I saw Sunny's stump cartwheeling: Jayaprakash

AV Jayaprakash is finding time hanging heavy on his hands in Dhaka. Having been instructed to appear in the Bangladesh capital on May 26 for the Pepsi Asia Cup, he discovered that his first umpiring assignment lay a whole week ahead of him. Buttonholing him in his hotel room where he was desultorily watching the proceedings of the India-Bangladesh game, Jayaprakash demurred from answering specific queries on his job but agreed nevertheless to present his thoughts on a broad sweep of topics, beginning with his own playing days.

A vital cog in the wheel of the great Karnataka side of the 1970's, Jayaprakash was a reassuring presence in the middle order and regularly trotted out the scores to buttress his claims for higher honours. He never could graduate out of his regional citadel though but professes to have no regrets about it. "In 1978 I was very close to making the Indian team. I thought I had a chance for the 1979 World Cup. Even though there was not much one-day cricket in those days, if you go through the Deodhar Trophy records I scored very well for South Zone."

Jayaprakash recalled Karnataka's first Ranji triumph in 1973-74 that broke Bombay's 15 year winning streak. "Prasanna ran through the Bombay side on the last day. It was one of the best bowling efforts by him. I still remember he got Sunil Gavaskar bowled. I saw the off stump going cartwheeling. It is still fresh in my memory". In the final against Rajasthan at Udaipur, although Vishy and Brijesh failed, Jayaprakash held the fort, remaining unbeaten in both innings as Karnataka savoured the joy of a trophy triumph.

The best innings in his Ranji career, he reckoned as the one against Bombay in Bombay in the Ranji final of 1982-83, when Karnataka won after their opponents had run up 534. He also recalled the agony of losing the Ranji Trophy after scoring 705 against Delhi in 1981-82. Realising on the third morning that the match would extend indefinitely until a decision is arrived at on first innings, Karnataka decided to rub it in. "We thought the wicket would deteriorate over a period but as they got close we panicked."

Asked who the best umpire was in his days, Jayaprakash remarkably could not come up a single name. Not that there were no good umpires, it was just that he had not paid much attention to them. And by his own admission, an umpire stood out only when he made a foul-up. "I rarely remember one or two umpires when something drastically has gone wrong but I still don't remenber their names." He said that about 35 first class cricketers have taken up umpiring in India and having played some 90 first class games himself, he was definitely in a better position to appreciate the pressures that are brought to bear upon the men in white coats.

About the recent move by the MCC to amend the laws of the game, Jayaprakash said they had called for suggestions in this regard from umpires and players but will make the proposed changes, which have to be passed by all the Test playing countries, known only in October. He himself had sent in a recommendation that fielders within the 30 yard circle in ODI's should remain inside the circle throughout, i.e. "when the ball comes into play instead of at the time of delivery."

He did not look favourably on the suggestion to have two balls from both ends in ODI's to tide over the problem of balls getting out of shape midway through an innings. "Probably in some time you will see a good quality of ball by some manufacturer which can last the full 50 overs", he said. Jayaprakash also remained unimpressed by the proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the third umpire to bat-pad chances and to nicks behind the wicket. He believed the television cameras were not infallible and could play tricks on one's eyes, pointing out interestingly that he had known cases where there appeared to be daylight between bat and ball in the slow motion replays but the batsman later confirmed a thick edge!