India, June 24 -- The 1960s and the 1970s weren't a great time to be a spinner in India, aspiring to play for the country, for no fault of theirs. A venerable, supremely skilled and uncompromisingly aggressive quartet of contrasting styles and crafts ruled the roost. The classical off-spinner EAS Prasanna and his left-handed mirror image, Bishan Singh Bedi. The professorial S Venkataraghavan. The maverick game-changer, leg-spinner supreme BS Chandrasekhar. Each a master, each a humongous threat in his own right but also feeding off one another, complementing rather than competing with each other.

A plethora of exceptional talent bided its time, often without success - Rajinder Goel (750 first-class wickets). Padmakar Shivalkar (589). Raj...