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Five-day cricket is the yardstick to judge talent - Satu Singh

by A. C. DE SILVA

Remember the cricketing sikhs of India - the late Kripal Singh, A. G. Satvinder Singh - better known as 'Satu' and Milkha Singh? Well, the middle man - 'Satu' is right now in Sri Lanka, not for any cricketing activity, but for some business dealings, representing Lucas-TVS of Chennai, India representing the firm as its Senior Vice President - Marketing. Klevenberg (Pte) Limited is the local partner in the Lucas-TVS business venture and is represented by former well-known athlete M. Balasubramaniam - the Chairman and Managing Director.

Sri Lanka is not totally a foreign country for 'Satu' as he has been here on several occasions, especially during his cricketing days. The threesome brothers - that's 62-year-old Milkha, 57-year-old 'Satu' and the late 54-year-old Kripal were part and parcel of Tamil Nadu (Madras) cricket team that had regular contacts with Sri Lanka cricket in the famous Gopalam Trophy Cricket Series.

The brothers combination played for Madras in the Ranji Trophy - the top domestic cricket tournament in India from 1963 to 1967 and on one occasion the three of them played in one Gopalan Trophy clash with the Sri Lanka Cricket Association - that's how the local team was named for the encounter. Kripal and Milkha earlier played Test cricket for India, with Kripal playing his debut Test against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1956 and his Test career went upto 1964 while Milka started in 1959 and went on till 1963.

'Satu' didn't play Test cricket for India. Why? He didn't bat an eyelid and was quite frank in his admission: "I was not a good fielder and I had a knee problem too - that's why I didn't come to international cricket," he said.

"Fielding," he said, is very important and in all aspects of present-day cricket, fielding is very important and a good fielding side will always have the edge over the others, though they may not have star-class batting or bowling sides.

Sri Lanka has been very near and dear to 'Satu' all these years. He first played in the Gopal Trophy encounter against Ceylon Cricket Association team in 1966 as an allrounder and made 90 and the local side that year was led by Dr. H. I. K. Fernando and the game was played at the Oval then. He played till 1976 and 'Satu' seemed to be a clear example of batsman getting out in the 'nervous nineties' as he was out again when in the nineties in 1967 and again in 1970.

The Tamil Nadu cricketer has vivid memories of some of the matches and remembers well the 1970 clash where he made 90. 'Satu' was on 90 and it was the last over of the match and for Ceylon Cricket Association, it was Mevan Pieris who came on to bowl that vital over when the Madras team had only to make five runs more for victory. However, Mevan Pieris did wonders for the local team and 'Satu' was bowled in the last over by Pieris and Ceylon won that exciting match.

In the good old days, besides fielding, physical fitness used to be an important factor in international cricket and many teams stressed on those two factors when picking their teams. Speaking on the international scene 'Satu' said that bowling in the Asian region was much better in the old days than the present day. "Of course, Sri Lanka has Muttiah Muralitharan who has spun his way to stardom against the best teams in the world.

Speaking in general, really the bowling was much better those days. Sri Lanka had bowlers of the calibre of T. B. Kehelgamuwa, Tony Opatha and D. S. de Silva. "On the Indian side, there was Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Venkataraghavan, Bishen Singh Bedi and V. V. Kumar."

Speaking of cricket in the Asian region, he said that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all won the World Cup and that was something that the Asians can be proud of. However, the Asian countries must devise some ways and means to keep their cricketing image high on the ladder.

The Asian countries must follow the example of the Australians and the Englishmen and be very competitive in their approach.

Cricket is all money these days - there's nothing wrong with that. Cricketers must play hard when the game is in progress - that's why the Australians are a champion side. They play hard and they have cricketing academy that feed the Test team with youngsters and that's the correct way to build up teams, 'Satu' further said, and added "There's exchange of players in some countries and we Asian countries, too, should follow that example then we can improve the standard of our cricket." The former Madras cricketer, however, cautioned the locals: "Playing hard does not mean that one has to play dirty. One should play hard during the game and once it's over, all should get together and have a 'beer' for example and go away," he said.

His thoughts on the cricket structure right now - 'One-day cricket has come to stay and the spectators love it, but the real talent can be gauged in only five-day Test cricket. In Test cricket, one can really judge the capability of the cricketer. One-day cricket is all hitting.

Speaking about junior cricket, he said that it is a good thing. Sri Lanka, India and a number of other countries are laying great emphasis on junior cricket. There's cricket for under 12, 14, 16, 19 and 23 and in this way the young cricketer can be built up for sterner stuff to follow.

Kripal Singh, Satvinder Singh and Milkha Singh are the sons of late A. G. Ram Singh who played for India in the 1940s. Ram Singh had the opportunity of play alongside Ceylon's great batsman those days - late M. Sathasivam in 1945 and 1946 and Ram Singh visited Ceylon in 1946. So, with a cricketing father, there was no wonder that Kripal Singh, Satvinder and Milka Singh would excel in cricket.

Though father Ram Singh and brother Kripal Singh have gone to their eternal rest, Milkha Singh is still there, having retired from State Bank of India. However, Kripal's sons - Swaran Singh and Arjan Singh are playing cricket for Tamil Nadu, while nephew of Satvinder Singh - Sandeep Singh is playing Test cricket for India for the past two years though not regularly. So, cricket continues in the Singh circle.

Call all Sri Lanka

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