On the greatest all-round cricketer's landmark birthday, we present his views on India's Subhash Gupte, BS Bedi, EAS Prasanna, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar & Kapil Dev
There were some very good Indian spinners, particularly the four from the 1960s and 1970s – Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra and Venkat. The two that stood out from that famous quartet were Bishan (Bedi) and Prasanna – they were head and shoulders above the others. Chandrasekhar, in his own era and in his own style, was a top bowler. There are greats from different eras and he was certainly one of the best in his.
Sir Garfield Sobers
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But when it comes to a man called Subhash Gupte who played in the 1950s, we are talking about a great, great bowler. He is the best leg-spinner I have ever seen and in my opinion the greatest leg-spinner of all time. India had other very good players in those days.
I never really played much against Vinoo (Mankad) when he first started but I believe, at his best, he was classed as a very good all-rounder. I also saw people like Vijay Hazare, who was a class batsman, but I only really saw him at the end of his career. The same goes for Vijay Merchant who I played against when he was on his way out.
Peerless: Subhash Gupte
Other good players from that side, along with Gupte, were Polly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar – they weren't greats but they were very good players. They had fielders like Gaekwad (DK) and Gadkari (CV) at cover and cover point – two of the best I've ever seen in that position – I had never seen fielding like that at Kensington (Oval in 1953).
In later years, I saw Sunil Gavaskar come to the West Indies in 1971 and do very well. From what I have seen he would have to the best Indian batsman there has been because he played under all types of conditions and made runs in the West Indies, in England, in fact he made a lot of his runs outside of India. Sachin Tendulkar would obviously push him close.
Ace on all pitches: Sunil Gavaskar
Things have changed over the years. I can't make comparisons between players of today and players of yesterday because cricket has changed so much. There are helmets, arm pads, chest pads, they're bowling with a front foot rule, the field placing has changed, the bouncer rule has changed — everything has changed.
When I was playing, batsmen used to get four or five bouncers an over which you don't get today; we used to get bowlers bowling at you from 20 yards with the back foot rule so bowlers got much closer to you; there could be any field setting with four men behind square – now you can only have two; we didn't bat with helmets, chest pads or arm guards; bat-pad fielders didn't wear shin guards.
Always fit and ready: Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev, for him to get the amount of wickets that he did (434) bowling on slow wickets in India is really fantastic. He played a lot of Test matches to get his wickets but you could say, because he played more Tests than the others he should be more tired, but that never appeared to be the case. He was obviously very, very fit and very good.
Sachin is a great, great player. I think Sachin's innings' have always been for his team, as India has not always had the strongest of batting line-ups.
Excerpted from the book, In A League Of Their Own – 100 Cricket Legends Select Their World XI by Richard Sydenham. Available on Amazon
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