Erapalli Prasanna: the champion spin-wizard

 

Erapalli Prasanna was the man who began the trend of superlative Karnataka players in the national team. He was the pioneer who brought the erstwhile Mysore into cricketing limelight with his magical fingers and fertile brain. In his peak he also happened to be the best off-spinner in the world who earned the highest the respect of the best of batsmen from around the globe. Hardened, cynical critics too had no option but to rate him as among the best off-spinners to have graced the game.

The diminutive, rotund man hardly looked to be a cricketer. He did not possess the tell-tale signs of a sportsman. Not many would give him a second look. No presence, no charisma. But with a ball in hand at the bowler's end, he achieved gigantic proportions. Made life miserable for batters. He made the best of international batsmen dance to his tunes.

Erapalli Anantrao Prasanna was a conjurer. A man with magic in his fingers. He knew the art of how to cast a voodoo spell. He would coax and cajole; confuse and condemn. The art of spinning was embedded within the marrow of his fingers. But he was not a mere spinner who would use his fingers only. He used his brains. Brought into the art of finger spin the academic orientation of a qualified engineer.

If his physique gave a false impression, his action was no less. A few short steps and out would come a tossed-up delivery. Nothing unusual; just the plain routine action that every orthodox spinner would indulge in. But that tossed-up ball had a spell of voodoo within. It would turn a yard at times; may be just a couple of inches on occasions. But then it would also hang in mid-air at Prasanna's will, of course, before its descent.

Amazingly he could make the off-spin delivery bounce as high as an orthodox wrist spinner. Goodness knows how he did it! But this was not the end of the problems for batsmen. He would, I am certain, utter some mantras and the off-spinning ball would swerve towards the slips. Made life intolerable for batters in the 1960s and 1970s.

When Prasanna began his first class career for Karnataka (then Mysore) way back in 1961 he immediately attracted attention. People who knew their cricket realized that the young off-spinner was not an average trundler. His repertoire confounded even seasoned cricket critics. They were dazed to find that an off-spinner could possess such a wide spectrum of variations. He was in reality like a Spiderman, ready for all eventualities. Most certainly an off-spinner to be in the same bracket as Jim Laker, Hugh Tayfield and Lance Gibbs.

Within three months of his first-class debut he was called to represent India against Ted Dexter's England in the final Test at Chepauk in 1962. At the time of his Test debut he had played just two Ranji Trophy and one Duleep Trophy matches. Although he did not set tongues wagging with a bountiful of wickets his sedate statistics of 1 for 39 off 20 overs created a favourable impression. Within a few months he was found packing his bags for the ill-fated tour of West Indies in 1962 under Nari Contractor.

That was a tour of misfortunes. Skipper Contractor was laid low with a near-fatal injury. The team was thrashed 5-0. Total black-wash. Most of the reputed players had a trying time. In that shambles Prasanna did get to play a Test match. In the 2nd Test at Kingston he bowled well enough to take 3 wickets for 122 off 50 overs. The wickets included three top batters in the order: McMorris, Kanhai and Rodriguez. The young spinner had the mortification to see a Sobers’ catch eluding the wicket-keeper. But in the best tradition of Indian cricket, he was overlooked for the rest of the series!

In fact for the next five years Prasanna's name did not appear in the Indian team. No one has been able to fathom the reason for his exclusion and banishment. Why on earth was this talented young man sidelined? Especially after he had taken the wickets of numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the West Indies batting order and had the great Sobers in trouble.

However Prasanna can consider himself extremely fortunate that he did not have in undergo the trauma that befell Shute Banerjee of Bihar and Montu Banerjee of Bengal. In 1949 both played one Test each and took 5 wickets each and were never considered for India again! Later in 1991 in a repeat edition we foundmanager Abbas Baig and skipper Azharuddin saw to it that Subroto Banerjee of Bihar did not get another chance after capturing 5 Aussie wickets for just 40 odd runs in 18 overs! Indian cricket is full of mysterious incidents and callous men in power. Thank God, Pras was not on the same boat.

Prasanna spent his years in oblivion concentrating on his engineering studies and was honing the skills of his craft with all the thorough application of an intelligent youth. In 1967 when Gary Sobers' West Indies had come down to play South Zone, Prasanna bowled like a champion capturing 8 wickets and earned himself a berth in the last and final Test at Chepauk. This time yet again he was among wickets, securing 2 for 118 off 41 and 3 for 106 off 37.

Now with Pataudi firmly in the saddle, Prasanna's fortunes looked rosy. Pataudi knew class and was ever willing to respect and respond to it. For his part Prasanna was a transformed man. He realized that that had found the environment he needed.

Gone were the apprehensions of old. Now the confident man knew he had a skipper who valued his ability. Now he could experiment at will: toss and tease, No longer would there be those grumpy faces asking him to bowl tight and keep the runs down. For a man of Prasanna's ability who enjoyed ‘flighting’ challenges to batters, to bowl flat was akin to committing harakiri.

On the tour of England in 1967 the Indians fared miserably in the wet first half of the summer. The spinners particularly had difficulty in gripping the ball. Prasanna took just 2 wickets in the first two Tests but in the 3rd Test in the warmth of the July sun he had a match analysis of 7 for 111 off 44 overs. One could already sense that the four young Indian spinners were gradually coming into limelight. Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan were also on that tour and looked well set to complement each other.

Then came the twin tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1968-69. On this trip Prasanna came into his own and confounded all and sundry. On the rock-hard Australian pitches where finger spinners have been known to be battered and bruised, Prasanna relished the challenge and thrived as very few orthodox off-spinners have done before or since. On those pitches the finger spinners would have their fingers ripped off trying to achieve any semblance of turn, yet it was here under the most foreboding of circumstances that Erapalli Prasanna established his credentials as among the best off-spinners of the world.

In 4 Tests he took 25 wickets at 27.44 and had men like Lawry, Stackpole, Ian Chappel, Walters, Redpath in no end of trouble. He had them on a leash as it were and made them do his bidding. He was simply unplayable and showed the world that he had it in him to be compared to great off-spinners like Hugh Tayfield (South Africa) and Lance Gibbs (West Indies) who had achieved success on the sun-baked surfaces of Australia in the post-War period. Even the great off-spinner Jim Laker was a failure in Australia.

Prasanna's success in Australia is based on the classic truth that a spinner bowls not with his fingers but with his brains. Prasanna always had a wide repertoire and now with his new-found self confidence he began to experiment.

He used the crease to change the angle of delivery. He flighted his deceptive deliveries by varying the distances. He bowled the ‘straighter one’ in different hues: one straight forward to lull the batter into a false sense of security and the other to deceive him into oblivion. And, of course, the deceptive floater was always at hand to confuse and confound.

On the New Zealand leg of the tour, he literally had them on the run. In just 4 Tests he scalped 24 victims at the fantastic rate of 18.79. All this was happening not on ‘designer pitches’ for spinners but on tracks prepared for pace bowlers. How did he achieve such phenomenal performances so consistently is a point to ponder upon.

As if this was not enough he waited their arrival in India in the winter of 1969-70. Against New Zealand he had no less than 20 wickets in only 3 Tests. This was followed by a haul of 26 against Australia in 5 Tests. At New Delhi, Prasanna and Bedi with 9 wickets each won the match for India.

But with Pataudi's downfall from the India captaincy, Prasanna received a setback. It seemed that he did not get the same response from his new captain, Ajit Wadekar. Owing to injury he played just 3 Tests in West Indies where he got 11 wickets; but by the time the India team landed in England in 1971 the writing was on the wall: Prasanna's opportunities would be limited.

So it was. Prasanna was not required to play a single Test. However, to be fair to Wadekar it must be readily admitted that Wadekar did use Prasanna at home in 1972-73 against England in 3 of the Tests. True to his undoubted ability Prasanna responded by winning two Tests in the company of Bedi and Chandrasekhar. He did go with Wadekar to England in 1974 but on that disastrous tour he did himself less than justice taking just 3 wickets in two Tests at 89.00.

However with the arrival of Pataudi at the helm once again, this time against Clive Lloyd's strong West Indies side in 1974, Prasanna seemed to have got his rhythm back. Once again the old magic had returned and once again whenever he turned his arm round, a host of fielders around the bat would be kept busy. He had 15 wickets in 5- Tests including 8 at Chennai which India won.

 

 

Although not known for his batting qualities, Prasanna actually had been associated in vital partnerships in times of need. At Kingston in 1971he gave invaluable support to Dilip Sardesai (212) in a partnership of122 runs. Again on that same trip, at Trinidad he and Solkar added 53for the 9th wicket.

 He led Karnataka with distinction from early 1970s and could be said to be associated with many of the younger players who came into national reckoning after he and Chandrasekhar had showed them the way. He took 957 first class wickets at 23.45 in a cricket career spanning almost two decades.

 

He had a unusual way of verbally irritating batters. In a Ranji Trophy tie at Eden Gardens, Karnataka scored about 490 and Bengal had the uphill task to chase the score on the 3^rd and 4^th day’s pitch against the wiles of Chandra and Pras. Ambar Roy proceeded to play a delightful knock and kept going beyond his century.

 

 Unfortunately the other batters could not give him adequate support and Bengal’s innings ended at about 400 runs. I was fully set and trying to help Ambarda when Pras said, “Young man, good going.” I ignored him. He repeated,” C’mon, say something. I am speaking to you.” Again I just smiled.But that was enough to lose my concentration. Sanjay Desai fielding at deepish silly mid-on latched on to a stinging on-drive and I left at 35. Ambar Roy's magnificent effort went waste because we could not give him adequate support.

 

After the match a grinning Pras merely said, “I just love to talk while bowling, young man.” His wit, his charm, his intelligence did not require any slang words, any offensive gestures to tease batters. Just a few smart words were enough to rattle one’s concentration. That’s the way this very bright man functioned.

 

Unfortunately his fielding never blossomed. Never probably gave much thought to it. Never appeared to enjoy it. Actually it was his lack of physical fitness which took away the versatility from his bowling. How I wish he had turned down the last two trips abroad, one to Australia in 1977-78 and the other to Pakistan in 1978-79. He was hauled over the coals by a mediocre set of Aussie cricketers, just 6 wickets at 46.50. And then the Pakistani stroke players signed his death knell extracting an analysis of 125.50 for the loss of only two victims.

 It has always been a mystery to me as to why our cricketers cannot follow the examples of Merchant, Umrigar and Gavaskar and retire while in full bloom.  Erapalli Prasanna played 49 Tests for India and captured 189 wickets at an average of 30. Without an iota of doubt he was rated to be among the best off-spinners in the world while at his peak.

 

An academic personality with exceptional cricketing skills. He remains among the greatest of spinners produced by India.