Ritesh Misra, Surat, 11 July 2024
Star spinner BS Chandrasekhar, popularly known as just Chandra, had a mysterious connect with Mukesh, one of the all time great singers of the Hindi film industry. Chandra is also one of the all time great bowlers to have played test cricket for India.
Chandra used to hum the songs of Mukesh while bowling and he sang whichever Mukesh song came to his mind. In an ESPN Cricinfo interview, he specifically mentions “Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai” and “Ye mera deevaanapan hai“ as his favorite songs. Once in a match the great Sunny Gavaskar was beaten by him in flight, and following up he asked Sunny Bhai, “Did u hear?”, referring to the Mukesh song played loudly by a spectator on a transistor. In fact during matches of Chandra, the crowd used to play his favourite Mukesh songs very loudly. The highly intelligent Sunny Bhai also says that to motivate Chandra, he used to sing Mukesh songs whenever Chandra was bowling. Chandra has named his son Nitin, just as the great singer had done in case of his son.
Let us go on a journey to the past about this great bowler and reminisce some aspects of his extraordinary career.
Just like his great compatriot Bedi, Chandra had a long career but since in those days less cricket was played, and India was not a heavyweight test playing nation, he played only 58 test matches. That is too less in a career of 16 years. Is it not? In these 58 tests he took as many as 242 wickets. He was one of our first match winners and had 16 five-fors in an innings and two ten wicket hauls in a match. We have to remember that he had three other great spinners, Bedi, Prasanna, and Venkatraghavan, in the team and hence, more often than not, all chipped in with wickets. This makes Chandra’s performance more striking. It is interesting that he has a dubious batting record which he shares with Kiwi Chris Martin. They are the only two cricketers in test history (with a minimum of 100 runs or wickets) who have taken more wickets than they have scored test runs as batsmen.
The greatness of Chandra as a bowler can be noted from the fact that even when compared with his illustrious teammates he stood out. He had the best strike rate amongst the four, at 65.9, while Prasanna, Bedi, and Venkatraghavan had strike rates of 75.9, 80.3, and 95.3, respectively. He had the maximum five-fors in an innings amongst the four champion bowlers at 16, and he had roles to play in as many as five overseas test wins. He was also the only one amongst the four who took more than 4 wickets per test.
As a cricketer, Chandra received several awards and accolades such as the Padma Shri, the Arjuna Award, the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement trophy, Wisden cricketer of the year, Indian cricketer of the year and so on. However, his greatest achievement would always be being instrumental in getting India its first ever test win in England when he bowled a magical spell of 6-38, which was named by Wisden as the Indian bowling performance of the century. He was also the most important reason for India’s first win in Australia, where he had identical figures of 6-52 in both innings to end up with match figures of 12-104. Possibly it was a mistake not to play this wicket-taking bowler in ODIs. He played only one versus New Zealand in which he took 3-39.
Chandra’s compatriots always had huge respect for him. For instance, Bedi Sir said that he saw God in Chandra while Viv Richards said that the only bowler who sometimes gave him nightmares was none other than Chandra. Right after his debut, Tiger Pataudi told him that he would be India’s number 1 bowler. It is also a romantic coincidence that in his last test, Kapil Dev had his first 5 wicket haul in an innings. How symbolic is that? A number one handing over the baton to a new number one!
His love for cricket continued beyond his retirement and he spent hours watching youngsters learn the tricks and skills. The publisher of The Nirvik, Sobhan Kar, who was a cricketer as a youngster, remembers how Chandra sir used to sit and watch the India under-16 boys practice at the Chinnaswamy stadium at Bangalore. The year was 1990 and Sobhan was one of those lucky 20 boys. Sobhan recollects that Chandra sir was extremely soft spoken and advised only if a young player asked for some help.
Our great cricketer was born in Mysore and he has settled down in Mysore as well. As he said to cricinfo, he spends hours tracking and recording the music of Mukesh. He is 79 and we at The Nirvik wish our icon the best of health and happiness and thank him for the joy he has given cricket lovers throughout the world with his cricketing feats.
Sir, we are so proud of you. You are an amazing icon of India.
