Former right arm seamer Venkatesh Prasad opened up about his international cricketing days on Sunday (May 9).
Prasad was one of the first proponents of slower deliveries in international cricket. The Karnataka cricketer played under the leadership of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammed Azharuddin.
Prasad is famous for his two stupendous spells against Pakistan. The first one came when he sent the in-form Pakistani batsman Aamer Sohail back to the pavilion during the 1996 World Cup. Sohail had slashed Prasad for a boundary before making a distasteful gesture. Prasad took up the challenge and clean bowled a complacent Sohail ending his innings.
The second instance dates back to the 1999 Test Series when Prasad bowled a maiden spell and scalped five wickets.
Thus, Prasad performed to the top of the bent in his cricketing days.
When asked about the best captain he played under, Prasad comfortably named Azharuddin since the former Indian skipper gave his bowlers the freedom to set their own field.
“I can be very diplomatic here. I can easily say that ‘look, everybody is different in their own way’. But I was always comfortable when Azhar was the captain because he used to just throw the ball at you and would ask what field do you want. And when I set a field, I own the responsibility to bowl to that field, isn’t it? So that’s how it was,” Prasad said in the Grade Cricketer podcast.
Expounding the same, Prasad pointed out that he had a rapport with Azhar as they had played quite a lot of cricket together in their early days.
“It wasn’t as if I was not comfortable with Sachin or Ganguly either but I guess my best performances came when Azhar was the captain and that’s how it was. Also, Azhar happens to come from Hyderabad and Karnataka and Hyderabad aren’t very far so we knew each other very well. We used to play against each other, also together when there were zonal teams. So that’s how the rapport and understanding was much better,” Prasad added.
