cricket of yesteryear

[hehehewalrus]

Walrus,
I wish you go back 35 years and you will get the truth .

No need, diligently go thru the records with an open mind, the truth will be self-evident.

They found Venkat as an able guy who can control one end so that there is enough pressure built and you get wickets automatically , the other end. This is the whole truth behind Venkat's record.

I agree with Sentence 1 - venkat was to the trio what Lock was to Laker. Sentence 2 is incomplete - basically venkat wasnt international class!

Here goes:
(player - tests - wkts - avg - no of 5 wkts - wkts/test)

anil 95 tests 461 wkts 28.23 avg 29 5wks 4.85 wkts/test
chandra 58 tests 242 wkts 29.74 avg 16 5wks 4.17 wkts/test
gupte 36 tests 149 wkts 29.55 avg 12 5wks 4.13 wkts/test
bedi 67 tests 266 wkts 28.71 avg 14 5wks 3.97 wkts/test
hirwani 17 tests 66 wkts 30.10 avg 4 5wks 3.88 wkts/test
pras 49 tests 189 wkts 30.38 avg 10 5wks 3.85 wkts/test
mankad 44 tests 162 wkts 32.32 avg 8 5wks 3.68 wkts/test
doshi 33 tests 114 wkts 30.71 avg 6 5wks 3.45 wkts/test
raju 28 tests 93 wkts 30.72 avg 5 5wks 3.32 wkts/test
ahmed 22 tests 68 wkts 30.17 avg 4 5wks 3.09 wkts/test
ghavri 39 tests 109 wkts 33.54 avg 4 5wks 2.79 wkts/test
venkat 57 tests 156 wkts 36.11 avg 3 5wks 2.73 wkts/test

any unbiased person will see that Spin King Venkat is bottom of the list in terms of BOTH WKTS/TEST and AVERAGE - heck, even Karsan Ghavri and Venkatapathy Raju were better than him he he he

Venkat played 57 tests and got 5w in an innings thrice which is a humiliating fact. Please dont even mention his name in the same breath as the Big Three. I wont even mind Ganguly bracketed with Sachin-Dravid-Laxman but Venkat with Pras-Bedi-Chandra? BIG SORRY!

Interestingly my rating of yesteryear indian spinners would be
1. Gupte 2. Bedi 3. Pras 4. Chandra 5. Doshi - Gupte is top of all while places 2-5 will be a tie.

Doshi was unlucky to make his debut at age 32. He was nearly as good as Bedi if you see BSB's figures after 33 tests

33 114 30.71 6 3.45 <- Doshi
33 124 28.67 5 3.76 <-Bedi

Even the great Pras acknowledges Venkat is much better bowler.

Purely out of modesty. Ian Chappell was the best player of spin those days and he rated Pras as one of the all time best offies. Just look at Venkat's record versus:
Aus 38.45
Eng 46.65
NZ 22.81 [ Rabbit killer!!]
Pak 104
Windies 39.47

Assuming your statement is true that Venkat > Pras and therefore world best spinner ...If these are the records of the worlds best offie, I really regret not becoming a Test batsman

Venkat also had exceptional fielding skills

Whole heartedly agree. That saved his skin - otherwise he would have been dropped in favor of Rajinder Goel or Padmakar Shivalkar or Raghuram Bhat.

TN media has simply over-hyped Venkat like anything while the stats show the stark reality. If you will kindly remove your bias, you will see where Venkat really stands. BTW, I have not even considered Harbhajan here, Bhajju can achieve in a series what Venkat achieved in a career.