It's your turn, Paddy

Ravi Shastri (right) walks out to field followed by Mumbai colleagues Padmakar Shivalkar, Suru Nayak and Ramnath Parkar (left) at Wankhede Stadium in the early 1980s. Pic/Midday Archives

Bangalore: The moment of truth for Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel is here. Truth, because, they truly deserve to be accorded the Colonel CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award by the BCCI. I'm delighted.

They may have not played Test cricket, but they've been great servants of Indian cricket and I place them on the highest podium. They were that good in their craft. They belong to my club - the left-arm spinners club; only thing I was left-arm slow while they were proper left-arm spinners.

Shivalkar and Goel are similar in character - terrific human beings and humble to a fault literally.

I played against both these spin giants, but I grew up watching Paddy right from the time I played at the school level. He was a key member of the Mumbai team when I made my debut in 1979-80. The king of the Mumbai spin department was a tremendous inspiration for me.

Padmakar Shivalkar and his wife leave for Bangalore from their Prabhadevi residence yesterday. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

Honour to play with Paddy
Being in the same team as Paddy made you realise how big a bowler he was. More than anything else, a great human being, who was very encouraging and helpful.

The start of my career coincided with the evening of his career, but who was to say he was not a fabulous bowler even then with the kind of control he had over line, length and flight. On tracks that helped spinners, he was lethal. It was inevitable to imagine how formidable he may have been in his prime. My second Ranji Trophy game was against Haryana at Rohtak where a classic contest between Paddy and Goel was witnessed. Both got wickets as Mumbai won by 114 runs. Paddy got nine in the game, living up even then to his reputation of bagging big hauls. Paddy was a six, seven, eight-wicket haul man! I spoke about how encouraging Paddy was and I remember one particular 'good luck' message when I got the call-up to fly to New Zealand in 1981 during our Ranji Trophy game against Uttar Pradesh. We had been in the same team over two seasons and you learnt quicker than you normally would just by chatting with him and watching him bowl in the nets.

Those Tata SC days
There were so many Times Shield games Paddy won single-handedly when we played together for Tata Sports Club. He came across as a captain's bowler.

And as Paddy and Goel amble in gracefully to receive their awards today, let's not forget their sacrifice in spite of not playing for India. I wish them and their families the very best.