Cricketers on the wrong side of 30 often retire to the slip cordon to longingly gawk at their future workplace just metres away — the comfortably air-conditioned commentary box. But Pradeep Sundaram at 52 is a nippy pacer with a 15-stride run-up and after his 4/19 in the Kanga League last Sunday, longs for a fiver next weekend.Well-ironed facial features, no-salt-just-pepper hair, a barrel chested, worked out body and a tight-fit size 30 jeans make the man. He abhors hair dyes and anti-wrinkle creams and easily pass as a 30-plus cricketer.In a way he is. Just last Sunday he celebrated his 33rd Kanga birthday — Pradeep made his debut in 1974 as an 18-year-old. “I shared the new ball with Ramakant Desai when he was playing his last Kanga game,” he said just before the conversation goes on to his present day teenaged teammates.Pradeep has lost count of his Kanga League wicket tally but he thinks for a while and gives a ball-park or rather a maidan figure. “500, 600, actually could be 700 too,” he said.For the uninitiated, the son of Test player G S Sundaram, Pradeep isn’t just a Kanga hero or merely a fitness freak who happens to be the oldest player in the maidan this season. He just missed out playing for India. The reason: Inexplicably, the BCCI didn’t have his phone number when they decided to give him a call. His biggest high: doing a Kumble in a Ranji game when he claimed all 10 wickets in an inning. He did the county stint and even played against touring teams at home.Any international wickets? The first name he mentions is Viv Richards. “Got him out on the county circuit,” he said. He also talked about an ‘S Tendulkar b P Sundaram’ mention in a Kanga League scorecard that he still cherishes. “All my life I have bowled just two balls to Tendulkar. The first one went for a six and I got him out on the next ball,” he said. With a smile he recalls: “It was a leg cutter.”Pradeep is the father of an 18-year-old daughter, but his cricket exploits are still a reason of celebration in the family. “My uncle gave me a call when he read about my 4/19 in the last game, while my mother (Shashikala) never forgets to call me after a game about my performance,” he said.Pradeep’s long cricket story cuts from Ramakant to Rohit Sharma. Everything from the players’ attitude towards Kanga League and priority of club cricketers have changed change, but remains a constant. The secret, according to Pradeep, happens to be “in the core”. Like a teenager who has just joined a gym, he points at his stomach. “Just see how hard it is. This is called the core muscle and no one even in the present day Mumbai team can match its strength,” he said.The ‘getting up at four in the morning for training regardless of sleeping time’ schedule Pradeep still adheres to, but he gets nostalgic when he speaks about his past of ‘700 crunches and hours of beach running’ days. So when does he eat the salads and boiled vegetables? Pradeep shakes his head vigorously: “I am a pav bhaji person. Pav extra fried and bhaji with a thick layer of cheese. Besides the hard work, I guess it is something natural.”
