VV Kumar R Ashwin Irani Trophy 2018

Legendary leg spinner VV Kumar hits out at R Ashwin for making a mockery of the Prestigious Irani Trophy match 

As the legendary leg spinner VV Kumar, who picked up 599 wickets in first class cricket sat in front of his TV set on the first two days of the Irani Trophy match earlier this week, he was in for a shock. He saw Indian off spinner R Ashwin bowling leg spin in the first innings of the match when the Vidarbha batsmen had got off to a good start.

Right from his playing days, VV Kumar saw the Irani Trophy as one of the most important  and in many cases the final step in the ladder to donning the Indian cap.  Everyone gave their best in the Irani Trophy. In the 1980s, either side of the decade, two openers from Tamil Nadu, K Srikkanth and VB Chandrasekar presented scintillating performances in the Irani Trophy to catch the eye of the selectors.  

From his Twitter Page

But here was an experienced Indian bowler with over 300 Test wickets making a mockery of the match trying his newest variation- the leg spin- when the opposition was knocking the stuff out of the Rest of the India side.

In an exclusive chat with prtraveller, VV Kumar extolling anger at the experimentation in a prestigious match said, 'When he should have led the attack from the front and tried to get wickets to halt Vidarbha’s rampaging progress, I saw him experimenting with leg spin. This is completely unacceptable for an India bowler to treat an Irani Trophy match as an experimental ground especially when his team was floundering. Were the national selectors watching what Ashwin was doing.' 

During my playing days,  such an attitude of an international cricketer would have had serious repercussions on the player. And neither the national nor the state selectors would have tolerated such an action by a senior player.

On a technical front, VV Kumar said, ‘An off spinner has to try his variations  with off spin. It is fair of him to expand and widen his repertoire. But an off spinner cannot start bowling leg spin in a match stating ‘variations’ as a reason. That is just not on. It is making a mockery of the importance of the match. Both the state selectors as well as the national selectors have to come down strongly upon such experimentations in serious and prestigious matches.'

It may be recalled that earlier this season, Ashwin repeatedly tried such variations even in Ranji Trophy matches. In the very first match of the Ranji Season against Andhra, such experimentation almost led to Andhra chasing out  a Challenging target on the final day at Chepauk.

'His leg spin experiments did not help TN in the Ranji Trophy as well. Though he played a number of  domestic matches this season, he did not help TN win any of them. And that does not speak well for an Indian bowler.'

Don't experiment in State Matches

A furious VV Kumar ended stating  that Irani Trophy or for that matter even the Ranji Trophy is not a platform for such 'leg spin' experimentation and selectors should not tolerate such abuse of powers by a senior player of the Indian team.

Leg Spin for TN in Vijay Hazare Tournament

Recently a senior umpire also expressed anger after watching Ashwin bowl leg spin in the final stages of a closely fought one day match for Tamil Nadu 'One of the balls turned so wide that it was called a wide. Another ball too turned wide for it to be hit away. It was shocking to see him bowl leg spin when there was a match to be won for Tamil Nadu.'

Tamil Nadu lost that match narrowly.

State Selector hits out at the Senior Players

Very interestingly, just two weeks ago, after coming back from his duties as a Match Referee, Chairman of State Selection Panel S Sharath in an interaction with this writer at the St. Bedes ground said in almost a provoking gesture that writers like me do not write on the wrong doings of top players such as Ashwin and Vijay (who pulled out very late from an important State match recently) that allows them to act as they want!! 

On the day of Tamil Nadu being knocked out of this season’s Ranji Trophy, Sharath was quoted as saying that he would look at wrist spinners for the next season. It is sincerely hoped that he did not have Ashwin in his mind.