnarayan can empathise with what Kanwaljit went through. "Like me, he was simply born at the wrong time," Ramnarayan says. "Shivlal was already in the Indian team, Ayub was doing well with ball and bat for Hyderabad, and Kanwaljit struggled to hold his place in the state team. The system always favours those already in the side. It is very difficult to dislodge someone who has settled."

Soon the newer spinners started going past him: Rajesh Chauhan, who played under the captainship of the Hyderabadi Mohammad Azharuddin, Ashish Kapoor and, of course, David.

"Azhar, I don't know, he always liked Chauhan," Kanwaljit says. "I believe he did speak for me in the selection meetings, but much later than he should have. I guess he was always away, playing for India and maybe he was not sure about my capability as bowler."

Praveen Amre, one of the main batsmen in the domestic circuit in the nineties, rates Kanwaljit as the best offspinner he faced and, along with Maninder Singh and Narendra Hirwani, one of the top three Indian spinners of that era. "He should definitely have played for India," says Amre. "It was amazing how he kept carrying on and on."

That Kanwaljit certainly did and was even named the Indian Cricketer of the year in 1998, eighteen years after he had made his debut. In 1998-99 he took 51 first-class wickets and a further 62 in the next season, but that call never came.

Fittingly, he never quit, nor did he announce his retirement as a Hyderabad player. The selectors had to make the tough decision to pull the plug on the bowling machine. He had taken 319 wickets for Hyderabad, by then. "Even in my last game, I took nine wickets. I was not going to quit. They (Hyderabad selectors) thought it was better to go with younger guys and only after I was dropped, I decided to call it a day."

The wheel has turned pretty much full circle; as a bowling coach, Kanwaljit now waits for the selectors to call his boys.