Tony Becca
WHO IS the greatest right-arm legspinner of all time? Is it
the Australian Clarrie Grimmett, the Pakistani Abdul Qadir, or the Australian
Shane Warne?
In 37 Test matches, Grimmett took 216 wickets, including five wickets in an innings 21 times, 10 in a match on seven occasions and best figures of seven for 40, at an average of 24.21.
In 67 matches, Qadir took 236 wickets, including five wickets in an innings 15 times, 10 in a match on five occasions and best figures of nine for 56, at an average of 32.80.
In 140 matches, Warne has reaped 685 wickets, including five wickets in an innings 36 times, 10 in match on 10 occasions and best figures of eight for 71, at an average of 25.25.
There are those, however, including the great West Indies batsmen Clyde Walcott and Rohan Kanhai, who believe that although his figures of 149 wickets in 36 matches at an average of 29.55, his 12 five-wicket hauls in an innings and his one 10-wicket return in a match are not as impressive as those of Grimmett or Warne, Subhash Gupte of India, the little Indian who spun the ball prodigiously, who concealed his googly better than any man ever did, who flighted the ball more than Qadir and Warne, and who dropped it most times on a perfect length, is the greatest of all.
HIS BRILLIANCE
As a boy in 1953, I saw him in action at Sabina Park on two occasions during India's first tour to the Caribbean, once against Jamaica and once against the West Indies. To this day I still remember his brilliance, especially against Jamaica, as if it were yesterday.
In a match scheduled for four days but which lasted for only three, Gupte took 12 wickets for 131 runs in 59.5 overs as India, trailing on first innings, recovered to defeat the home team by six wickets.
Batting first on what appeared a good pitch, Jamaica were dismissed for 194 with Neville Bonitto, batting at number four, behind Alan Rae, Denis Thorbourne and Frank Worrell and before J. K. Holt Jnr., scoring 74 and Gupte taking five wickets for 88 runs off 31.3 overs.
With pacer Stan Goodridge taking six for 28 off 14 overs, India, parading batsmen like Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad, Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar and Vijay Hazare, were routed for 140.
That was when Gupte worked his magic - the wizard of spin mesmerising the Jamaican batsmen with his leg breaks and well disguised googlies and knocking them off one by one.
With Worrell batting at number five and scoring 47 not out, with four of the last six batsmen failing to score and the other two managing only two runs each, Gupte, with figures of seven for 43 off 28.2 overs nailed the home team for 89 and left India a victory target of 144.
Based on his record, Gupte, who took 27 Test wickets during that tour, who for 27 years held the Indian record for most wickets in a series after taking 34 wickets against New Zealand in 1955-56, may not be the greatest right-arm legspinner of all time.
Based on his skill, however, he may very well be the greatest. In my mind's eye I can still see him dropping the ball on a length, spinning it both ways on a good pitch, and after leaving the batsmen bemused, cutting them down one by one.
