da doce： ‘Blonde Bombshell’ Shane Warne might have his backers
Staff and Agencies08-Sep-2001* Gupte was the finest, says Sobers’Blonde Bombshell’ Shane Warne might have his backers. For Sir DonaldBradman it might be Bill O’Reilly who was the finest of his tribe. Butas far as Sir Garry Sobers is concerned all arguments end with SubhashGupte.”(Gupte) had everything including two googles (googlies) that turned(one with a high arm action and one delivered more round-arm). Hisflight, length direction were magnificent,” go4cricket.com quotedSobers who was speaking at a function Cape Town in South Africa onFriday.The legendary all-rounder felt it was the amount of turn that Warneextracted that impressed people. “He never used to bowl the googly atfirst because he used to telegraph it and you could see it a mile off.His flipper was easy to pick up; there was always a little bit of achange (in his action).”Gupte played 36 Tests between 1952 and 1961 claiming 149 Test wickets.A wrist spinner who could turn it on any surface and one who possessedbaffling variety, he bowled an immaculate line and length. At hispeak, he bowled to batsmen of the calibre of the three W’s and AllanRae with a short leg, a silly mid-on and a silly mid-off! His bestTest figures were 9-102 against a West Indies side that also includedSobers in Kanpur in 1958.Sobers opinion about “Fergie” Gupte only echoes what many Indianobservers have been saying for a long time. The late Pankaj Roy, forinstance, while speaking to Cricinfo.com in September 2000 had said,”People, who are making such a statement (that Shane Warne was thebest leggie ever), have not seen Subhash Gupte. He had two googlies inhis armory. The first was quite apparent to the batsman, the secondwas the killer. Subhash Gupte would possibly accounted for morevictims if he had played the same number of Tests that Warne hasdone.”The 71-year-old Gupte is currently living in Trinidad where he settledafter marrying a West Indian. On Saturday, the Indian Board nominatedhim the 2000 CK Nayadu award.* ‘Deep’ in happinessThe new Indian wicket-keeper, the 23-year-old Deep Dasgupta was elatedto hear that he had been selected for India’s tour of South Africa.”My dad called me up from Kolkata and gave me the news. I cannotexpress what I felt,” Dasgupta told Press Trust of India.”It is indeed a great opportunity for a youngster like me to play forthe country. It is a dream come true. I have to make the best of it,”said Dasgupta, currently playing for Bengal in the Moin-ud-Dowla GoldCup.”I had been in contention for some time. But now that I have beenselected, it is a totally different feeling. In some way, I wasexpecting it.”Sameer Dighe, for all his commitment, was pathetic behind the stumps.The selectors were right when they decided that he couldn’t be trustedwith the important job of keeping wickets on the hard and bouncytracks in South Africa. Hopefully, Dasgupta who is said to be verygood ‘keeper, will hopefully measure up to the task and prove to be along-term option.* Das ready to settle for a slot in the middle-orderAnother East Zone man was also celebrating on Friday. Shiv Sunder Daswho has impressed as a Test opener, has also earned his first call-upto the one-day squad. The little man from Orissa feeels he might beable to gain a place in middle-order in the shorter version of thegame.”I will not change my game too much, I will play the same way. Thesethree weeks of practice will be very good and I will use a plasticball. Going early to South Africa will be good it will give us theconfidence,” Das told New Delhi Television.Something his long-time coach, Kishore Mania, fully endorsed. “Thesame technique – taking singles and not going for big shots and tryingand rotating the strike should work,” said Mania.Das, who is basically a backfoot player with a compact defence, is oneof the Indians expected to do well in South Africa. He is sure to gethis opportunity of facing up to the South African quicks in Tests. Buta one-day cap might be longer in coming.