Venkatesh Prasad India's cricketer of the year

Anant Gaundalkar

Perhaps the image that most typifies Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad happened in Bangalore, during the India versus Pakistan quarterfinal in the 1996 Wills World Cup.

Aamir Sohail had just hammered the bowler through mid off for four, and in the heat of the moment, made a gesture which could only be interpreted as an arrogant sign to the bowler to "go fetch!"

Prasad stood in mid pitch, gave the batsman a cool, level look, and walked quietly back to the start of his bowling run. Loped in. And produced a dream delivery that beat the bat and made a mess of Sohail's stumps. After the match, analysts indicated that this dismissal was the beginning of the end for Pakistan.

"I have never worried about being hit," says Prasad. "It only fires me up, makes me want to bowl a better ball.

In the course of 15 Tests and 67 ODIs since his debut in England in the first Test of the 1996 series at Birmingham, Prasad has bowled enough "better balls" to get rid of 55 wickets at an average of 28.58. He has taken five wickets in an innings five times, ten for the match once, boasts a strike rate of 60.0 and an economy rate of 2.85.

Very, very good figures, those - more especially when you consider that he has just ended his first season as a regular member of the Indian team, though he did make his ODI debut in 1993-'94 at Christchurch against New Zealand.

It is his superb run in his debut year that earned Prasad 88 points and, with this, the 6th edition of the Sungrace- Mafatlal Indian Cricketer of the Year Award, which includes a cash prize of Rs 100,000.

Interestingly, Sungace-Mafatlal, which launched the scheme in 1991-'92 (Sachin Tendukar won the inaugural award with Vinod Kambli, Tendulkar again the next two years and now Prasad being the other winners) have now decided, for undisclosed reasons, to discontinue the practise.

This year, the main contenders were Prasad (88 points), Sachin Tendulkar (85) points, Anil Kumble (84 points), Nayan Mongia (78) and Mohammad Azharuddin (73) - Prasad just edging his captain and in the process denying him the chance for a hat trick of wins.

As an aside, the best batsman award for the domestic season went to Ajay Sharma of Delhi, while Rajesh Chauhan, ICC doubts about his action notwithstanding, won the best bowler award.

But what concerns us here is Prasad - who, interestingly, had turned 18 before he even took up cricket. At first he represented his school, ITI Vidya Mandir (Bangalore) in hockey, because the school didn't go in much for cricket. It was only when he joined Vijaya College that he took to cricket.

Tall and strong, Prasad started out just trying to bowl quick. It was in course of a stint at the MRF Pace Foundation in Madras that he learnt the intricacies of his art , and perfected the outswinger which is now his most lethal delivery. "It is all thanks to Dennis Lillee and T A Shekhar that I learnt to move the ball away, earlier I only had a natural inswinger," Prasad recalls.

These days, he uses his natural incoming delivery as a surprise weapon preferring to bowl straight and using the away movement to beat the bat. Prasad is also credited with one of the best-disguised slower balls in contemporary cricket and is, perhaps, the only bowler who bowls a leg break as his slower delivery. Other influences, he says, have been Roger Binny, Kapil Dev and, of course, strike partner Javagal Srinath, whom he obviously idolises.

Today installed as a premier strike cum stock bowler for the side, Prasad is quietly confident of the season to come. "This year has been very demanding, and I feel a bit jaded at the end of it, especially because Srinath was not around throughout the Caribbean tour. Abey Kuruvilla bowled superbly and took a lot of the load off, but I am glad of the break and now looking forward to some rest, which should help me prepare for the next season," says the bowler.

Follows, his career stats:

Full Name :	Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad
Place of Birth:	Bangalore
Date of birth:	August 5, 1969
Age as on May 30, 1997:	27 years and 298 days
Type:	Right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast bowler.
First-Dan debut:	For Karnataka Vs. Kerala at Thalassery in January, 1991
	Made six runs and had analysis of 11-0-59-2 & 12-0-54-2
One -day debut:	Vs. New Zealand at Christchurch on April 2, 1994. Did not bat and had analysis of 9-0-49-0
Test debut :	Vs. England at Birmingham in June, 1996. Made 0* & 0* and had analysis of 21-9-71-4 & 14-0-50-2.

Career performance:

One day cricket: Matches: 68, Balls: 3443, Runs: 2727, Wickets: 79, Avg: 34.52, Best 4-27, Wicket per match: 1.16

Test cricket: Matches: 15, Balls 3290, Mdns: 125, Runs 1576, Wkts: 55, Avg: 28.65, SWI: 5, 10WM: 1 Best 6-104, Wicket per Test: 3.67

Interestingly, Prasad this year has also won the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year award with 92 points to his credit. It will be recalled that Brian Lara of the West Indies had won the inaugural award, for the previous season.