Ritesh Misra, Surat, 11 September 2024
Sandeep Patil is one of the most dashing and stylish batsmen to play for India. Let us go through some memorable memories he has given us and some other aspects of his remarkable life and career, such as coaching, selection, acting in movies as a hero, and presenting a cooking series.
Career in a nutshell: Sandeep played 29 Tests in which he scored 1588 runs at an average of 36.93. He had four spectacular hundreds. He played 45 ODIs in which he had nine 50s. In his first ODI against Australia he was the man of the match for a valuable 64. He was a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team, an event which changed the cricketing future of India. He was an impact player and statistics do not do justice either to his talent or to the impact he had on the team or upon the fans.
Spectacular 174 runs and the background drama behind it:
This Knock was at Adelaide during the 1980-81 tour of Australia and is one of the best innings ever played by an Indian on an away tour. In the earlier Test at Sydney, Sandeep was hit twice, first by Rodney Hogg and then by Len Pascoe. He had scored 65 off 78 balls and had to retire hurt. In the second innings, India needed 204 to avoid an innings defeat and Sunny Gavaskar sent in Patil at Number 8. The captain thought that if Sandeep did not bat he would never have the confidence again. As things would have it, Sandeep was out for just 4 which was a boundary. But Sunny Bhai received him at the boundary ropes when he walked back and told him that his going out to bat was one of the bravest acts he has seen.
In the next test match at Adelaide, Sandeep walked out with India at 130/4 after Kim Hughes’ double century had taken the Aussies to an imposing 528. A loss was not an option, as the series would have been lost. Sandeep first combined with the Late Chetan Chauhan and took the score to 238 when Chetan Ji was out for 97. Sandeep and Yashpal Sharma took India to 385/6 and finally India reached 419. Sandeep was 8th out for 174 off 240 balls with 22 4s and a 6. His knock went a long way in saving the test match. Cricket is a fascinating team sport and in the second innings India survived 75 overs to draw the match at 135/8 with amazing stonewalling contributions from Dilip Vengsarkar (37 off 82 balls), Yashpal Sharma (13 off 157 balls) and Syed Kirmani (14 off 81 balls), Karsan Ghavri (7 not out off 36 balls) and Shivlal Yadav (0 not out off 28 balls). In my view, Shivlal Yadav’s 0 not out must be one of the most valuable 0s ever as it helped save a test in Australia. Sandeep’s brave and electrifying knock of 174 got him the attention of the entire cricketing world.
How important Sandeep’s 174 and the stonewalling knocks of the entire team were would be known later – after India won the 3rd test and, thereby, a series in Australia was drawn 1-1. Otherwise, may be, we would have lost the series 0-3. Who knows…
51 not out in the World Cup semi-final:
The 1983 world cup was a team effort and Sandeep played his part as did almost all the members of the team. Sandeep’s moment of glory was in the semi-final. England had set India 214 and Sandeep came out to bat when Jimmy Amarnath was run out for 46. He played an electrifying knock of 51 not out off just 32 balls and India had a comfortable 6 wickets win. This knock had 4 consecutive 4s off the bowling of Bob Willis!
Six 4s in an over off Willis:
The ground was Manchester. Sandeep and Kapil were batting and Sandeep was on 73. He hit Botham for a 4 and then took a 3. In the next over, Sandeep hit Willis for 6 4s in a 7 ball over (one of the balls was a no ball). In just 9 balls he had moved from 73 to 104! When Bob Willis passed away recently, Sandeep said that he was a fast bowler second to none and was a gentleman who had congratulated him for his 100, even though he had been hit for 6 4s in an over. Incidentally, in the next match, Willis had hit Sandeep on the helmet with a bouncer. Unrelated Trivia – Kapil Dev has said that the only bowler to hit him was Bob Willis and this happened when he was trying his famous Nataraja shot!
Movie Star:
Sandeep was hero in a movie, “Kabhie Ajnabi The”. The two leading ladies were Poonam Dhillon and Debashree Roy. Syed Kirmani played a negative role. The movie had a good initial draw but ultimately did not do well. In the movie there was a scene in which 21 kids were required. One of those 21 kids was Sachin Tendulkar, who was just 10 at that time!
Autobiography:
Sandeep’s autobiography was titled Sandy Storm. He also edited a very successful Marathi sports magazine, “Ekach Shatkar”.
Coach:
Sandeep had a short stint as the coach of the Indian team. He also coached the Indian A team. Sandeep’s spectacular achievement as coach came while coaching the Kenyan team which entered the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup. He also coached the Oman team which qualified for the ICC Intercontinental cup.
Selector:
Sandeep’s entry into the Selection Committee, that too as Chairman, was sudden. Mohinder Amarnath was removed after just a year. It had been widely believed that Abey Kuruvilla will join as selector, but since BCCI was looking at appointing a Chairman and not a selector alone, Sandeep got the nod. That time he was the Chairman of the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore. Sandeep completed a full term of four years as Chairman Selection Committee and it is widely believed that his telephone call to Sachin led to the latter’s retirement from ODI cricket.
When Sandeep completed his tenure, he stated that he was happy he was leaving at a time when there were a large pool of players to choose from for all the different formats. He also said enigmatically that as a selector one often ends up losing friends. Recently, Sandeep was upset at players being dropped on fitness grounds for failing the yo-yo test, and said that selectors have to realise that “they are playing with careers“. He gave a perfect solution – give selectors a list of available players, fit and unfit, from which to select and said that this practice was there earlier.
Taste Match:
Sandeep is a very good cook. He had a 13 episode talk show, “Taste Match”, where he interacted with cricketers like Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, and MSD over delicious food. This was in 2017 and is available on the web. It is my personal view that the concept was ahead of its time. Now is the “zamana” of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, Sony Liv and so on and Taste Match would have been a huge hit. Maybe the makers can consider revamping and re-releasing it as a web-series is the modern flavour.
Sense of Humour:
Sandeep has a terrific sense of humour. Recently, in the 40th anniversary celebrations of the 1983 world cup triumph, his close friend, Balwinder Singh Sandhu said that skipper Kapil used to tell him, “if Sandeep is at third man, bowl inswinger, and if he is at fine leg, bowl outswinger, because if the ball goes to Sandeep, we will lose the match!” Sandeep interjected and said that Kapil’s captaincy was so excellent, and his field placings so perfect that in the entire World Cup not a single ball came to him, and India won the World Cup!
Sandeep, the Bowler:
Recently, the publisher of The Nirvik, Sobhan, sent me a clip of Sandeep Patil bowling an efficient wicket to wicket over in an ODI in Australia. We were wondering about Sandeep the bowler and I discussed with a few of his friends who had played cricket with him at various levels, except for the country. interestingly, they said that for their school, Balmohan, Sandeep was always the opening bowler, and was known as a hitter more than as a complete batsman. They also said that initially he played Ranji Trophy more as an allrounder batting at 7, and as the opening bowler. In a famous Ranji Quarter Final versus Hyderabad, he opened the bowling for Mumbai with Abdul Ismail and took 4-79. He was famous for his cutters, which all of them said were “not readable”. However, he realised early that his technique as a batsman was good, and he worked on it and then there was no stepping back.
Sandeep sir, you are one of our most popular icons of India!
