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Fate and its acceptance — Paddy Shivalkar's story

Shivalkar on Monday was nominated by the Board of Control for cricket in India (BCCI) for the prestigious Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016, along with another left-arm spin great Rajinder Goel.

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Jo mil gaya usi ko muqaddar samajh liya
Jo kho gaya main usko bhulata chala gaya
Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya
(Whatever I got, I considered that as my fate),
whatever I lost, I kept going, forgetting it..
I just kept going ahead with the life)

This famous Mohd Rafi song from Dev Anand-starrer 1961 film Hum Dono is one of the favourites of yesteryear cricketing great and then Bombay (Mumbai) left-arm spinner Padmakar Shivalkar.

For it reminds him of his fate, that despite him being one of the best tweakers in the country (with 589 scalps in 124 First Class) games he could not even play one Test for India.

Shivalkar on Monday was nominated by the Board of Control for cricket in India (BCCI) for the prestigious Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016, along with another left-arm spin great Rajinder Goel. Mumbaikar's reaction to it was — "Jo mil gaya usi ko muqaddar samajh liya".

Goel has 750 First Class wickets including 637 scalps in the Ranji Trophy, the most by any bowler in tournament's history.

The two former cricketers will be felicitated at the BCCI Annual Awards 2016-17 that will take place in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the fifth MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture will be delivered by former India wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer.

Both tweakers Shivalkar and Goel could not break into the national team in the 1960s as the famous Indian spin quartet – off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and left-arm spinner Bishen Singh Bedi — were preferred.

When asked for his feeling that the BCCI has finally recognised his talent, he says: "I was looking back at my career hoping to find one, at least one Test match. But it is not there. So, I have stopped looking at any other thing.

That was the only thing. Whatever comes now (award), I have started accepting it as muqaddar (fate)."

He continues, "Goel and I were the unluckiest those days. The curators then also used to prepare turning tracks much like the one you saw in the recent Test against Australia in Pune — where the ball started turning from the word go.

"If Rajinder Goel had got a chance to bowl on such a wicket, he could have wreaked havoc," says Shivalkar and then hums the remaining lines of the song from black and white era.

It was said back then by powers that be that Shivalkar was born in the wrong era. Something akin to what Stuart MacGill is often told about bowling leg spin in the time of Shane Warne. However, the Australian did don the Baggy Cap. And a national cap is something that eluded Shivalkar.

"This is just an excuse. My birth is not in my hand, its in God's hands. Why do they save themselves by saying this? If I was born at the wrong time, how could I have taken so many wickets? If my timing was wrong, then how could I deliver that kind of performance?"

"Not even one Test? Goel deserved at least a couple."

Once Salim Durrani was inexplicably dropped from the team. Then there was a famous slogan 'No Durrani, No Test'. Mumbai could not have done this," Shivalkar says.

"At least one Test."

The 76-year-old says he does not regret or curse anyone nor does he talk much about the old times. He has accepted the fate.

But what if he has the option to be born again as Padmakar Shivalkar?

"Even then my motto will be Karm kar phal ki chinta na kar (Do your job without expecting/bothering about the outcome).

"It will be the same."


Lifetime award for women too

The BCCI has introduced Lifetime Achievement Award for Women. Former captain Shanta Rangaswamy will be the first recipient of the award. She led India in 12 Tests and 16 ODIs. Meanwhile, Vaman Viswanath Kumar and late Ramakant Desai have been nominated for the BCCI Special Award in recognition of their yeoman service to Indian cricket.

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