Daljit Singh, a name associated more with pitches has been associated with the game of cricket for the better part of his life. Now in his 70s, the Chairman, ground and pitches committee for BCCI is involved in the preparation and maintenance of the 22-yard strip and the ground surrounding it for stadiums across India. In his home base - the IS Bindra Stadium, he will be usually seen taking stock and nurturing the ground as he goes about his routine which also involves a disciplined exercise regime. A fit individual, he runs a few rounds around the periphery of the ground tirelessly while he oversees the activities there. When asked, Daljit Singh says, he always took fitness seriously and emphasized on the aspect with his wards in his days as a coach as well.
Daljit Singh has donned many hats over the decades – player, captain, coach, curator and was involved in the rural community welfare and development activities when employed with the Tatas. Later he worked with a NGO in Karnataka amongst other things before shifting focus to cricket again. A former Services player, he was part of the Bihar team which made their only appearance in the final of Ranji Trophy (1975-76) which they lost to defending champions Bombay.
In his playing days, Daljit Singh was a wicketkeeper. Discussing how the game and the skill have evolved over the decades, he said, “I retired (from playing cricket) in 1979. I started playing in 1960-61 and had watched cricket before that. The wicketkeeper was a very important man in the field and his ability would largely be adjudged on how he kept to spinners. Every team, even a club side would have a leg-spinner so you had to sort out the googly, you had to sort out the flipper, the top spinner and the leg break and similarly with other bowlers.
“I remember in those days there would be one in-swing bowler in the team and one out-swing bowler that’s how the combinations were made - one left-arm spinner, one leg-spinner and one off-spinner so five bowlers or four bowlers and one all-rounder. If the wicket is doing something it is much more challenging to keep to spinners. If the wicket is bouncy and the ball is coming through, then wicket-keeping is easier, standing back you are expecting it at a certain height and the ball is coming through to you, but if the wicket is with a variable bounce then keeping to medium pacers can also be difficult.
“Some deliveries will come to you at second drop while some might just kick up, but I think definitely keeping to spinners is a much bigger challenge,” he explained while speaking of the challenges of keeping to spinners vis-a-vis the fast bowlers.
“There were spinners like Subhash Gupte, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi back then. You really had to be a good keeper to keep to those great bowlers; a lot of them. Every Ranji Trophy team will have three spinners of top quality and you had to be a specialist. The wicketkeeper would be a wicketkeeper first, then if you could bat, fine. I remember some of the keepers batting at No.10, 11 which is unthinkable today but those were the days. With the coming of one-day cricket I think a wicketkeeper was counted as an all-rounder,” he added recalling the era.
Discussing the nuances of his craft he said, “A good keeper would stand-up to an in-swing bowler from ball one and that was a challenge. Standing in a Ranji Trophy game, standing up to in-swing bowlers in my own team right from ball one was a challenge. It was the same case while playing club cricket. The skill levels had to be very good. The wicketkeeper had to concentrate a lot on skill and technique. The footwork and the hand position were very different.”
“Skill and technique was paramount. It was very important how your hands were positioned; how you received the ball, your foot work or where is your body position. Largely, to start with you had to get up with the ball. The emphasis was on that. Now you see the wicketkeeper is half crouching from the time the bowler starts to deliver the ball. He is not sitting and that kind of thing would not be acceptable back then.
“Nowadays the stance is different and keepers get up with the ball and hands together pointing down and give in always, never snatching at the ball. These days there is so much exaggerated give in, they make passage for the ball. It is the same case with footwork. Today you see a lot of cross footwork with one foot in front and another foot behind which has its advantages I must say.
“But in the earlier days these kind of things were not encouraged. You had to take one big step, one small step, side footwork with your body always inclined towards the stumps outside the off stump. If you went outside the leg stump, you could reach the wicket and clip the bail with one hand easily. If you are away and open then you cannot reach the wicket. Also there would be cases when I would have to travel in the semi-circle behind the wicket, but that was the technique,” the veteran explained.
Elaborating on the role of the keeper, he further said, “The wicketkeeper was the main guide for the captain. He would tell the skipper what is happening in the pitch, what the bowler was doing and if you could spot a weakness in the batsman and whatever else.”
While speaking of the challenges to the present day wicketkeeping Daljit Singh said, “I think it is a very exciting time for a keeper. If I could play again I would be very happy in this era because you have to develop batting also. How you cope in T20 and how you cope in a four-day game are different challenges. I also think the pace of cricket has increased.”
The man who had once coached the likes of Rahul Dravid, Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath during his stint as a coach has also watched many others make a mark for themselves in the game as he travels the country doing the job he enjoys most. “I was player at Ranji Trophy level; then I was a coach and now as a curator I realise that the most challenging task that is there is to make Ranji Trophy (multi-day) pitches.”
And of the many he has seen, when asked which wicketkeepers have caught his eye, the former wicketkeeper said, “Somebody I have lot of time and respect for is Wriddhiman Saha. Dhoni himself is phenomenal. He has his own way, his own footwork, his own technique and his own way of catching the ball. Look at his record, he hardly misses anything. He is truly remarkable. I think Naman Ojha is very good too.”
