Sport shoes make the difference

Sports shoes today, unlike the times when players wore ordinary shoes, have minimised injuries in cricket, according to a veteran wicketkeeper of undivided Bihar, Ashok Ghosh.

Sports shoes adjust the entire body with the ground — whether it was soft, hard or mixed — minimising injuries, Ghosh, who holds a world record for claiming 10 scalps behind the wicket in a first class match, told PTI.

Sports shoes were particularly helpful as cricket had changed with first class cricketers playing at least 30 to 40 matches in all versions of the game in a season compared to few matches three decades ago, said Ghosh, who sent back all batsmen to the pavilion in a Ranji Trophy match against Assam in 1981, which had fetched him the best cricketer award.

"There was no limited-over or Twenty20 version of the game then and we had to play only a few matches zone-wise in Ranji Trophy, Ghosh, who was popularly known as Pannu Da, said.

The ordinary shoes cricketers used to play in, were uncomfortable and frequently led to injuries, Ghosh, who has received 18 stitches in the face including just below his left eye-brow in his career, said.

"The shoes were also not affordable as they cost Rs1,000 and above," he said.

Giving an example, he said during a test match in Melbourne in 1978, uncomfortable shoes forced veteran leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar to change them twice even though he helped India win against Australia by a slender margin.

Chandrasekhar’s 12 for 48 runs fetched him the Man of the match award.

Asked about their affordability now, he said, first class cricketers today were earning handsomely per season and could afford sport shoes costing not less than Rs4,000 to 5,000. Moreover, there was no dearth of sponsors today, he said.

Ghosh, a senior manager in corporate communication, Tata Steel, said he still remembered the 'dark day' in his cricket career, when he lost his kit and costly shoes purchased in England, during a tour in 1982-83.

As a member of the Tata Steel team, when he was going to Mumbai to play the final of the inter-company match, his kit — including sports shoes he had bought for Rs1,500 during a tour of the UK — were stolen, which was a blow to him.