da blaze casino： What does a bowler, who has been the state’s leading wicket taker forten years, do when he is unfairly dropped while still having much tooffer
Partab Ramchand23-Jan-2001What does a bowler, who has been the state’s leading wicket taker forten years, do when he is unfairly dropped while still having much tooffer? Well, there are a few options and these could be any of thefollowing. (a) He can either accept his fate stoically. (b) He can dohis damnedest to fight his way back into the side. (c) He can go intocoaching or administration. (d) He can turn his back on the game forgood. (e) In a bid to forget unpleasant memories and prove that he isstill good enough to play the game, he can represent another team.Sunil Subramaniam faced these choices last year. After being the mostsuccessful bowler for Tamil Nadu in the period 1988-1997 with a bag of245 wickets, he found himself discarded. As the players assembled forthe 1998-99 season, the tall left arm spinner was just aboutrecovering from a serious injury to his shoulder and back. He spentsix months recuperating but then started physical training and net andmatch practice in real earnest. By the start of the 1999-2000 season,he was fit and raring’ to go. But to his astonishment, he discoveredthat he was not even in the list of 32 Ranji Trophy probables.Sunil has never been one to hide his feelings or to mince words. Inthe mid-nineties, when not selected in the South Zone team for theDuleep Trophy, he is known to have gone straight to the TNCAsecretary’s room and questioned him on his non-selection, armed withfacts and figures. He found it hard to swallow that he was notconsidered good enough to command a place in the list of probableswhen in his view, he was still good enough to play for the state.For more than a decade since the retirement of S Venkataraghavan,Sunil along with Diwakar Vasu and M Venkatramana, had carried thestate’s bowling fortunes. By the end of the 90s however, with Sunilhaving been dropped and Vasu and Venkatramana towards the end of theirfirst class careers, the accent in the Tamil Nadu attack had shiftedto pace, thanks to the presence of T Kumaran, S Mahesh, JGokulakrishnan, D Devanand and Robin Singh.But whether he was in a position to make a comeback to the Tamil Naduside or not, Sunil made one thing clear to the authorities. In keepingwith his outspoken reputation, he made it known that he was notinterested any more in playing for the state. “They have a solidstructure for the game, a planned edifice but there is no respect forthe cricketers,” says Sunil.But what could he do? He still loved playing the game and sincerelyfelt he was good enough to play first class cricket. After all, at hispeak in the mid 90s, he played six Duleep Trophy games and representedthe Rest of India in the Irani Trophy game against Mumbai. And he hadmade his first class debut in 1988 against the touring New Zealandteam, led by John Wright. Moreover, he was one of those who, as thecliche goes, ate, drank and slept cricket. He very much wanted to bein the thick of action and just playing for his club side, IndiaPistons, was not what the cricketer with a boyish enthusiasm for thegame was satisfied with.Well, opportunity came knocking from a most unexpected quarter. Latelast year, there was a call from an official of the Assam CricketAssociation. They were interested in hiring an experienced spinner asa professional and inquired whether Sunil would be interested. Sunilhesitated just to find out whether it was a good offer – both from themonetary angle and the cricketing viewpoint – and took the plunge.Making a fresh start at 33 wasn’t going to be an easy experienceespecially in far off Assam. For one thing, the culture, weather andthe standard of cricket is very different from that prevalent inChennai. (“Sometimes I felt I was not in India,” says Sunil).Secondly, there was no guarantee that Assam would qualify for theknockout stage from the East Zone or that Sunil would be picked forthe Duleep Trophy squad. His playing could then, at most, berestricted to the four zonal games. Viewed from this angle, it was abit of a gamble.But Sunil was determined to make good, to prove that his left armspinners still carried a lot of sting. And in his limitedopportunities, he did well enough taking 12 wickets at an average ofunder 15. This included a five wicket haul against Bengal and anotheragainst Tripura. Sunil loves bowling long spells but never got them asthe Assam skipper Z Zuffri preferred to rotate his bowlers and thematches were generally marked by low scores. In the process, Sunilcrossed the 250 wicket mark in the national competition and, mostimportant, played a prominent role in helping Assam to qualify for theknockout phase. Assam meet Karnataka in the pre-quarterfinal atGuwahati in March.The current stint with Assam has renewed Sunil’s faith in the game.”I have enjoyed my cricket with Assam and will play for them as longas I am fit,” he says. He missed making the East Zone Duleep Trophysquad by a whisker, there being two other left arm spinners in UtpalChatterjee and Sukhbinder Singh. He is confident that he will beinvited to play for Assam next year. At the moment however he is backin Chennai, content in turning out in a couple of tournaments forIndia Pistons and is looking forward to the game against Karnataka.It is indeed a second coming for Sunil and the garrulous left armspinner, who has come up through hard work, is making the most of it.