Read this report about him
www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/06/ 01/stories/2002060102801800.htm
Subhash Gupte, one of the finest exponents of leg spin bowling, died early morning on Friday in Trinidad, West Indies.
He was 72 and is survived by his wife and a son and daughter.
Gupte passed away just when his wife was preparing to welcome the Indian team, which is scheduled to play the fourth one-day international in Trinidad. Gupte had married Carol, a West Indian, in 1962.
According to information received here by the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), Mrs. Carol later told the Indian captain Saurav Ganguly that ``maybe Subhash's spirit wanted to return to his home country along with the Indian team''.
Gupte, widely regarded as one of the greatest spin bowlers, played 36 Tests between 1951 and 1962 and captured 149 wickets. His best was 9/102 against West Indies in 1958-59 at Kanpur.
Time and again Gupte, the artful dodger, beat the great personalities of cricket of his time like Gary Sobers; yet his effort never got its full due.
The great Vinoo Mankad once told his son Ashok that if there was something called magic in cricket, then Gupte was the magician. This was narrated by Ashok to reporters, years later.
Acoording to Vinoo, a great spinner himself, if only the fielders had managed to catch his (Gupte's) googlies, then India would have won the 1954-55 series in Pakistan.
Gupte would have ended up with more then 21 wickets on that tour if Indian fielders had held catches off his bowling. The Pakistani batsmen had no clue whatsoever, on how to play Gupte's bowling.
Gupte, fondly called `Fergie' after the famous West Indian spin bowler Bill Ferguson, mesmerised the West Indians on the mat wicket at Kanpur, where he took nine wickets for 109. He was equally good on hard rock-like wickets in West Indies, taking 27 wickets in the 1952-53 series and 17 on the 1958 tour. The haul would have been more, had it not been for several dropped catches, once again. His highest haul was 34 wickets in the five Test-series against New Zealand in 1955-56.
He was also at his best on pitches in England which helped fast bowlers. He scalped 17 wickets in five Tests at a time when England had great spin bowlers like Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and Ken Barrington. He took five-wicket hauls, 12 times in his career and ten wickets in a match once, finishing his career with 149 wickets at the cost of 29.55 runs apiece. He played his last Test match against England at home in 1962 but failed to take any wickets in the two Tests.
Only recently, Sir Gary Sobers paid Gupte great tributes calling him the best spinner he had ever faced. Polly Umrigar once said that Gupte had two types of googlies, one bowled with arm closer to his right ear and one away from it.
Former BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, speaking from London this aftenoon, told UNI that Gupte's bowling action was music and bowling, magic. ``I have lost a friend. I had the privilege of playing with him for Rajasthan'', Dungapurkar said. He felt that Gupte should be given the C.K. Nayudu award posthumously.
Till Anil Kumble's feat of ten victims in one innings, he (Gupte) had shared the record of highest number of wickets (nine) with another cricketing stalwart, the late Jasu Patel. His five for 63 in the fourth Test against Pakistan in 1955 at Peshawar remains the best by any Indian bowler so far.
Gupte was a diabetic and in his latter years, was confined to a wheel chair. But, surely, when he must have stood on his two feet in the middle of the pitch at his peak in the fifties, ready to bowl, every batsman must have felt utter dread and helplessness against his bowling.
Tributes pour in
Nari Contractor: It is a cruel story, but one of the greatest cricketing legends of India, the late Subhash Gupte, had to leave the cricket field with the stigma of a crime he had never committed.
Nari Contractor, former captain and close friend, while re-counting events on that fateful day, said it was tragic that Gupte had retired after he had been falsely implicated in a crime, during a Test match in New Delhi. In reality, it was committed by another late cricketer in Delhi during a Test, Contractor asserted.
Contractor said he was present with Gupte in the same room when the theft had occurred. Everyone in the room was playing cards, around the time the theft was committed. Most unfortunately, though, Gupte was implicated, he said. ``He was totally innocent; I was present. Later, he was not considered for the Test. Otherwise, nobody dared drop Gupte in his heyday'', Contractor revealed.
When asked what he thought of Gupte, the bowler, Contractor said like others in the cricketing fraternity, he had always thought of Gupte as one of the greatest leg-spinners of all time. ``I cannot imagine, what he would have done on today's spinners-paradise wickets'', Contractor mused.
Bapu Nadkarni: ``You will not believe me but I think if Gupte had bowled a bad ball frequently, he would have taken more wickets because a sudden, loose delivery, disrupts a batsman's concentration. It would have been a sacrilege, though, to tell Subhash to bowl such a ball''.
Nadkarni said he never seen or heard of any leg-spinner with such an easy, clean action and so much control on line and length. It was bad luck that the Indian fielders those days, were not very sharp. A statement like that coming from Nadkarni, who could pitch the ball on a handkerchief ten times out of ten, is indeed a great tribute to the `leggie'.
Nadkarni also said Gupte was often blunt. At times, he would tell his skipper, "If you want a wicket, give me the ball.''
G. Ramchand: Former captain G. Ramchand was amazed at the way he contained the three great `W's — Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell on the fast wickets of the West Indies. Baloo Gupte, Subhash's younger brother, who also played Tests said his brother and he had learned the art of spin on the small lanes near his house and no glass panes were broken because no one could hit him cleanly.
Ajit Wadekar: Ajit Wadekar, former India captain, recalled that during his early years the biggest challenge to Mumbai's supremacy was Gupte who played for Rajasthan in domestic cricket.
"The only way to play him was to rush out and disturb his length. Or that is what I thought in theory. But in reality, it was different", he remarked.
Comparing Gupte and Australian Shane Warne, Wadekar felt that Gupte was a much better bowler than Warne as he did not have an effective googly like Gupte. He added that Gupte also did not have the kind of support in the field as Warne.
Rajsingh Dungarpur: Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Rajsingh Dungarpur, speaking to UNI from London described his action as `music' and his bowling as `magic'.
``It was unfortunate that BCCI never thought of giving him the C.K. Nayudu prize for outstanding Indian cricketers,'' he said.
Kapil Dev: Kapil Dev, who was on business assignments, said he had heard of Gupte's talent on the field and when the Indian team went to West Indies in 1983 under Kapil's captaincy, he made it a point to visit Gupte.
Dalmiya expresses shock
Cricket Board President Jagmohan Dalmiya expressed shock at the death of Subhash Gupte.
In a condolence message to Gupte's wife, Dalmiya said ``the entire cricketing fraternity in India is shocked to learn about the sudden demise of your husband. It was just yesterday that I had advised the manager of the Indian cricket team to meet Gupte and discuss the possibilities of a visit to India. But destiny had a different plan.''
Describing Gupte as the doyen of leg-spin bowling, Dalmiya said ``It is no wonder that any history of Indian cricket (would) describe the period 1953-56 as the `Age of Gupte'''.
``When India toured the West Indies in 1952-53, he had the guts and the confidence to flight the ball even on the bouncy Caribbean wickets and finish the Test series with 27 wickets at an average of 29.22. And that too against the might of the three `Ws' and other leading batsmen like Alan Rae, J.B. Stollmeyer and B. Pairaudeau'', he said. — UNI & PTI
Our Sports Reporter in Chennai adds:
Former India bowler V.V. Kumar rates Subhash Gupte as the ``leg- spinner of the century.''
Terming Gupte's passing away as a great loss, Kumar, a versatile leg-spinner himself, told The Hindu, here, on Friday, that he considered Gupte the best.
Paying his tribute to Gupte, Kumar said, ``People talk about Shane Warne, but to me Gupte was the most complete leg-spinner. He had so much variety.
``In his repertoire were two types of googlies, one that was quicker, and the other that came in slower. He had a lethal flipper as well, and always posed a threat. Gupte could read the batsmen quickly and this enabled him to more than hold his own against some exceptional stroke-makers during his time like Frank Worrell and Everton Weekes,'' Kumar added.
Kumar remembered Gupte as someone who always had kind words for him. ``He encouraged me a lot and had nice things to say about my bowling. I recall meeting him in Trinidad, during Hyderabad Blue's tour of the Caribbean in 1974-75. He was warm, as usual.''
)
