Top 5 cricketers who never played for India

Amol Muzumdar was once touted as 'the next Sachin Tendulkar'

One nation, one sport and a billion contenders – that’s Indian cricket for you. Every morning, every city in India witnesses a crowd of white-clad, kit bag carrying five feet somethings flock the greens to play the game they love. But how many of them make a mark in real life? Not many. In fact, it’s not even a fair percentage.

If we do the math, the rate of success to failures is way too low. Forget the national team; it’s a real uphill battle even to make it to the state level. Most give up the game after a certain age while the rest are forced to choose a different profession. However, there is a rare breed who devote their entire life to the game without caring for the recognition they deserved.

This is an elite list of cricketers who deserved to, but never played for India. A few missed out thanks to outstanding peers while a few through ignorance. In a country that has always produced quality cricketers, there will always be the lucky Vijays and the not-so-lucky Tiwarys. One has to accept that some will make it; a few will live in their shadows, but as Rajinder Goel said, “My job is to play cricket and perform well. The rest is up to the selectors to choose me or not…..”

Special Mention - Utpal Chatterjee

Utpal Chatterjee

Anil Kumble once said that during the 90s, the best left-arm spinner was Venkatapathy Raju, but there is one man who would have a thing or two to say about that.

Utpal Chatterjee was one of those unfortunate cricketers who missed out on a long career at the international level despite being one of the best in the country during his time. Though he got selected for the Indian team at the age of 30, his international foray ended with just 3 ODIs to his name.

Nicknamed ‘David’, after the Aussie Alan Davidson, Utpal Chatterjee carried Bengal’s bowling attack on his shoulders for more than two decades before calling it quits with 504 wickets to his name. Though he did play for India, he deserves a special mention in this list because he should have earned many more opportunities to play for the country.

5. Amarjit Kaypee

Amarjit Kaypee

A big man for the big matches. The bigger the occasion, the better Amarjit Kaypee performed. 7894 runs in the Ranji Trophy, 27 tons, back-to-back seasons aggregating 800 plus runs with eight hundreds, the only batsman in Indian cricket history to score 150 plus in two innings of the same match in a Ranji Trophy game – still was never considered fit enough to feature for Team India.

But it was not his records; the hallmark of Kaypee’s batting was his sound technique, his concentration and his unquenchable thirst for runs. Kaypee was one of those whose career coincided with the greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Md. Azharuddin but the saddest thing is that when you search his name on the Google images, you will find only one passport size image of once the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy.

Ignorance? Well, you decide!

4. Rajinder Goel

Rajinder Goel

Rajinder Goel is just another quality spinner whose career got steam-rolled thanks to the “spin quartet” of India. This slow left-arm spinner, who represented Haryana in the domestic cricket, was one of the most feared tweakers in the Indian domestic circuit. He earned the respect of batsmen all over the country, and even Sunil Gavaskar rated him as one of the best in the world.

He featured in just one unofficial Test against Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), but could never wriggle into the Indian Test squad. He played during a time when India had an abundance of spin bowling options and even 750 wickets at an average of 18.58 and economy rate of 2.10 was not good enough to hand him a Test cap.

3. Padmakar Shivalkar

Padmakar Shivalkar

589 wickets at an incredible average of 19.69, Shivalkar was undoubtedly better than many players who have played for India.

Another case of born in the wrong era, Padmakar Shivalkar was arguably the best slow left-arm orthodox not to don the Indian colours. He was a captain’s dream as he could pitch the ball in an area for long spells.

Being a typical finger spinner, he turned it prodigiously whenever he gave it a real tweak. But when you compete with the likes of Bedi, Venkataraghavan, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar, it’s not a surprise that he did not get a chance to wear that Blue cap.

2. Yere Goud

Yere Goud

According to Javagal Srinath, “He is the Rahul Dravid of the Railways team.”

Yere Goud made his first-class debut for Karnataka and then turned out for the Railways team. He won the Ranji title in 2001-02 and 2004-05 with the Railways team and then went on to win three Irani trophies, one Duleep Trophy and a Ranji one-day trophy.

He returned to Karnataka as a captain in 2006 and became one of the elite players to earn 100 Ranji Caps. Hailing from a small town, Goud scored 7650 runs at an average of 45.53 with 16 hundreds – another player who scored big but failed to register his name in the selector’s books.

1. Amol Muzumdar

Amol Muzumdar

11,167 first-class runs at an average of 48.13 with 30 hundreds, but never a call from the Indian selectors – that’s Amol Muzumdar. If one thought Rahul Dravid was always denied the limelight, take a glance at Amol Muzumdar’s life.

When Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli scripted their record 664-run partnership for Shardashram School, the man who sat with his pads on was Amol Muzumdar. In 1994, when Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid hogged the limelight playing for India A, the vice-captain of that side was Amol Muzumdar.

A sensational 260 on Ranji debut marked the arrival of this special batsman. Perfect technique, shots all over the ground, a calm head, Amol Muzumdar had all the makings of a great. But when you are born in the era of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, even being unique is not enough.