Gundappa Viswanath: Indian cricket's radio star who television killed

Gundappa Viswanath was the darling of Indian cricket in the radio age, but when the television revolution began with the 1983 World Cup, curtains were falling on his career. Soon he would be watching all of India's matches on television, thinking with a tinge of self-pity and nostalgia that he could have done better than the new No.4.

"I just missed out on making it to the 1983 World Cup team," Viswanath, the world's second highest run-getter in the 1970s, told The Bridge.

"I thought I could be dropped from the Test team after the Pakistan series in 1982/83, but because I was known as a 'stroke maker' I would still get into the ODI team. But that didn't happen," he said.

Not many remember that Viswanath was almost literally the 15th member of the 1983 squad, standing behind a curtain. He was in the Indian dressing room during the final at Lord's and also the late night celebrations that followed. But when the match was going on and highlight reels being recorded for posterity, he was trying to stay out of sight. Not very difficult, given his 5'3'' frame.

"Maan Singh, our manager, asked me to join the team bus and watch the match from the dressing room. But I watched the match like you would *watch* a final. Most of the time I tried to be away from the dressing room, standing just a little outside. It had been nice of them to ask me to join them, but I wasn't part of the team," he said.

Like any other spectator, Viswanath remembers Kapil Dev's running catch to dismiss Viv Richards as the moment "the Indian team" started to believe.

This World Cup win would be just the beginning of an era when Indian cricketers would become constant presences in Indian households via satellite television and later YouTube reels, Viswanath's included. But for the 33-year-old, this was the cue that international cricket had no more use of his services.

"When you play for so long, the game stays with you. When you see an Indian batsman - specially a Number 4 batsman - playing a shot, you think you could have done the same thing, but maybe better," Viswanath recollected about the couple of painful years of watching TV after being dropped from the national team.

"I got over that phase quickly, I have enjoyed watching so many Number 4 batsmen since then," he said, his eyes drifting into the distance.

Vishy still guards his closest judgement for Number 4. After all, Tiger Pataudi himself had dropped himself down the order to 5 to accommodate him on his debut in 1969. Number 4 for India's Test team. A badge of honour Vishy has taken to heart, to remain a part of his identity forever.

Reverse swing: The PAK tour that ended Viswanath's IND career

Fittingly for the tragic script of a pre-television era star being sidelined with the advent of satellites, Viswanath's last series was the highly controversial tour of Pakistan in 1982/83, where he was victim to some dubious umpiring decisions from the home umpire and some 'reverse swing' from Imran Khan and Sarfaraz Nawaz.

"I did not expect that my international career was on the line at the beginning of the tour, it was a long one. You talk of reverse swing or something like that, but nobody had experienced something that unbelievable before that. The new ball never swung for them. Immediately after the drinks break, the ball started swinging both ways. Nobody noticed it at the time. Later we came to know that they used Coca Cola caps to work on the ball during the drinks break," he said of his last tour in India colours.

"One of the balls I got out to from Imran pitched on the 8th or 9th stump and then came back to hit middle and leg. I can't explain it more than that," Viswanath smiled.

Slow motion zoomed replays where such practices of 'maintaining' the ball would be caught were on the way but Viswanath would not get their benefit. The artistry of his flamboyant square cuts - and even the 'helicopter shot' - would have to continue drawing authority mostly from radio commentary.

"I can't find too many of my knocks on YouTube. Those that are there only show one or two shots," he said.

Even if they were more comprehensive, such highlights could never convey what Viswanath meant to India, the hope that his name gave rapt radio listeners. Most of his best knocks came when the top order failed. 'The boy who stood on the burning deck,' a newspaper report described him.

In 1983, it started becoming clear that the radio star was not going to make the move to television.

'1971 the turning point for India in Tests'

Sunil Gavaskar, his roommate in the historic summer of 1971, his brother-in-law, and the person Viswanath has shared 'the greatest partnership of his life' with, adapted to the ODI format well enough to make the 1983 boat, but Viswanath missed it.

"My regret, yes. I mean, I never felt that I never wanted to play ODIs, but compared to Test cricket…Test cricket for me was simply the best," he said.

"I never felt the seriousness of ODIs, it didn't touch an emotional chord that Test cricket did…I didn't believe that it was the real deal, so it was difficult for me to gear myself up for battle like I did at a Test match," Viswanath writes in his recent autobiography Wrist Assured, brought out by Rupa Publications.

Gavaskar, who has since then seamlessly moved into the commentary box as the television age moved into the social media age, had once joked that whenever he used to bat with Viswanath, they would never talk about cricket in between overs but about domestic matters instead. Like how much admission fees whose child's school was taking.

Viswanath disagreed. He said he NEVER talked to Gavaskar during their on-field partnerships. Not even about family matters.

"We never talked about cricket. He was always thinking about his game, I didn't want to disturb that. Just before he went out to bat, he pushed his cap (to block off peripheral vision) and shut out the rest of the world. Everybody knew not to disturb him when he went into that mode. When Bishan Singh Bedi used to bat with me on the other hand, there would be lots of talking. He would tell me to carry on, that he would be there with me till the end (smiles)," Viswanath said.

"I always knew my partnership with Sunil would carry on for a long time. It's still continuing very strongly," he added.

Number 4 knew he had struck a spark with Number 1 as future brother-in-laws Gavaskar and Viswanath, then 22 and 21, helped India beat West Indies and England in 1971 - the turning point of Indian cricket in the radio age. As news crackled through on August 24 that India had pulled off their first series win in England, there were reports of dancing in the streets and garlanding of radio sets.

"Everyone says 1983 changed the whole scenario of Indian cricket, that's true but in ODIs. In Test cricket, 1971 was the turning point. When we returned to the country after the Oval win, we got such a reception that I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Not one spot was empty on the streets. It took us 3-4 days to come back to reality," said Viswanath.