Rajinder Goel :: A BOWLER-" DISMAY-DRIVE " WHO WAS NEVER A “ PARABOLIC ” BUT A “ SYMBOLIC ” AND VERY " CONTENDED "

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 Rajinder Goel :: HE WAS NEVER A “ PARABOLIC ” BUT A “ SYMBOLIC ”

Rajinder Goel : One Of The Most Contended Human Cricketer And A “ SIMPLE ” Killer – A “ TRIBUTE ”

This morning purposely I got up at about 5.00AM and unusually like the other days, today I opened my computer and that completely CHILLED me do get my nerves freezed

I was completely brutalized to feel that way when I read and heard the newsthat the GREATEST-EVER-NON-TEST-PLAYIING-CRICKETER, Rajinder Goel had breathed his last .

Goel was born on September 20^th 1943 and he lived for 77 years before he breathed his last.

He started playing for Patiala in the Ranji Trophy when he was only 15 years of age in 1958 and he then represented the Southern Punjab as Patiala was merged with it for the Ranji Trophy before he chose Delhi to play from them from 1962 to 1972 and then he settled for HARYANA  for whom he played from 1972 to and till about 1986-87 before he retired from national and international cricket.

Overall Rajinder Goel played cricket- the FIRST CLASS, for India for over 25 years and in that span of 25 years he captured over 650 Ranji wickets and I’m NOT taking into accounts about his wickets that he captured in the Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy.
GOEL IS THE FIRST CRICKETER AND ONLY ONE WHO HAS REPRESENTED FOUR            " DIFFERENT " ASSOCIATION PLAYING RANJI TROPHY FOR THEM .  

Goel basically was a LEFT-ARMER-ABSOLUTE-FLAT SPINNER who never tossed the ball like the other spinner Prasanna, Bedi, Chandra and Venkat did, but he could extract the same amount of spin as these bowlers did.

Goel was very accurate and very dotted on the points about where to land the ball and pitch it very accurately. It was said during those days that amongst the spinners playing either the Test matches for India or NOT playing them, the TWO spinners Salim Durrani, and Rajinder Goel were so accurate that put a TEN-NAYA-PAISA coin on the pitch and ask them to bowl on them and they would keep on hitting the coin, delivery after delivery without missing it. Such was their accuracy and such was the accuracy of this man Rajinder Goel.

Goel was selected for the Ceylon-India unofficial Test series in 1965.That was a series where India lost to Ceylon by FOUR wickets, in the last Unofficial Test match, but had won the series by 2-1. In the second innings, of that match which was the last of that series,  Ceylon needing 115 to win after bundling out India for 86 in their second innings, Goel had spun a wave in an manner that the Singhalese were reeled for 115 for SIX though they won it by FOUR wickets . He had a match haul of SIX wickets in that match, and an innings analysis of , 4-33 in that innings and  then in that match. Pataudi was the Captain of the Indian cricket team then for that match and for that series. That was the ONLY occasion that Goel had worn the Indian blazer, ie , the national COLOUR of the country for once while dispatching his service to the nation.

From 1958 to about 1986 when he played for the last time for Haryana, Goel retired just before the commencement of the 1986 season after playing a match for Haryana in that season in the Ranji Trophy  and though Haryana reached the finals for the FIRST TIME, he did not play the remainder of the matches in that season because of the injury he had received during the match. He thus was very UNLUCKY not only for  missing out to play for Haryana in the finals but also for India. He however played THREE Ranji Trophy semis for Haryana .It was during his tenure as the SELECTOR-IN-CHIEF for Haryana that Haryana had won the Ranji Trophy as well as the Irani Trophy under Kapil Dev.

Goel was a bowler who was very hard to be hit as per the whims and choice. He bowled a FLATTER length and as such his deliveries did not carry too much of air, but the way he would cunningly variate his trajectories and the manner he rotated his arm angling it in an manner which would change the trajectory of his deliveries to keep the batsman guessing and FOXED,  and the manner he would bowl the  deliveries after deliveries, keep on pinning his deliveries on the same PINPOINT were the one’s which gave him a surplus of 650  First Class Ranji Wickets. He is the FIRST bowler in the annals of Ranji Trophy to claim over 600 wickets. This is still a record and it took him over 25 years of playing grinding cricket to achieve that feat.Of the Indian batsman only Brijesh Patel would mince him to the unlikings of Goel Sahab as we would call him, else even batsman like Gavaskar and Vishvanath during those days found him very very hard to create any impression against Goel Sahab.
Records : Unmatched and unparalleled - Simply " OSTENTATIOUS " 
In his entire carrer , Goel Sahab claimed a FIVERS for 53 times , he claimed 25 wickets or more in a season,  for 25  times in a season , ten or more wicket in a match for 17 times. This is something that NOBODY would find it east at all to break.That was his GREATNESS .

HE WAS NEVER A “ PARABOLIC ” BUT A “ SYMBOLIC ” BOWLER 

Pics - :: Rajinder Goel bowling in a Ranji Trophy match against Delhi 
Goel was such a kind of a bowler that within no time he would get his length and the direction to bowl.Once he got that which he got it very immediately he would peg the ball hours after hours in it completely " killing " the batsman , in every process and in every manner ,  making them to be a      " STROKELESS WONDER " .It would not be an easy task and a "joke" to take advantage of him. If any batsman who would try to take undue advantage of him, they would loose their wickets and mostly the batsman lost their wickets against him.  

Goel played in the International matches for North Zone and in 1979 when the Australian team played the North Zone team, he playing his LAST of the International fixture, claimed 6-102 against them in the first and 3-43 in the second . He was 36 years of age then.
In the game against the West-Indies at Jaipur in 1974-75 when the West-Indies toured here under Clive Lloyd, he along with Karsan Ghavri and Rakesh tandon had bowled the Board President XI under Hanumant Singh very close to a miraculous victory least the time and it's FADE took it away from what could have been a GRAND victory. He had an analysis of  16-3-50-2 in the second when the West-Indians were fighting with their time against the wall, having claimed the IMPORTANT wicket of Kallicharran for 75 .

Apart from his Ranji record, in 1975-76 against The South Zone, in the Duleep Finals, Goel in the finals in that game claimed 12 wickets claiming a 7 for in the first and a 5 for in the second , however finishing on the losing side.

He infact was considered to be a better prospect as compared to Bedi but luckily Bedi made the grade and Goel was left to bite the dust. He and his chance at LAST  saw him being selected in the team of 15 against the West-Indies in the 1974-75 .However coming so close he lost his place to Venkatraghvan in the final analysis and that was the only occasion that he came so very NEAR and missed it out.

Goel was the most CONTENDED cricketer that I could see in my life playing cricket. He had to play against the MIGHTIEST name of Indian cricket if ever he played and he had to FIGHT against them for getting a place in the team, be it any kind of team. Not only that-  “ HE HAD TO EQUAL THEM AND OUTBEAT THEM FOR RETAINING HIS PLACE IN THAT SIDE AND HE ALWAYS WON HIS GAME” .

The CLASSICAL  example was when he played for North Zone, he always piped Bei and put him beside him as far as his performance is considered. Playing the Duleep Trophy matches, Goel always pipped Bedi when he and when it came to claiming wickets yet Bedi kept on playing and Goel just could not play a SINGLE Test match. That was his FATE.

Another factor which weighs in favour of Goel is as compared to Shivalkar who for most of the time had a total of 400 runs plus playing for Bombay to bowl to his opponents, Goel played for Haryana to see bowling him with a total of 250 below. Yet he claimed so many  Ranji Wickets as well as Duleep wickets always putting Bedi aside. The second is Shivalkar had TWO outstanding WORLD CLASS close-in fielers in Rakesh Tandon at the SILLY POINT and Eknath Solka forward short leg, to snap those very sharp and not even a quarter chance of the catch of Shivalkar in the close fielding region. Goel Sahab did not enjoy that benifit and the facility at all. 

For his contribution to the Indian cricket he was awarded the Col C.K.Nayudu Life Time award. He is ONE of the FOUR cricketing personality  who won that award without playing a TEST match for India, the other three being, Padmakar Shivalkar, Me K.N.Prabhu the cricket correspondent and Bhau Sahab Nimbalkar who is the FIRST INDIAN in the annals of Indian cricket to score a QUADRUPLET century  in a cricket match during the era of the 30’S-40’S

Goel is the only cricketer who has bowled to all the “ SONS ” of the Indian cricketer who after India achieved her INDEPENDENCE played for India in the FIRST ever TEST against Australia as AN INDEPENDENT INDIA till the season of 1958 when he made his Ranji Trophy debut.

He bowled to cite as an exmaple  against Lala Amarnath and he bowled against their son Rajinder, Mohinder and above all Surinder, Vinoo Mankad and his son Ashok Mankad and Rahul, Pankaj Roy and his son Pranab, Dattaji Gaikwad and his son Anshuman,  the list goes on and on and on. What is MORE. He GOT the FATHERS OUT and he CLAIMED the SONS’ AS WEL L> “ This is  a UNIQUE RECORD UNPARALLED by Any cricketer in the WORLD” .
His son NITIN GOEL a Left-Handed batsman played for Haryana for a number of season as an opener in the Ranji Trophy . 

This article is just a HEARTED-TRIBUTE to that GREAT MAN- a GREAT CRICKETER who SIMPLY would keep his mouth closed and be contended with, to prove his METTLE and DRIVE his opponents , to  their   DISMAY OUT .

Rest In PEACE “ GOEL SAHAB ”

Rgds

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Shyamal Bhattacharjee

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing

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