Rajinder Goel, victim of Bedi's brilliance

Rajinder Goel is 77 years old but the hurt of not wearing an India cap still rankles him badly. “When India played two off-spinners in (Erapalli) Prasanna and (Srinivas) Venkataraghavan, what stopped them from playing two left-arm spinners," asks an emotional Goel. "I feel they didn’t want me in the Indian team, for whatever reason. Having not played for India despite being one of the best spinners in the country then still hurts. I have to take the disappointment to my grave,” remarks Goel.

The primary reason why Goel, who retired from first-class cricket with a staggering 750 scalps in 157 games at an average of 18.58, is because of a certain genius named Bishan Singh Bedi who was at the peak of his prowess. Bedi, considered one of the best left-arm spinners ever in cricket history, was poetry in motion. His release, the flight, the loop, the deception are still spoken of with great fascination.

Goel wasn’t blessed with the same natural talent like his illustrious North Zone team-mate but was handful for even the best of batsmen. Goel was flatter, varied his pace cunningly and preyed on the patience of the batsmen. Many batters knew what was coming at them but still they struggled to counter it.

"He is the one bowler whom I have really dreaded facing in my life,” says the great Sunil Gavaskar in his book Idols about Goel. “I have never been able to feel comfortable against his left-hand spinners and Goel has been the one who, because of his flatter trajectory, has not given me the opportunity to step down the track and drive.”

Another factor that kept Goel out from the national side was plain bad luck. He was playing in an era when the nation had its famous quartet — Bedi, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar — was operating at optimum level. It was hard for any spinner to make a breakthrough. Goel though doesn’t buy this theory.

“Yes, I know a lot of people have told me this but I feel I got the hard end of the stick. Let me give you two examples. Bedi was dropped from the first Bangalore Test against West Indies (on disciplinary grounds) in 1974-75 and I was left out at the last moment. I still don’t know the reason why. Secondly, there are so many instances when Ravi Shastri has played alongside another left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Agreed, that was in the 80s, but why was such a thought not given in the 70s,” questions Goel.

Goel was born in then United Punjab's Narwana town in 1942 to an assistant station master in the Indian Railways and played his first Ranji Trophy game for South Punjab in 1958-59. He then moved to Delhi in 1963 hoping to give wings to his fledgling career before joining Haryana a decade later. He bagged a staggering 59 five-wicket hauls and 18 ten-wicket match returns. In Ranji Trophy alone he has 637 wickets, a record yet to be surpassed.

When asked how he soldiered on judiciously despite the national snub, Goel said cricket mattered the most to him. “What could have I done except bowling well? I loved cricket and that was my life. We all don’t get everything in life. There will be regrets but you do what you have to do. I just did my job to the best of my abilities till the last day.”