What a nice piece by Gridhar, the brilliant efforts of our spin quartet; Including the eloquence of the commentators particularly John Arlott, Alan McGilvary and also to add VM Charkrapani and Christopher Martin Jenkins; Also due to the excellent close in fielders, like Solkar, Abid Ali, Wadekar and Venkat.

For the current fab four (batting department)to get the same farewell is unlikely, given the exposure due to technological advancement and higher expectations from media and the cricket lovers alike.

Yes; we are lucky to witness these spinning and batting quartet.

This is among the best blogs I've ever read. Not one who's usually taken in by eloquent depictions of nostalgia, this article makes me wish I could grab a couple of audio recordings of that radio commentary, anything to experience what it was like to have three world class spinners bowling in tandem.
Perhaps to some degree it also depends on the character of the person, how quietly and with how much dignity he choses to leave. And you're right, they should be given that space.

Why is everyone lumping Laxman in with the others? He is a couple of years younger than them, and has not underperformed in recent series' in Australia and SL.

Kumble should be in the quartet, not Laxman. Laxman has 2 more good years left in him.

Times have changed... there is too much fan-following, money and thus attention on Indian cricket n cricketers. The 4 spinners never endorsed products, so another angle is different.

The heart yearns for the more innocent times but the head says that it is just not possible.

Very nicely written. Though the eras are not comparable, it should serve as a reminder to most of us fans that while our cricketers never interfere and decide for our own careers and lives, who are we to do that for them. Well, I guess stardom has a price to pay indeed.

A very nice post...and a wonderful way of weaving nostalgia with the contemporary. I fear VVS would be the Venkat of the Fab Four, taking the flak for failure and being compared with the Gen Next. While everyone compare's VVS' fielding and running between wickets with Gen Next, no one compares composure, strokeplay and match-saving innings between them.
Of the batting Fab Four, two were selfless and two were selfish. Readers can make their choice.

Venkat went on to be a successful umpire. Bedi keeps saying something or the other every now and then about Murali that shows up in the press, but whatever happened to Chandra and Prasanna?
I grew up watching them and listening to these commentators. I also had the honour of meeting Chakrapani and Joga Rao. Venkat, Bedi and Underwood are still the most elegant spin bowlers I have ever had the honour to watch.

Thoroughly agree with you - Farce Follower.
No doubt, the two batsmen who have grabbed the most news print in the 1st two tests, have played more for their own records

Beautiful piece of writing. Straight from the heart and yet not merely emotional but also substantive.

This article made me appreciate the beauty of radio commentary. I started following cricket in the early to mid 90's, so never really felt the need for the radio. And I never understood how some people could wake up at 5am (The time the Ashes starts when it's played in Australia) just to LISTEN to commentaries! Thank you for enlightening me!

"we can lower our tones, stand aside, and salute them as they go back to the pavilion one last time. Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman, rare gems all and for all four to be playing at the same time for India. We will never know how blessed our country was till they are all gone."

I read this at least 5 times....I must say one of the best cricket articles ever.

Dear All ,
An extremely good writeup from Mr.Giridhar.Memories of a running radio commentary brings about very nostalgic feelings about cricket and the early days.We just are being the very ARGUMENTATIVE INDIANS in criticizing the present FAB FOUR.Let us all stand up countrymen and salute these gems who have put us right at the top.Cmon guys we should be proud of them.
Let Indian cricket be blessed with many more fabulous sportsmen without whom the joy of watching cricket would simply fade away.

That is the way with sports and entertainment in general. Some performers touch you in some way, whether it is their positives or negatives. These days fans in general are living in a more priveleged era and they feel they own it all. They overreact to little things when it is just a game. These are trivial and India has far bigger issues to deal with.

This makes me feel nostalgic about the mid to late 70s when the cricket fever grabbed me as a kid growing up in Colombo and it still hasn't left me. Radio was my window into cricket. Chappel brothers, Gavaskar, Lillee, Thompson, Walters, Richards, Lloyd, Botham, Boycott, Zaheer, Holding, Roberts, Garner and Croft all became magical figures through it.

The problem with good writers is that they get away with murder. We take good prose to imply good logic and We are Caeser's burial and Caeser isnt dead yet. The poor guy is on the battlefield fighting, winning wars but we are ready with the eulogy. Why should Tendulkar at 36/37 care for what Bedi and Prasanna had to undergo in Pakistan? India in Australia, Australia in India - take your pick - he (and others from the fab 4) is amongst the stat leaders. The two innings to win Trination in Australia will be amongst the highlights of his career. He will leave when he feels like or should leave when he no longer merits a place in the team. For that to happen, we need 3 more Gambhirs - Yuvraj, Kaifs, and Rohits will not cut - at least not yet. The Fab Four had a terrible Sri Lankan series but no one had a good series there. Karthik and Patel finished with averages below 10. Tendulkar scored an unheard of by a visiting team - 500 runs in 4 test matches in Australia (against 140 runs by Dhoni

To continue to further: The bowling Fab Four that Giridhar so eloquently refers to had ZERO series victories in Aus, WI, Pak, Eng in the 60s and 70s outside of that one beautiful Gavaskar summer in 70/71. This Fab 4 is different. With them India competes in every series - home or away. Tendulkar and Dravid will make an all time India 11 and as Lara, Jayasurya, Gavaskar - several others have shown age is no barrier to performance. Gavaskar's best 1 day series was his last and one of his best test performances (my favorite for sure) was the fighting 96 against Pakistan in his last test inning. He was 40+ then. It is tough enough playing on the field - we should cut the guys a break - look at their game and not the age.

Certainly every person, sportsman or otherwise, deserves a fair shot at making the best of their chosen mode of living - burying one on the presumption of what happened 30 years ago does a disservice to us all.

Nostalgic memories of Radio commentary!. We used to get up at 04 am for NZ matches. WI matches would be aired in split timings, the second half recorded from 0530 am. Funnily recollecting, the famous Port of Spain test we won (chasing 400+ in last innings) was announced at 6 am AIR news first, while our friends were stilllistening to a recorded commentary.

We used to shunt between stations in short wave 2 and 3 (11, 13, 16, 25 and 31 mtrs) for BBC and ABC commentaries. Not all matches were aired by AIR. And AIR had their own English / Hindi crew !!.

The last I remember a good commentary of a match was how Martin Jenkings(?) described the Calcutta final crowd watching the England-Australia 1887 World Cup Final in India.

I had the privilege of watching the Fab four spinners in action at Sabina Park in Jamaica bamboozle all the West Indian batsmen save Viv Richards who played them with nonchalant ease and grace befitting of the best modern day batsman that he subsequently became.To me Chandra was the most mystical of the four.Personalities like the fab four spinners have left an indelible mark in my mind and I think is characters like these could keep test cricket alive.

"The 4 spinners never endorsed products, so another angle is different. "

Yes, sad for them, because in the 1960s and 70s :

India had no television, and a closed economy, so no consumer products.
India was a dirt-poor country, even poorer than most of Africa, at the time.
Due to no TV, most people didn't know what the players looked like, so they didn't have girls swarming over them in those days (society was ultra-prudish then too).

So the spin quartet literally earned about 1/100th of what the modern batting quartet earns, even after adjusting for inflation.

It shows how terrible life in India was in those days.

Eloquent writing, evoked nostalgia, but facts are totally different. Prasanna, when dropped, announced his retirement in a huff. He later wrote a lot in his "One More Over" about feeling letdown. Bedi kicked and screamed at being dropped. Chandrashekhar kept playing in Ranji and played his final match against Kerala and when he couldn't clean them up in a day like he used to and even two days, he decided that was it. Venkat soldiered on, in his later years, he was a pale comparison to what he was.

Love it, love it, love it!!!
What an article!
Mr. Sridhar, thank you for putting this into words....hope they come true.

I agree with one of the readers that Laxman should not be in this, but for different reasons. He is *not* in the same league as the others - nowhere near it. He has a couple of memorable innings to note, but that's about it. Not even 2-3 swallows would make anyone's summer. Talk about greatness being being thrust upon someone. It's a shame really that we tend to use the word 'great' that often. If everyone were great, no one would be.

I think this may be my favourite article I've ever read on cricinfo! Thank you S. Giridhar, I believe you have reminded everyone what a wonderful sport we have in cricket. Just for the record, radio commentary will always be better than what is offered to us on the telly!

"Not even 2-3 swallows would make anyone's summer. "

Laxman's test career matches or exceeds that of Ganguly.

It is true that neither Ganguly nor Laxman should be compared to Tendulkar/Dravid in tests.

But in Tests, Laxman and Ganguly are equals.

Quite a remarkable quartet, that. Lovely actions, all four of them, with Venkat's being my pick: classically side-on, and high arm. I watched so much of him as I did Pras and Chandra in Ranji matches of yore. The article invoked wonderful, nostalgic memories.

What's more, they never over-appealed (indeed, I can hardly remember Venkat appealing! It was more a polite enquiry of the umpire), did not prance around, pump theri fists or give batsmen send-offs. It was a pat on the back of the fielder, or a handshake and a dutiful return to the bowling mark to await the next batsman. How the game has changed!

Quote:
"Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman, rare gems all and for all four to be playing at the same time for India. We will never know how blessed our country was till they are all gone."

In a sense, we WILL know the value of the combine when they leave. But surprisingly, in the One-days, where the FAB 4 ruled for a decade together too, we seem not to miss them much. India's MIB have become more tougher to beat after the fab 4(-1) were dropped! And In the instances when Tendulkar had to sit out, we haven't missed him much either: Sehwag-Gambhir combine has thrashed the attacks world over!

Excellent article! Keep writing on cricket every week! It takes me to the 1960's when we used to hear the radio commentary on BBC and Radio Australia. Congrats and hats off!

I feel the concept of Fab Four has been denoted by the media and VVS Laxman recently got an entry after The Term "Trimuti" or "Triumvirate" was applicable for Sachin,Sourav and Rahul.However its very sad that Sourav who has an average of 72 which is the highest batting at no 4 with an minimum qualification of 1000 runs, never got an oppurtunity to pile up runs as much as Sachin or Dravid due to his constant Shifting of Batting Position.I think Ganguly is the only player who has played at 4 different positions and got 1000 plus test runs..My Sadness lies that Ganguly could have easily scored 10000 test runs which would have made the "Triumvirate"The greatest Trio of all time..Not to miss out on the vagaries of captaincy.

A brilliant article. I would request Circinfo to host the audio commentaries of the great matches oflore and the great artists who were Sanjay to the world of Dritharastras.

What a nice article!
Having been brot up on a steady diet of cricket from the 70s by a cricket crazy dad and brother, I cud relate to what Mr.Girdar was saying. The 70s were years of innocence, shaky confidece.. Thank you Mr.Giridhar for reminding us about how "Fab" they were.

But then perhaps, 15 years hence, my kids would be saying something similar about what is happening now.

Usha

When one reads the comments of people like Farce Follower and Ruschil , one realises that they have completely missed the point of this well written article . But then ingratitude normally marches hand in hand with obtuseness .

Good article Mr Giridhar,
This has taken me to 1960s, when we heard the sweet voices in radio. waking up early for matches in australia delaying the sleep till midnight for the england matches and listen to west indies matches in the midnight at regular intervals and early morning for Newzeland matches. As you said the 4 spinners had the guts and willpower to accept the happening. But that was a different era. Not much of media coverage as it is now. All the fuss reg the fab four is because of media and the involvement of the cricket loving public. Just like the commercial aspect of the game has changed since then, the attitude of the players and the public also changed dramtically. In our families, just like we call generation gap for the attitude of elders and youngesters, the same logic applies here too.
Once again thank you for giving a good article.

A very nice & nostalgic article Mr. Gridhar,

I came to knwo about these fab four during my childhood courtesy my father. He is no more. My memory is very much refresh with his tireless appreciation for these four especially of Chandra.

Now a days we are fortunate to have Star soprts presenting some rare test match footages of their era (courtesy BBC)

Thanks