The Indian spin quartet is the collective name given to the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
spin bowler
Spin bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, in which the ball is delivered slowly but with the potential to deviate sharply after bouncing. The bowler is referred to as a spinner.
Purpose
The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ...
s of the 1960s and 1970s:
Erapalli Prasanna
Erapalli Anantharao Srinivas Prasanna (born 22 May 1940) is a former Indian cricket player. He was a spin bowler, specializing in off spin and a member of the Indian spin quartet. He is an alumnus of National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.
...
and
Srinivas Venkataraghavan
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan ( (informally Venkat, born 21 April 1945) is an Indian former cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team at the first two ICC Cricket World Cups, and later became an umpire on the elite International Cric ...
(both
off spin
Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...
ners),
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar (informally Chandra; born 17 May 1945) is an Indian former cricketer who played as a leg spinner. Considered among the top echelon of leg spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi an ...
(a
leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...
ner), and
Bishen Singh Bedi
Bishan Singh Bedi (; born 25 September 1946) is a former Indian cricketer who was primarily a slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He played Test cricket for India from 1966 to 1979 and formed part of the famous Indian spin quartet. He played a total ...
(a
left-arm spinner). Among them, they played 231
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
, taking 853 wickets. They were one of the most deadly combinations in world cricket, especially on the dusty subcontinental pitches.
The spin quartet was instrumental in producing many Indian Test victories. There was only one match in which all four of them were in the starting XI: usually one of the off spinners, Prasanna or Venkataraghavan, was left out. However, these four men made important contributions to some of India's greatest triumphs, including Test series victories in the West Indies and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, as well as Test victories in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
In 2004, the
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...
conferred on them the
CK Nayudu
Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu (31 October 1895 – 14 November 1967), also known as CK, was the first captain of the Indian cricket team in Test matches.
He played first-class cricket regularly until 1958, and returned for one last time in ...
award, named after India's first Test captain.
Beginnings
By the 1966-67 season, the interest in cricket in India had risen to unprecedented levels. Despite being beaten by the
West Indies at home, the Indian team's spirits were not dampened. The captain
Nawab of Pataudi
The term Nawab of Pataudi refers to the lineage of rulers of the former princely Pataudi State in Northern India. Pataudi was established in 1804 by the British East India Company, when Faiz Talab Khan, an Afghan Muslim Pashtun of the Barech tri ...
thought that it would be a good idea to introduce more quality spinners into the team in order to compensate for the absence of good new-ball bowlers in the country. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, the leg spinner, had already established his place in the team with solid performances against Australia and the West Indies. Erapalli Prasanna was making his comeback having been out of the team for five years, while both Venkatarghavan and Bedi played in the series against West Indies. All four of them played their first (and only) game together
against England at Birmingham in the summer of 1967. Prasanna and Chandrasekhar impressed in that game, claiming 7 and 6 wickets respectively, and all four bowlers bowled a tight line. Even though these four bowlers continued to play for 11 more years, this remained the only Test where all of them featured in the Indian test XI.
Successes
Over the years, the spin quartet played vital roles in several memorable victories for the Indian team, starting with an overseas series win against New Zealand in 1967-68. Below are some major Test successes the quartet were a part of:
*
Away series victory against New Zealand, 1967-68
*
Away series victory against West Indies, 1970-71
*
Away series victory against England, 1971
*
Home series victory against England, 1972-73
*
Home series victory against New Zealand, 1976-77
*
Home series victory against West Indies, 1978–79
Out of the four, only Venkataraghavan and Bedi played regular one-day cricket for India. Prasanna never played
ODIs, and Chandrasekhar played just one game, against New Zealand in 1976. Bedi and Venkatarghavan played in 10 ODIs together, which included the World Cups of
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
and
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
.
Statistics
The spin quartet played a combined 231 Tests for India from 1962 to 1983, and grabbed 853 wickets, with 43 five-wicket inning hauls. Much of this success can be attributed to the different bowling styles these bowlers possessed. Bedi was an orthodox left arm-spinner, while Chandrasekhar an attacking leg-break bowler whereas Prasanna and Venkataraghavan were both off-spinners. This way, they could target all kinds of batsmen in the opposition and give their captains plenty of options. It was Chandrasekhar and Bedi who were the leaders of the attack. The two played 42 Tests alongside each other and had almost similar figures, of 184 wickets each. Bedi averaged 27.22, while Chandra averaged 28.70 in these games.
[Bowling records, Test matches- Bishen Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=wickets;player_involve=1219;player_involve=1290;player_involve_type=all;template=results;type=bowling]
References
{{reflist
External links
The Fantastic Four of Indian Cricket
India in international cricket
Nicknamed groups of sportspeople