Gupte, Pataudi bag Nayudu award
Ace leg spinner of yesteryear Subash Gupte and former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
have been bestowed the prestigious C K Nayudu award for
the year 2000 and 2001 respectively.
The award, in memory of the first 'superstar' of Indian
cricket, is given in recognition of lifetime achievements and
contribution to the game in the country, and consists of a
memento and Rs 200,000 in cash.
The awards were decided at a high-powered Board of Control for Cricket in India committee meeting in Delhi on Saturday. The meeting was chaired by BCCI president A C
Muthiah, and attended by P M Rungta, Raj Singh Dungarpur and
Delhi unit chief Arun Jaitley. Board secretary Jaywant Lele
was the convenor.
One of the greatest leg spinners the world has known,
Subash 'Fergie' Gupte, had, in just 36 Tests, a very
impressive haul of 149 wickets, conceding 4403 runs, for an
average of 29.55, in an era when Indian fielders were
known to be 'butter-fingered'.
A monarch of the art and science of leg spin and googly,
who reigned supreme in the 1950s and 1960s, Gupte reached his
peak in the 1958-59 season, when he had the mighty West Indies
reeling with a bag of 20 wickets, including 9 for 102 in an
innings at Green Park, Kanpur.
A gypsy at heart, Gupte, born on December 11, 1929, played
Ranji Trophy for Bombay, Bengal and Rajasthan before migrating
to Trinidad, West Indies. He is reportedly very ill at the moment.
In his quest for more wickets, Gupte, would sure have
loved to play under the captaincy of 'Tiger' Pataudi, who
completely transformed the Indian team, insisting, by personal
example, on the importance of fielding and forging into a
single unit a team divided by group loyalties based on caste,
community and religion.
Son of another former India captain Iftikhar Ali Khan
Pataudi, 'Tiger' did not allow a car accident, which blinded
him in one eye, to deter him.
He scored 2793 runs in 46 Tests, for an average of
34.91. More importantly, his reign saw the
emergence of the deadly spin quartet of Errapalli Prasanna,
Bishen Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekar and Srinivas
Venkatraghavan. And helping them spin the batsmen to their
doom were the super close-in fielders Eknath Solkar, Abid Ali,
Ajit Wadekar and Venkatraghavan.
Mail Cricket Editor
