A few stray thoughts on utility players
© CricInfo Ever since Manoj Prabhakar was suddenly axed following an indifferent World Cup in 1996, there has been a crying need for an all-rounder in Indian cricket
Partab Ramchand
08-Sep-2002
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Till last month, he, however, carried the rather unwanted tag of
one of the biggest disappointments in Indian cricket. In spite of
ample opportunities, he had not cemented a place in the Test
side, though, few doubted his capabilities in limited-overs
cricket. And despite his recent hundred in the Lord's Test and
his ability to occasionally trouble the best of batsmen with his
deceptively whippy pace off the wicket, he cannot yet be hailed
as the answer to the country's prayer for an all-rounder. At the
moment, it is to be hoped that he emerges as one of the several
utility players that Indian cricket has produced in the last 70
years.
I would like to think that there is a marked difference between a
genuine all-rounder and a general utility player. An all-rounder
has been termed as one who can hold his place in the side solely
on the strength of his batting or his bowling. He is the kind who
can win matches virtually on his own, can smite a hundred or take
ten wickets in a match or better still, do both in the same Test
like some of the greatest names in the game have done.
A utility player, on the other hand, is one who scores 30 or 40
runs and takes two or three wickets. Once in a way, he steps on
the bigger stage with a hundred or a five-wicket haul.
Indian cricket has had the good fortune of producing all-rounders
of the calibre of Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad, Dattu Phadkar,
Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand, Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde
(till a shoulder injury caused him to give up bowling his legspinners), Salim Durrani, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Manoj
Prabhakar. All these players got at least one Test hundred and
except in the cases of Ramchand and Borde, more than one fivewicket haul.
But, then, it is not possible for everyone to be genuine allrounders and again it has been Indian cricket's good fortune to
have produced a number of utility players, who have served the
country admirably. Not one has scored a hundred, all have
averages in the early or mid-twenties with the bat and in the
thirties or early forties with the ball. Barring one, none of
them has taken over 100 wickets in Tests.
Perhaps our first utility cricketer was discovered in India's
first-ever Test match. Ladha Amar Singh is rated in some circles
as an all-rounder - he was the first to complete the double of
1000 runs and 100 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. But his Test
figures - 292 runs from seven Tests at an average of 22.46 with a
highest score of 51, his only half-century and bowling figures of
28 wickets at 30.64 apiece prove otherwise. Perhaps over an
extended career he might have developed into an all-rounder. But
he never got the opportunity, due to the limited Tests played in
the thirties and by the fact that he passed away at 29.
In the sixties, while there were fine all-rounders in Borde,
Nadkarni and Durrani around, the Indian team also had the
services of Rusi Surti. The 'poor man's Sobers' as he was known
was an aggressive left-hand middleor late-order batsman and a
bustling left-arm medium-pace bowler who could also switch to
spin, hence the comparison. Initially in and out of the team
because of the presence of the all-rounders, Surti forced his way
in as a regular member of the team late in the decade.
In Australia in 1967-68, Surti achieved the status of a genuine
all-rounder with his notable double of 367 runs and 15 wickets in
the four-Test series. Overall, however, he could be termed as a
star utility man as his figures will convey - 1263 runs from 26
Tests at an average of 28.70 with a top score of 99. His bowling
could be a bit wayward, symbolised by his career figures of 42
wickets at an average of 46.71 with one five-wicket haul.
As Borde, Nadkarni and Surti were all in the evening of their
careers in the late sixties, Abid Ali appeared on the scene to
take on some of their responsibilities. As opening batsman or in
the middle-order, Abid Ali rendered yeomen service to the team
with some invaluable knocks. As a medium-pace bowler who could
swing the ball a good deal, particularly in the helpful
conditions in England, Abid could be relied upon to give an early
break or to end a troublesome partnership with one of his
specialist shooters.
He fell just short of the genuine all-rounder status by his
inability to get a Test hundred but his final figures convey his
undoubted utility qualities 1018 runs from 29 Tests at an
average of 20.36 with six fifties and a highest score of 81 and
bowling figures of 47 wickets at an average of 42.l2 with one
five-wicket haul.
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Binny, from 27 Tests, scored 830 runs at an average of 23.06 with
five fifties and a highest score of 83 not out and finished with
bowling figures of 47 wickets at an average of 32.63 with two
five-wicket hauls. Ghavri in 39 Tests scored 913 runs at an
average of 21.23 with two fifties and a highest score of 86 and
had bowling figures of 109 wickets at 33.54 apiece with four
five-wicket hauls. Madan Lal got 1042 runs from 39 Tests at an
average of 22.65 with five fifties and a highest score of 74 and
he had bowling figures of 71 wickets at an average of 40.08 with
four five-wicket hauls.
Madan Lal played his last Test in 1986 and Binny a year later.
Since then, Arshad Ayub flickered briefly but faded away after a
bright start while Sunil Joshi has been more out than in the
side.
To an extent, Agarkar has crossed the utility status with his
Lord's hundred but there is little doubt that he has not yet
reached the genuine all-rounder's status. For that, he will have
to be much more consistent with both the bat and the ball. At the
moment, though, he is still a valuable utility cricketer and
remains the best bet to develop into the all-rounder that the
Indian team sorely needs.