5 things you must know about one of India's unluckiest cricketers Padmakar Shivalkar
BCCI recently announced Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar as the recipients of the prestigious CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award. The name of Padmakar Shivalkar made cricket fans of the forgone era remember a tragic tale of ill-fate and bad luck that prevented a talented spinner from playing Test cricket.
Those who saw Shivalkar bowl spin bowling, even to this day wonder why he could not play a single Test match. Such was Shivalkar’s control over spin that he could run through the opposition in no time and could bowl accurately for hours.
But his emergence coincided with that of the maverick Bishan Singh Bedi who was equally skilled and had plenty of variations in his armoury. Indian national team at that time already had three world class spinners in the squad in the form of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.
Hence, only one spot was left for another spinner and Bedi was given the first preference. Bedi’s tremendous success meant Shivalkar would never get an opportunity to represent his nation at Test level.
Thus a promising story of a great cricketer ended with bad luck and tragedy. Here are a few vital things about Shivalkar which will interest all cricket fans.
#1 Accidental start to Cricket
Padmakar Shivalkar never dreamt of playing leather ball cricket. However, during his free time, he played cricket with the tennis ball. During one such morning, he was asked to bowl in the nets at Bradbury Mill by his friend Dattu Satelkar. It was Shivalkar’s first encounter with they leather ball.
That day, he only had to bowl three deliveries at the nets to impress the legendary Vinoo Mankad who promptly asked him to start playing club cricket.
Soon, Vijay Manjrekar offered an invitation to Shivalkar to join the Shivaji Park Gymkhana which was at that time Mumbai’s top club. This was the beginning of an illustrious career which included several accolades and records.