Top Indian cricketer shares knowledge

Date: 02 September 2016 By: Anton van Zyl

A cricket player who rubbed shoulders with Indian cricket legends such as Sunil Gavaskar and Chandu Borde is currently visiting the region and helping young players hone their skills.

Mehndi R Shaikh comes from Baroda in the western region of India. He played first-class cricket in India from 1968 to 1980. His official statistics indicate that, during his 34 matches, he took 64 wickets, with best bowling figures of 6/15. This left-arm orthodox spinner boasted an incredible economy rate of 2.60.

Mehndi visited the newspaper’s office on Monday and spoke about the past cricket heroes he had the good fortune of playing with or against. The names include players such as Bhagwat Chandresekar, Gundappa Viswanath and Ashok Mankad. Names such as Brijesh Patel and Syed Kirmani pop up in the conversation and remind the cricket connoisseurs of the epic battles between India and Australia in the 1978/88 season.

To him, the best Indian bowlers those years were Erapalli Prasana, Bishan Bedi and Chandresekar. He also had a lot of respect for bowlers such as Australia’s Dennis Lillee. On a question of whom he regarded as being the best captain India had ever produced, he answered Nawad Pataudi, the legendary Indian cricketer who, at the age of 21, took Indian cricket to new heights.

Mehndi played his cricket during the isolation years when South Africa was barred from competing internationally, which meant that he never had the opportunity to see or play against batsmen such as Graeme Pollock or bowlers such as Eddie Barlow. He does, however, have a lot of respect for the SA team. According to Mehndi, the best SA captain was Hansie Cronjé. He also enjoys watching players such as AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla.

As far as the current international arena is concerned, Mehndi regards MS Dhoni as a brilliant captain and player. He also talks highly of batsmen such as Virat Kohli, who not only has an excellent technique, but is mentally very strong.

One thing that Mehndi dislikes, is the current “fast” form of cricket, such as the T20 cricket. He reckons that this is placing the emphasis on hard hitting, instead of proper technique. “This is not good for children learning the sport,” he says.

Mehndi was extremely impressed with the calibre of the young players in Louis Trichardt. He spent a few days watching players at the Eltivillas practice nets and he was surprised with the way in which these youngsters were bowling and batting.

On Tuesday he was taken to Centurion Park to watch the fourth day of the test between New Zealand and South Africa. He was looking forward to this as well as some other places he was about to visit during his month-long trip to the country.

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Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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Mehndi R Shaikh comes from Baroda in the western region of India. He played first-class cricket in India from 1968 to 1980.