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Ask Rungta!

They call him 'Professor'.

Ajit Laxman Wadekar, a shade over six foot, is one of those names that never seems to figure when fans discuss their favourite cricketers of the past.

Which is pretty unusual, right there -- the man was a stylish left-handed bat specialising in the drives in the V, a superlative close in fielder, a calm, collected captain and, when it came time to wear that particular hat, perhaps the country's most successful manager-coach.

And what did he get for that? Another nickname.

'Lucky'.

Having worn various hats -- player, captain, manager, administrator -- he is now settling yet another hat on his head more firmly, finding his feet in his latest job. That of national selector, a role he took up following the demise of Ramakant Desai.

It is still early days, but already, the signs are clear that the 'Professor' is in no mood to play rubber stamp. Thus, when the India A team was picked recently, Wadekar, one of the members of that committee, lashed out, saying that he would much rather not attend a selection meeting if all that it comprised of was one selector reading out an already prepared list of names, and the others nodding agreement.

Faisal Shariff met Wadekar for a long, free-wheeling conversation that took in past, present and future. We present excerpts:

You've been in cricket the better part of a lifetime -- so when you think back, what is the first thought that comes to mind?

That it was all an accident. I never played cricket in school. When I joined Elphinstone College, it was with the idea of becoming an engineer, I was very ambitious.
At the time, Elphinstone had a very good team, but no one to carry the drinks. My neighbour was Balu Gupte, who was already playign for Bombay. He suggested I play 12th man, so that I could earn Rs three per game -- remember, currency actually had some value in those days, we are talking of 1957-'58.
I did it, but didn't bother much with practise. At the time, our coach was Madhav Mantri -- a stickler for discipline, he would make me run round the ground for coming late to the nets.
We reached the finals that year, we were playing Siddharth. I had practicals on that day, so I finished that, then went to the ground, straight to the dining room at the CCI. Then the team came in, but no one was talking to me, I sensed that something was wrong.
So I asked Balu, and learnt that one of the players was sick, so they wanted to play me in the eleven. Since I didn't turn up on time, they had to play with ten men.
Later the captain -- I don't want to name him -- told me I only came there for the free meals and the money. It hit me badly, I vowed to show him that I could be the better cricketer.
I then changed my college, to Ruia, and in short order, I was playing for the college, then university, and for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy, all within just over a year.
I got a lift out of that, Bombay was very strong then, we had lots of good players, so making the state side was not easy, it gave me a sense of achievement when I managed it.

To digress, why is Bombay no longer producing players like it used to?

Well, partly because the emphasis today is on young blood. It is good, really, that cricket has spread all over the country instead of being confined to Bombay and Shivaji Park. In my time, when I was captain, we had five players from Bombay, now there are just two. It always happens -- for instance at one time, Middlesex produced lots of Indian players, that is not true any longer.

But while on the subject, isn't it strange there in all these years, the largest state, Uttar Pradesh, has produced just one Test cricketer?

Yes it is, maybe the trouble is good players are not getting proper exposure. In Bombay we have 325 clubs, 75 tournaments and matches. It provides a platform for talent to emerge and shine, but in states like UP and Madhya Pradesh you don't have that kind of structure, and that is one reason they are not able to produce good cricketers.

To revert to the past... how did it feel to go from a water boy to captain of the national side?

The captaincy, well... *laughing*... that was another accident, it came out of a fight between Chandu Borde and Tiger Pataudi. We had just shifted house to Prabhadevi, and I was out, buying curtains, when some journalists came up with garlands, I asked them who the captain was and they said, you!
In fact, I had just had a bet with Pataudi, I had not been doing well at the top, so I thought I wouldn't be picked. I told Tiger, if you become the captain, make sure I am in the side. And he jokingly told me the same thing. So when I was named captain, I called and asked him if he was available. First he said yes, then a day later he called me up, told me he didn't want to get into all the politics, and to consider him not available for the tour.

And so you went to the West Indies, and you won...

Yeah, another accident, it so happened that the tour coincided with the rise of a new star, Sunil Gavaskar. When we left on the tour, critics wrote that ours was the weakest team ever to leave these shores, when we came back with a series win, they said it was a fluke.

Wasn't it?

Was it? I mean, we repeated the win in England.
That whole West Indies trip, I remember a story. In 1966, I was practising in the CCI nets, the day before making my debut, and Gary Sobers came up, asked me my name, asked me if I was playing the next day and I said yes.
He looked at my shoes, they were old and torn a bit, so I told him they were my lucky shoes. He told me you can't play Test cricket with shoes like that, asked my foot size, and that evening, on his way to his girlfriend's place, he was dating Anju Mahendru at the time, he dropped in at my home.
Only my mother was there, she didn't know who or what Gary was, he simply gave her a pair of brand new shoes and asked her to hand it over to me. I played with those shoes, bearing his autograph, the next day, and I was a flop.
When I landed in the Windies as captain, Gary came to greet me at the airport, I told him about that incident, I also told him, off the field we will be mates, but on the field we will fight each other hard, you curse me and I'll curse you back louder.
This is an attitude I've been trying to instill in our team, actually, during my days as manager.

How come we are never aggressive? Unlike, say, the Pakistanis?

Maybe because we got Independence on a platter, maybe because we are not bred to be aggressive, unlike the Pakistanis who are aggressive in everything they do. But yes, it is true, we need to show a lot more aggression out there, on the field.

What is the one moment as captain that you look back to with pride?

*laughing* Well, actually, I slept through it, it was Ken Barrington who came to me, where I was fast asleep in the Oval dressing room in England in 1974, and told me that Abid Ali had hit the winning run, and that we had pulled off a series win against England.

Was that last innings a tense affair?

Well, not really, thanks to Chandrashekar's bowling, we only had to score 183 to win and though I got out first ball on the last morning, at that point we were just 80 runs short. It was a turning wicket, and we are well adapted to play on it, we at that point would rather play spin on a turning track than pace on a fast track. Besides, we were very positive, very determined, we knew such a good chance would not come again.

Are you superstitious? I remember reading that you took the advice of an astrologer, and delayed the team's sailing to England on that trip by two days...

Yeah, that's right, every cricketer has his own superstition, like wearing the left sock first, whatever, I too am a little bit superstitious I guess.

And as manager, what would you rate as your proudest moment?

I can't single out any one moment, the very fact that I was manager for three years is itself an achievement, no one has been able to match that.

While on the subject, do you believe managers should have longer tenures? Selectors for instance have four years...

Yes, that is right, the reason I guess is that no one is serious about that post, no one realises the importance of a coach. Being coach, that too of the Indian team, is one of the hardest jobs there is.

Why so?

Well, firstly we have different religions, different languages, dialects, 707 of them to be precise, communication becomes a problem. I mean, for instance, if I don't know Bengali and you don't know English, the gap widens. It is also a cultural divide. Say for instance I like Chinese food, then when I go to dinner, I am apt to take with me a player with the same tastes.

But say in Pakistan, they have Baluchis, Sindhis, Punjabis...

True, but I notice they all speak mostly in Punjabi, so the problem is not that much.

Can you give me a concrete example of this communication gap?

Well, from my playing days, I remember that Ekkie (Solkar) would find it difficult to talk to a south Indian, since he knew little English and the south Indian knew little Hindi. All this tends to, if not exactly create divisions in the side, at least to keep all players from getting close to one another.

Did you personally have any such problems, while you were manager?

No, I had realised the importance of communication, I took all players into my confidence, ensured that they were treated alike.

The Sidhu episode, where he returned from England in a huff, occured immediately after you left...

I was lucky not to be involved in any such situation, I guess I always was lucky, as captain, player, manager... *laughs*

Will Anshuman Gaikwad be able to hold the team together as you did, do you think?

Yes, why not? He knows all the players, he is a good communicator, he has been a selector before this, so he has everything going for him.

To revert to your regime, it is notorious for being a tough one. What rules did you enforce during your tenure?

Not rules exactly, more like a code of conduct. Cricket was getting too much, it was straining the nerves of the players, something had to be done.

Why, when you think of it, is something not being done about this?

What can you do? The schedule is so very tight, players also are making money, why deprive them of it?

So what did your code of conduct comprise of?

Well, I thought the attention of the players was being diverted, there was no time to think, there were too many distractions. Earlier, players would sit together over a beer, decide the strategy for the next day, that sort of thing wasn't happening any more. So when I became manager, we had a meeting, we laid down some rules like reporting on time for practise, proper dress code, that kind of thing.

Night curfew...?

No, nothing like that, I only asked them to ensure they got sufficient rest, I was not a watchdog putting them to sleep early.

No wives on tour...?

Yes, that was a rule I laid down, because I found that players tended to lose concentration on the job at hand if their wives and girlfriends were on tour, they were more worried about going shopping with them. I must say that none of my rules were laid down without consulting the players, nor were they absolutes. For instance, Kapil and Manoj were permitted to have their wives join them at various times, and once, after a series win, I told the boys that if they liked, we could go back to the good old days, but they told me no, this is just fine.

Now there is no such rule, yet we are winning...

Yes, but I still believe such a rule brings the team closer together, helps you get better results.

You were so successful, why then did you quit?

I wasn't doing justice to my job, at the State Bank of India, and you need something to fall back on, this business of being coach or manager won't give you security for a lifetime. Earlier, we used to have a manager for each Test -- Ambar Roy for one, V V Kumar for the next, that kind of thing. Then they started appointing one per series. The point is, they don't think the manager's job really matters, it is used to help old cricketers who are not well off...

Speaking of being well off, over six thousand bucks a day for Bobby Simpson...?

Is it that much? I don't know what he is getting, I thought it was only when he was here...

Do we need him?

Sure, why not, he could have a better idea of international cricket, he is a professional coach, thinks only of cricket, it is good to learn from him, after all the Aussies are the ones who have their academies and scientific ways, we are very backward in these things.

Wouldn't it be better then if he was here full time? As manager, would you have liked a part-time coach?

Well, being here full time I guess would depend on his own commitments in Australia and elsehwere, he can always come and help when he is free. As to liking it, why not, it is not a case of too many cooks, just two cooks.

How about Andrews Kokinos, how do you rate his contribution? How different is he from Ali Irani?

I have not seen him at close quarters, but I learn that he has come with the latest methods, techniques, equipment and attitudes, the boys are happy with him and the team is doing well.

Any time anyone talks of our team, the first thing they say is that fielding has to improve...

Yes, it needs work, and it is very difficult to improve without some outside input, this is where Simpson could be useful. Basically, our grounds are not that good, if for instance you play at Azad Maidan or Cross Maidan, you won't dive around because the ground is very rough, you fear injuries. And if you get that into your system, this fear of diving, when you are starting out, there is no way to get it out later.

But then you have players like Harvinder Singh, say, who must have practised on similar grounds, diving away without a care in the world...

I guess Harvinder learnt it on his own, even Jadeja is a good fielder, but not everyone is born that way and that is where practise comes in to play.

To get to selection for a minute, are Indian captains aware of the veto rule, which they can exercise?

No, I don't think he has the power, he does have the right to vote and can be part of a selection committee, only when it comes to controversial selections is his vote required.

Did you ever exercise that right, while you were captain?

No, I did not.

What changes do you see in team selection, between your days as captain and now?

Well, in my days, selection used to be unanimous, selectors generally went by what the captains and coaches said, because these are the guys who have to take the blame. These days, the input from the captains and coaches is less, because they don't know what is happening on the domestic circuit, the captain hardly plays domestic cricket due to tight schedules, so increasingly the selectors step in and say which player, doing well in domestic cricket, should be fitted into the side.

But increasingly, selectors get into things that are none of their business... like the time they asked Tendulkar to bat at number four...?

Well, I was not a selector then, so I can't answer that one, I don't know the prevailing circumstances at the time> I guess if Tendulkar wasn't getting runs and the selectors felt he was too good a player to be lost early on, they asked him to bat down the order.

Was it like that when you were manager?

Well, at that time they, the selectors, would go pretty much by what I had to say, about batting order and lineup and things like that. Then again, Vishy (G R Vishwanath, then chairman of selectors) and I had played together, we understood each other better than most selectors and managers do...

Recently, umpires of the ICC panel complained that players resort to cheating, your views...?

Now, with the third umpire, things are a lot better, I think. Basically, it is not really cheating, at that point in time, in the heat of the moment, you appeal, you are excited, you want the wicket and you think the batsman is out, sometimes the appeal is upheld, sometimes not, it works both ways, really.

How do you rate Kanwaljit Singh's inclusion in the A team to Holland? I mean, the man is 40 years old, earlier you said the emphasis is on youth...

I don't think I can answer this one, you have to ask Kishen Rungta.

Rajesh Chauhan was dropped for no fault of his...

Yes he was, basically, the problem with us is we are too simple, we go out of our way to please the ICC, even at the expense of our own players. It happens to the best, Meckiff was a victim, so too was Paddy Shivalkar who I rate a better spinner than most I have faced. So also Rajinder Goel.

Shouldn't Chauhan have been picked for the Holland tour, to let him get back into the groove?

Why, let him play domestic cricket, it is as competent. Anyway, you really have to ask Rungta all this.

Why aren't Vinod Kambli and Rahul Dravid in that side?

Kambli is still injured. As for Dravid, he got his chances, didn't prove himself, he didn't perform. Anyway, I think Rungta is the best man to answer questions about Dravid.

If you were head of the selection committee, what changes would you make?

Why talk of ifs and buts? If it ever happens, if they think of me to head the selection panel, then you get back to me and I'll tell you what I am going to do. *laughs*

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