Catching The Eye: Spotting talent is an art in itself and not everyone has this art

Spotting talent is an art in itself and not everyone has this art. Some coaches or match officials have this knack of identifying the potential of a player even when it is hidden and not so obvious. These special players possess passion and a relentless drive to excel. However, the youngster has to navigate changes and embrace pressure or stressful changes and that is another story in itself.

On Saturday, a 23-year-old left arm spinner Manav Suthar was given the Indian Test cap in the one-off Test against Afghanistan at New Chandigarh Stadium and this prompted me to write this article.

One of the happiest persons with this development would be Hyderabad’s former wicketkeeper Youraj Singh, who is doing an admirable job as a match referee in BCCI domestic tournaments. Youraj has been talking a lot about this Rajasthan spinner and three years ago he had categorically stated that Suthar was going to play for India.

Youraj had ‘seen’ the immense talent in the youngster. “I have seen him playing in many of the domestic tournaments and I was impressed with his work ethic and his passion for hard work. He has a nice and easy action. He has the drift and the turn. What is important is that he enjoys bowling and is not afraid to flight the ball. I have not seen a left-arm spinner of late giving so much revolution to the ball. He uses the crease beautifully and has that armer that comes in sharply. Whenever I met him, I appreciated and encouraged him. I clearly told him to not lose the art of flighting the ball for the sake of white-ball cricket. Thankfully, he has stuck to his basics,’’ said Youraj.

The late Mumtaz Hussain saw great potential in a young talented player called SL Venkatapathy Raju. Pic: Telangana Today

Mumtaz had seen great talent in Raju

For instance, late Mumtaz Hussain saw great potential in a young talented player called SL Venkatapathy Raju. He had predicted that the left-arm spinner would play for the country as he had the hunger as well as a lovely action. Hussain himself was one of the finest left-arm spinners but was unfortunate not to play for the country. The pencil-thin Raju made his Ranji Trophy debut in 1986 against Mumbai. Late Rajan Bala, sports editor of Indian Express, had come from Madras (Chennai) to cover this high-stake match between Hyderabad and Mumbai at the Gymkhana in Secunderabad. The match got the added attraction because a youngster called Sachin Tendulkar was about to storm the world cricket. If writers like Bala or R Mohan of The Hindu wrote about a young player, the national selectors would take note of it.

Raju bowled beautifully troubling all the Mumbai batters, including Dilip Vengsarkar. Impressed with Raju’s special skills, Bala wrote an article, headlined: ‘Raju – the Artful Dodger’. Rest is history. Raju went on to play Test cricket and played in two ODI World Cup.

Later, a young VVS Laxman was hogging the limelight with his wristy batting and in the under-19 series against Australia he dazzled with his bat prompting the then coach Sandip Patil to say that Laxman is a cracker of a batsman. Coaches like MV Narasimha Rao, V Manohar, Jyothi Prasad and John Manoj would discuss Laxman’s extraordinary batting skills. “He is the next big player from Hyderabad,” said Manoj.

Laxman would practice at St John’s Cricket Academy. Laxman would bat for long hours at the nets and the coaches never stopped him and gave him the best facilities.

Manohar had won a bet about Laxman

Once coach Manohar, while walking with another former Hyderabad player, had an animated discussion about young talented players of the country. The gentleman said Amol Muzumdar, now the Indian women’s coach, was better than Laxman. A furious Manohar went on to challenge him and said in two years’ time Laxman would play for the country. Manohar won the bets hands down. Laxman became one of the very, very special batters for India.  Vijay Mohan Raj, the former Bombay and Hyderabad left-handed opener, would then vouch that Laxman was a better bat than Rahul Dravid for the simple reason that the Hyderabad batter had more range of strokes.

He is the next big player from Hyderabad,” said K John Manoj about VVS Laxman. Pic: X

Yet another big talent that emerged from St John’s Academy was G Hanuma Vihari. The likes of Manoj, R Sridhar, Noel Carr were instrumental in promoting Vihari’s career. The list is long. The late Sampath Kumar would speak highly of Mithali Raj. She was 12 or 13 years old then.

“I promise you this girl will break world records in women’s cricket,” said Sampath, who unfortunately could not see his ward playing for India because of his untimely death.

Then there was the case of Ambati Rayudu where coaches late Nagesh Hammond and late Vijaya Paul spoke of his immense talent. In fact, Rayudu made first big statement as a 12-year-old cricketer when he smashed 160 odd chasing 180 odd runs. Or Raju and Kanwaljit Singh talking about Pragyan Ojha. While doing the morning walks at Gymkhana ground, Jyothi Prasad would often talk about Mohd Siraj. “He would make a big mark,” said Prasad.

Arif had produced some wonderful shuttlers

The ever-friendly coach Syed Mohammed Arif, who made Hyderabad the badminton hub of the country, produced some wonderful shuttlers for the country. With limited facilities at the Lal Bahadur Indoor Stadium, he had young shuttlers like Manoj Kumar and Praveen Kumar who brought a new dimension to the game in the city.

Of course, the emergence of Pullela Gopichand changed the badminton scenario in the country. Arif would keep a close watch on young Gopichand, who practised for hours together. He rightly predicted that Gopichand would win the All-England title as he had the skills but he also trained hard in developing his speed, power and endurance. Arif later on spoke about Jwala Gutta or Saina Nehwal or PV Sindhu.

SM Arjif and Jwala Gutta

Gopichand himself turned into India’s finest coaches. He would unearth talent like Kidambi Srikanth, who started as a doubles player before Gopichand made him a singles player. Or when he told this writer about Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy as a potential doubles’ player. He and Malaysian coach Tim Tak had brought Satwik and Chirag Shetty together and the rest is history. They are the best doubles players after the phenomenal Jwala Gutta.

One remembers how boxing’s legendary coach E Chiranjeevi spotted young stylish pugilists in Syed Farooq or Devanand. Even for that matter Niranjan, an unassuming coach, grooming Gagan Narang, who went on to win bronze medal in 10m air rifle in 2012 London Olympics. In table tennis, Ramu S, unearthed Sreeja Akula, who practised at Anandnagar, and talked about her special skills.