Once a legendary spinner, Subhash Gupte had to leave India with a lot of pain in his heart
Gupte played 36 Tests for India and took 149 wickets. With his leg-spin, googly and top-spinner, he troubled some of the finest batsmen in the world
XtraTime Web Desk: It is hard to believe. A legendary Indian leg-spinner, yet he was suspended despite having done nothing wrong. Hurt and disillusioned, he eventually left the country. This is the heartbreaking story of Subhash Gupte.
Gupte played 36 Tests for India and took 149 wickets. With his leg-spin, googly and top-spinner, he troubled some of the finest batsmen in the world. West Indies great Sir Gary Sobers rated him even higher than Shane Warne.
But in 1961, an unfortunate incident changed the course of his career.
During England’s tour of India, the fourth Test was being played in Delhi. At the time, Indian cricketer Kripal Singh invited a hotel receptionist to his room for a drink after she had finished work. The receptionist later complained about the incident.
The BCCI punished both Kripal Singh and Gupte. They were dropped from the following Test and were also left out of India’s subsequent tour of the West Indies.
But Gupte had not been involved in the incident at all. His only “fault” was that he was Kripal Singh’s roommate and had failed to stop him or object to what had happened.
Former India captain Nari Contractor came out in Gupte’s defence. He stated that, at the time of the incident, Gupte was in his room playing cards with six other cricketers. Yet despite the testimony supporting him, Gupte was still punished.
He never played another Test for India.
Deeply hurt by the treatment he received, Gupte eventually left India and moved to Trinidad. He married a Trinidadian woman and settled there permanently.
That was how one of India’s greatest spinners saw his international career come to an abrupt end—and was eventually driven away from his own country, despite maintaining that he had done nothing wrong.
