A painful victory

I won’t forget Dhaka (1988) for many reasons, not least because of the slow pace of cricket those days. We won, but I played with a twi...

I won’t forget Dhaka (1988) for many reasons, not least because of the slow pace of cricket those days. We won, but I played with a twisted ankle. I couldn’t move well at all, but skipper (Dilip) Vengsarkar insisted I play and I did with pain-killers and we took the risk.

Luckily for me, I opened with Srikkanth. So all I had to do was take a single and watch from the other end as he took control. Woh toh rail-gaadi pe chad jaata tha. It was also fun beating Pakistan. Maybe we won because it was not Sharjah.

Kapil’s Devilry

The main game in 1990 was at Cuttack against Sri Lanka in the league stages, but we lost that match. The final at Kolkata belonged to Kapil paaji. He took a hat-rick and we all just rushed to congratulate him. That was memorable…

Make it three…

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The wickets at Sharjah in 1995 were placid, but we bowled very well. In the final against Sri Lanka, Azhar and I had a wonderful stand. Azhar was at his artistic best as he would just drop the ball and take those wonderful singles.

Fear multiplies faster than rabbits…

Fear multiplies faster than rabbits…. In the final at Dhaka, though I had the ankle problem I mentioned, I decided to play with a carefree attitude. I hit a quick 76, hitting everything on the up.

I enjoyed every bit of my innings, because it clicked.

First one the best

I believe the 1988 team was the best one. There was Srikkanth, Ravi Shastri, Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil paaji. The main link was the batting which was very formidable, though our bowling wasn’t really strong.

King? Not me.

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It’s a team game. I cannot be called King of Asia. No one can be. It is full of fluctuating fortunes and nobody can ever be certain.

— As told to Chandresh Narayanan