The Fab Fours

India completed a 2-0 home series victory by outplaying the No. 1 ranked Aussies at Nagpur and moved up to the No. 2 ranking. But the series will be better remembered for the end of an era. The Fab Four of India's batting - Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly - will never play another test together.

Ganguly has retired. Dravid, after two flop shows against Sri Lanka and Australia, should follow in Ganguly's footsteps soon. After nearly 19 years of non-stop cricket, Tendulkar's spirit is still willing but the body seems weak. Only Laxman can carry on for a while. But Dhoni's policy of 'young legs' may just edge him out as well.

To put things in perspective, please allow me to feel nostalgic for a bit and dwell on other Fab Fours that I've been privileged to witness.

First and foremost, among Indians was the spin quartet of Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagawat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. While some insist that a major part of their success was due to the excellent close-in catching by the likes of Eknath Solkar, Ajit Wadekar and Venkat himself, the fact is that Bedi remains the best left arm spinner I've seen (with due apologies to purists who witnessed Vinoo Mankad in his heydays) and Prasanna the best off spinner ever.

Bedi was so good that a couple of left arm spinners who would have walked into any other test side - Padmakar Shivalkar and Dilip Doshi - had to cool their heels while Bedi was around. Doshi finally got his chance and took a ton of wickets. Shivalkar had to remain content at the Ranji level.

The freaky action and speed of Bhagawat Chandrasekhar foxed many well known batsmen and won India quite a few matches. But his skills were overshadowed by the recently retired Anil Kumble, who was India's most consistent and highest wicket taker. (I never got to see Subhas Gupte in action. Many claim that he was India's best leg-spinner.) Venkat had considerable skills and was a good leader and fielder, and later a distinguished umpire.

The next Fab Four are the West Indies pace quartet of Holding, Roberts, Garner and Marshall. Even with the advent of helmets, arm guards, chest guards, et al, they struck terror into the hearts of most batsmen and propelled West Indies to the top of the test playing 'countries' for several years.

Holding's smooth run up and fluid action earned him the sobriquet of 'Rolls Royce among fast bowlers'. Roberts had such a lethal and disguised bouncer that most batsmen didn't even know what hit them. Garner's height and accuracy made it impossible for batsmen to score against him. Marshall, the most underrated of the four, had the most brutal pace.

The last, but not the least, Fab Four belong to an era and not a single country. The four great all-rounders - Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev. It is really tough to choose between them. Botham took a huge number of wickets, many with rank bad balls and was perhaps the best batsman of the lot. Hadlee would have been a really good batsman if he had concentrated on his batting a little more. As a fast bowler, he had few equals and had an astonishing wicket-taking average. Imran and Kapil both led their national teams to World Cup victories - they had unquestionable leadership abilities on top of their considerable batting and bowling skills.

Where do our more recent Fab Four fit in?  Ganguly has already staked claim to two crowns - the best left handed Indian batsman and the best Indian captain. He was instrumental in changing the attitude of the Indian cricket team and turned them into aggressive match winners. During his tenure, he rubbed many an administrator the wrong way by putting his foot down on regionalism in team selection. He paid a huge price for it later.

What can I write about Tendulkar that has not already been written? He is undoubtedly one of the greatest batsman I have seen. But I'll have to put him at a close second to Brian Lara and just ahead of Sunil Gavaskar because of his impeccable record in both forms of the game. Dravid has to be rated half a notch below because of his inability to score quickly. The classy Laxman belongs to the group that includes Gundappa Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ganguly - obviously talented, but moody and lacking the consistency of Gavaskar, Dravid and Tendulkar. But on his day, an absolute 'terminator' of world class bowling.