Sachin a god in cricketing world: Bapu Nadkarni

KOLKATA - Former Indian left arm spinner Bapu Nadkarni rates Sachin Tendulkar as “god in the world of cricket” and says he himself would have run out of strategies while bowling to the batting genius.

“Legends are not born but made, and when it comes to Sachin Tendulkar, he is a god in the world of cricket,” Nadkarni said here Saturday.

Asked how he would bowl to Tendulkar, the 77-year-old Nadkarni said: “I do not have any strategies for a player like him.”

He added in a lighter vein: “At the most I can ask him to play faulty strokes at the beginning so that he loses his wicket!”

Nadkarni, famed for his perfect line and length which made him one of the most difficult bowlers to be hit by batsmen, told mediapersons: “Modern forms of cricket such as Twenty-20 are acting as a hindrance to producing good spinners.”

“A player can turn out to be a good spinner only if he keeps on working hard and plays more games of the longer version such as Test matches,” said the veteran cricketer, who played 42 Tests for India between 1955 and 1968 and picked up 88 wickets.

Nadkarni, along with former Indian hockey goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi, inaugurated two free beds donated by the Central Calcutta Sporting Club at the Thakurpukur Cancer Hospital on the city’s outskirts.

“I am proud to be associated with this kind of noble work for people suffering from cancer,” Nadkarni said.

The Thakurpukur Cancer Hospital is a charitable hospital made with funds from various organisations.