SUBHASH GUPTE

 

Subhash Gupte was a product of independent India. A product of Shivaji Park, the bastion of  Maharashtrian culture in the heart of Mumbai. With his emergence as the premier leg-spinner of the world, people who thought that without British influence Indian cricket would not prosper received their answer.

 

Gupte was also not a product of princely patronage as most of the pre-war greats of Indian cricket were. Nor did he receive any coaching from foreigners. He honed his undoubted skills on the Mumbai maidans which produced and gifted innumerable cricketers to Indian cricket.

 

Subhash Gupte literally mesmerized his opponents with his twirling wrists and twisting fingers. Established international batters had little clue to tackle the mysteries posed by the diminutive leggie. They spent sleepless nights trying to fathom his wizardry. He wove magic with a cricket ball in his right palm.

 

Every time he turned his fingers at the release, the ball would make a whizzing sound. Even the non-striker would hear it! The buzz of a dangerous bee, ready to sting. Wonder how many spinners have ever been able to give that kind of innumerable rotation to the ball. Those who are connoisseurs of the game would surely realize the import of the eerie sound.

 

India colleague Pankaj Roy, who had successfully faced all the world-class spinners of the 1950s, always maintained that Gupte was by far the best spinner he had seen or faced. All-rounder and left-arm spinner Vinoo Mankad, off-spinner Ghulam Ahmed and leg-spinner Subhas Gupte were the chief architects who helped to build the great tradition of Indian spinners on the foundation laid by the magnificent pioneer Palvankar Baloo in the early 20^th century.

 

At a time when Abdul Qadir and Shane Warne captured our minds, we hardly realized that an Indian had similarly cast his spell in international cricket for 10 long years beginning from 1951. Gupte had every weapon of the orthodox leg-spinner  and a few more tricks up his sleeve. Prodigious spin and an immaculate control were the weapons of his armoury.

 

He had not one kind of googly but two! One that would be palpable to put the batsman at ease and then the deceptive one to cast the pall of gloom. Similarly with leg-spin and top-spin. He would purposely reveal his trick to lull the batters into a false sense of security. Then when the opportunity arose, he would become a pied-piper making the batsman dance to his tunes.

 

No wonder he was the most eminent leg-spinner in the world in the 1950s at a time when Doug Wright, George Tribe, Bruce Dooland, Colin McCool and more particularly Sonny Ramadhin and Richie Benaud were on the world stage. Gupte also displayed his phenomenal skills in the Central Lancashire Leagues in the 1950s beside his India team peers Mankad, Phadkar, Manjrekar and Umrigar, among others.

 

Very appropriately has erudite cricket writer Partab Ramchand pointed out that although many Indian cricketers would walk into the dream World XIs, not many would stay on for as long as Gupte would. Indeed, Subhash Gupte would most certainly have been a shining jewel in any glittering array of world stars during his peak which stretched from 1953 to 1957.

 

Such was the calibre of his spinning finger that on any surface he was a world beater. On his first tour abroad he was an outstanding success. This was the tour to West Indies in 1953 when none had much hope on the Indians.

 

West Indies had just defeated England in England with spinners Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine proving to be of the top drawer. In batting, the nucleus consisted of Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott and Frank Worrell, all three to be knighted later for contribution to cricket. Surely as formidable an array as one would hope to find in any era of world cricket.

 

But Vijay Hazare's men matched them in every department. The Indian batsmen were splendid in their consistency and the out-fielding was just splendid with men like Polly Umrigar, Chandu Gadkari, Dattajirao Gaekwad, Madhav Apte and Jayasinghrao Ghorpade outstanding.

 

 But the man who really made the West Indies wake up was none other than the 22-year old Maharashtrian leggie, Subhashchandra Pandharinath Gupte. He surprised everyone, except his closest peers on the Mumbai maidans who knew of his undoubted potential.

 

On their own backyard the indomitable ‘3 Ws’ were kept in thrall by Gupte’s spin and bounce, by his accuracy and control. The master spinner took 27 wickets in just 8 innings. A phenomenal strike rate by any measure of opinion or figure. The tour heralded the arrival of a rare gem in the Indian cricketing firmament.

 

His next tour was to Pakistan in the winter of 1954-55. Now he was face to face against quality batsmen on matting wickets. Here too the venom of his spin earned rich dividends. A haul of 22 wickets at just 22.66 yet again underlined the wonderful qualities of penetration that he possessed.

 

Gupte's last tour was to England in the summer of 1959. By his lofty standards he was not successful enough, but nevertheless he showed his capability by capturing 95 wickets including 17 in the 5-Test series. On the cricket circuit, he was universally popular as ‘Fergie’.

 

It is indeed unfortunate that India did not tour Australia when Gupte was donning the India cap. On those hard pitches he would surely have extracted appreciable bounce to trouble the best of Aussies batters. It would have been an exhilarating duel because Gupte loved challenges as much as the Australians did.

 

In between the three tours he played 7 Test series at home against all the international oppositions of the time. Against New Zealand in 1955-56 he cast his voodoo spell around them to such an extent that no less than 34 victims surrendered at the unbelievable cost of 19.67 per wicket.

 

A notion has gained ground that Gupte wilted when subjected to attack. To be honest, which bowler in Test history has not? For that matter, do we know of any bowler who has thrived on being at the receiving end? No, certainly not. For no bowler quite enjoys being bullied around. We know how world-beaters like Jim Laker and Shane Warne were mauled. So it was with Subhash Gupte.

 

 At Kanpur against West Indies in 1958-59, Gupte took 9 wickets in an innings. But unnecessarily made a few uncomplimentary remarks. This prompted Rohan Kanhai and Garfield Sobers to plan to destroy the bogey of Subhash Gupte. By audacious stroke-play they had him rattled at Eden in the following Test. Kanhai’s double century and Sobers’ century were the answers.

 

Nevertheless by the end of the series, the honours were fairly even with Gupte having no less than 22 scalps. But this time the average of 42.13 runs per wicket revealed that Gupte's magic was no longer the threat that it was.

         

Gupte's Test career graph began at Eden Gardens in 1951 against England. For him it was an uneventful occasion. Not a single wicket he claimed despite bowling 13 overs for 43 and 5 overs for 14. Truly discouraging figures, especially for a youngster with tons of talent. Consequently he missed the 1952 tour of England.

 

But then class, like cream, has to come on top. Consistent performance in the Ranji Trophy gave him back the India place that he so richly deserved. Actually the omission seems to have done him a world of good. He practised hard and with intelligence. He realized that in the tough international arena he needed accuracy, control, variation and guile to be consistently successful. In addition, he had the natural advantage of prodigious turn.

 

He was no pretender to the art of spin bowling. He was a spinner who could turn the ball on any wicket and under any condition. No namby-pamby up and down stuff he ever dished out. That would have been an affront to the self-respect of this man who considered himself a spinner. As Gupte often remarked, "If a spinner cannot turn the ball, why call him a spinner at all". How very true!

 

Subhash Gupte began his first class career in 1948-49 for Bombay and called it a day in 1964-65 after representing Trinidad for one season. In between he played quite a few seasons for Bengal and Rajasthan. In all first-class matches he scalped 530 victims at just 23.71. Without doubt an excellent career record, especially considering the fact that he was a leg-spinner, a tribe which would normally ‘buy’ their wickets.

 

Subhash Gupte's career graph was not too similar in comparison with other orthodox leg-spinners. While leggies are generally expensive, Gupte was certainly not so. He could be painstakingly accurate, hence highly economical.

 

While normally orthodox leggies matured late, reaching their peak in their late 20s, Gupte reached his peak in his early 20s. While leggies have a habit of buying wickets by enticing batters to go for big hits, Gupte was quite the opposite. He would hate to give away easy runs. Even late in his cricket career his economy rate was astounding, especially for an orthodox leg-spinner.

 

But Gupte had a pronounced drawback. He could be quite vocal at times. Perhaps a little too over-confident in speech. Quiet self assurance would have done him a world of good, but unfortunately that was not to be.

 

His last Test was against Dexter’s England team at Delhi where despite giving just 78 runs in 36 overs, his penetrative powers showed a remarkable decline. In the following two Tests at Calcutta and Madras, the Borde-Durani duo came into limelight with magnificent victories and thereby sealed Gupte’s fate forever.

 

In his 36 Tests Gupte took 149 wickets at 29.55 with 9 for 102 against West Indies as his best. He was the first of the great post-war spinners that India has produced (Vinoo Mankad being considered an all-rounder and not only a specialist spinner). Gupte was most certainly among the greatest of leg-spinners in the annals of world cricket.

 

He was invited by the maharaja of Coochbehar, Jaggadipendra Narayan to play in Calcutta for Kalighat Club, then a renowned cricket club which patronized out-station talents. In the company of Test wicket-keeper Prabir Khokon Sen, the magnificent spinner enjoyed a few seasons when he assisted Bengal in the Ranji Trophy. Although highly successful, he however never quite relished the grassy pitches at Calcutta.

 

Former Bengal captain, the Cambridge ‘Blue’  PB (Badal) Dutt  – Gupte’s Bengal and Kalighat Club colleague – always maintained that for sheer confidence and variation of his art, Gupte had no equal.

 

Gupte gave his fans the ultimate googly when he married a lady from the Caribbean, Carolyn by name. He set sail for the distant continent

and settled down in Trinidad. Out of sight, out of mind, the man remained forever.

 

Ironically India’s greatest leg-spinner spent the last leg of his earthly journey away in the Caribbean. Almost unlamented, he passed away in 2002 at 73 in a far-away land comfortably lodged among his closest family members.

 

According to the greatest all-round cricketer – by any standard of reckoning – Sir Garfield Sobers the best spinner he had faced was none other than the Indian leg-spin wizard Subhash Gupte. Such compliments come only to a special few.

 

Subhash Gupte was most certainly among those special few. His name will always remain among the best of leg-spinners in the history of international cricket.