Thursday 21 January 2016

Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar was born in 1945 in Mysore, where he had his primary education. He developed an early interest in cricket watching the playing styles of Australian leg spinner Richie Benaud. An attack of polio at the age of six left his right arm withered. At the age of 10, his hand had recovered and Chandrasekhar started playing cricket.


Making his Test debut for India against England at Bombay in 1964, he collected four wickets in the match. He was named the Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year the same year. Chandrasekhar was influential in setting up India's first victory in England when he picked up six wickets for 38 runs at The Oval in 1971; the bowling was named the "Indian Bowling performance of the century" by Wisden in 2002.

Wisden noted that, "[Chandrasekhar] was wonderfully accurate for a bowler of his type, and his extra pace made him a formidable proposition even on the sluggish Oval pitch." His consistent bowling performances in 1971 earned him being named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1972.In a Test against New Zealand in 1976, Chandrasekhar and Prasanna took 19 wickets and were crucial in setting up India's win.

Attributed to him is a famous umpire-directed quote, made during a day of bad decisions in New Zealand after several of his lbw appeals were given not out: "I know he is bowled, but is he out?"

He also holds the dubious distinction of scoring fewer runs (167) off his bat than wickets (242) taken in Test cricket

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