Eminent leg break and googly practitioner VV Kumar was unfortunate not
to play more than two Tests for India. Kumar took five wickets in his
maiden innings against Pakistan in Delhi - akin to a century on debut
by a batsman - including a wicket in his first over and yet was
greeted with a bewildering lack of representation at the highest
level. The belief that he carried an injury into his second (and last)
Test against England, which he denies, was held against him and the
later emergence of the quartet buried any hopes of a recall. His
skills were confined to domestic cricket where he became the first
bowler to take 300 and 400 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. Now involved
as the chief coach at Chennai's MAC Spin Foundation, Kumar spoke with
CricInfo on his intriguing career, the alarming decline of quality
spinners in the last decade and more. Here are some excerpts:
On his emergence into national reckoning
The entire credit should go to the late Lala Amarnath. When we were
practising in Delhi in the late fifties for a Ranji Trophy match,
Lalaji was present. He wondered who this stripling practising his leg
breaks was and my skipper CD Gopinath introduced me. Lala wanted to
see me at close quarters and chose me for the Indian Starlets tour to
Pakistan led by him in 1959/60. He was of such tremendous assistance
and not only did I learn the intricacies of spin bowling from him but
also how to be an attacking leg spinner. We had a lot of competition
then. Subhash Gupte was at his peak and there was another versatile
leg spinner in Chandu Borde. We also had Dhanwade, a cricketer who
died prematurely. But Lala made up his mind that I should be given a
chance and I played for Board President's XI against Pakistan in
Bangalore in 1960/61 and took six wickets. I was called up for the
Madras Test but my hamstring was sore after bowling about 50 overs in
Bangalore, so I remained in the reserves and finally made my debut in
Delhi.
On his dream start in Test cricket in Delhi
The dream start, as you say, is still fresh in my memory. I was
bowling according to a plan drawn up by Polly Umrigar (who was
captaining in the absence of the injured Nari Contractor). His motto
was to attack Imtiaz Ahmed who was a very attacking batsman and liked
to go for the bowling. Polly told me to push the ball a little quicker
to him but flight the ball one or two times to draw him into a stroke.
In my first over, five balls were pushed leg breaks which Imtiaz had
no difficulty in playing back according to merit. The last was a
really deceptive googly which was very slow in the air, it made him
commit himself to a forward stroke, then he saw the ball pitching well
ahead of the bat and could not check his stroke. After pitching, the
ball flew like a serpent and hit the middle stump. I felt very elated
and immediately went to Polly and said it was all because of his
strategy. But Polly said it was because of my capability that I got
him.
On the 'injury' that led to his downfall
I played the Bombay Test against England in 1961/62 after a long gap
of 4-5 months since I had a wrist injury which had just got cured. I
told the selectors that I was fit but there was always a possibility
something may go wrong during the Test. They said it didn't matter if
wasn't 200 % fit but if I was 100-150 % fit it was ok. At the time
Vijay Hazare was the chairman of selectors and he wished me all the
best saying I was the person who would deliver the goods. In a tall
scoring match, I was in the field for 8-10 hours and developed a boil
on my right toe. I took permission, went inside and asked the physio
if he could give me a piece of ice. As soon as the match was over, I
was called by the captain Nari Contractor and our zone selector MJ
Gopalan. Contractor said, "Mr. Selector, have you asked VV why he has
not confided he was carrying an injury"? In all fairness I should say
that if there had been an iota of support from our selector, I could
have played for the rest of the series but that didn't come.
On the premature end to his Test career
I didn't bowl badly in the Bombay Test. It was a big scoring match and
once I saw the wicket was not assisting me, I thought there was no use
in giving away runs and focused on keeping one end tight. Perhaps the
extent of the 'injury' which the selectors imagined made them ponder
about choosing me. After that I was successful against almost all the
touring sides like West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, England...
taking not 8-10 wickets but 3-4 at least. Despite the fact that I took
30-35 wickets in domestic cricket, they never considered me. That was
the period when Chandra, Pras and Bedi came into the reckoning, so we
had a plethora of genuine spinners and the selection process became a
little difficult. They had to choose the best and probably that is how
I lost out in the race.
On whether Chandra's presence hampered his chances
You can't call Chandra a leg spinner. He was, as the saying went, a
spinner with the ability to cut the ball either way. He could be
extremely devastating on his day but on his off day he was
incorrigible. When we played together the selectors expected me to
bowl tight because Chandra was the matchwinner in their mind. This
sort of puzzling attitude was an inhibiting factor and had a salutary
effect on my bowling.
On the best batsman he bowled to
You see I've played, bowled, studied and analysed about 10-15 world
ranking batsmen like Rohan Kanhai, Garfield Sobers, Seymour Nurse,
Bill Lawry, Ian Redpath, Ian Chappell, Basil Butcher, Conrad Hunte,
Joe Solomon...I have bowled to them on many occasions and in many
circumstances. All of them were freestroking, absolutely loose limbed
type of batsmen whom you could get out if you had a chance. But there
was an Indian batsman whom I thought was the best player of spin in
the world and that was Vijay Manjrekar. I still feel that nobody was a
patch on him because once he passed 30, you could never get him out.
He was so versatile and his positioning and strokemaking were so
beautiful.
On the decline of quality spinners
The decline started sometime in the early 80s after the exit of the
spin quartet. What happened in the transition period is shocking. I'd
basically attribute it to the advent of the one-day game which
encourages bowling flat and keeping down the runs. I'll give you a
very simple example. If a player bowls 10 overs for 28 runs without
any wicket, he is given an award but if he bowls five overs for 40
runs taking five wickets he is discarded. That is what's happening in
schools cricket these days. It's very easy to say that you've got to
adjust between one and five day games. In those days I still remember
we'd play the Hindu Trophy matches of 30 overs each and immediately
after the Ranji Trophy. Even Bill O'Reilly or Clarrie Grimmett would
have found it difficult. Bowlers of calibre can adapt provided there
is a clearcut time lag between the two.
On whether he's optimistic about the future
We have quite a few bowlers who're tossing the ball up and turning it.
Like the Delhi left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi. Similarly we had
another excellent left arm spinner in Rajesh Pawar who took seven
wickets in the Ranji Trophy final against Hyderabad but we haven't
heard of him since. Not many would know that Harbhajan Singh spent
some time at the MAC Spin Foundation when he came over to Madras to
play for Chemplast. Even then I could see that he was not only a
prodigious turner of the ball but had an away going ball at that
tender age. He said it was taught by his guru in school and I said
your guru must be really good. You could see from his approach, his
methodology of thinking, his application and also his attitude that
here is a bowler who could scale greater heights provided he had the
proper guidance.
On the Academy system and its benefits
The inculcation of training through the NCA is the best thing that
could happen to Indian cricket. I found in the South Zone academy at
Chennai that the coaches were all first class but they had to
entertain a lot of doubts from the spinners. When we've got a plethora
of top class spin bowlers of yesteryear, my suggestion to the Board
would be that they should be interacting with these youngsters on a
regular basis. I'm certain it'll be very productive in the years to
come.