Roger Binny – The Silent Achiever Who Swings It Both Ways News24 –

Roger Michael Humphrey Binny is a name that would adorn any Honour’s Board of Indian cricket across time. This humble, soft-spoken Anglo-Indian of Scottish descent was the highest wicket taker in India’s victorious World Cup cricket campaign in 1983, a feat that took Team India another 24 years to replicate under Mahendra Singh Dhoni in South Africa. A tally of 18 wickets from eight games did not tell the whole story of Binny’s right-arm swing bowling. He teased and tormented every top batsman of the time – be it the great Vivian Richards or lesser mortals such as Allan Border of Australia or Chris Tavare of England.

For, that English summer belonged to India’s swing bowlers, led by Kapil Dev and bolstered by Roger Binny, Madan Lal (second highest wicket taker with 17 wickets), Balwinder Sandhu and the dibbly-doblies of Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath. For those of us who were privileged to listen to the radio commentary of the early matches, Binny’s razor-sharp outswinger to Vivian Richards in India’s opening encounter (at Old Trafford on June 9, 1983) with the West Indies is etched in memory. The West Indian great was on song the previous evening when rain stopped play. The next morning when the game resumed (yes, we used to have an extra day for games those days), Binny nicked off the great man in the very first over of the day – a moment that probably set the tone for India’s journey to glory.

Right through the six preliminary matches, the Indian medium pacers dictated the outcome of the games – in the two games they didn’t perform, India lost badly to the West Indies (in their return game) and Australia, and were in real danger of being eliminated. In the next two games, if it was Kapil Dev who made the encounter against Zimbabwe memorable with his famous innings of 175 not out, in the next game against Australia, Roger Binny was the Man of the Match with a four-fer. Not only did he contribute 21 runs in India’s score of 247, Binny reduced the Aussies to 52-4, accounting for Graeme Wood, Graeme Yallop, and David Hookes without conceding many runs. India won by a whopping 118 runs – sweet revenge for their earlier 162-run loss to the Australians in the earlier match. What happened thereafter was nothing short of a fairy tale end, and Binny contributed to this too. He ended the dour defence of England’s openers Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavare in the semis before landing the knockout punch in the finals with the wicket of skipper Clive Lloyd.

Of course, one would be mistaken to think that Roger Binny’s cricketing career began and ended with the World Cup. Back in the 1977-78 Ranji Trophy season, Binny, who opened both the batting and bowling for Karnataka, combined with Sanjay Desai scored 451 unbeaten runs for the opening wicket – a record that stood for a long time. He was also among the very few who opened the batting and bowling for his state team, besides being a gun fielder both in the inner ring as well as the outfield. His running pick up and throw in one smooth action was ahead of its time as India hardly boasted quality outfields those days. Another noteworthy mention would be his best Test bowling of 5-40 against England at Leeds in the summer of 1986 that resulted in India walloping England by a massive 279 runs – this remains India’s biggest win against England in terms of runs.

Another lesser-known fact about Binny is that after quitting cricket, he took up coaching and led the Indian under-19 cricket team to the World Cup – a series that led to the discovery of Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh. He was also known to have influenced the fortunes of players such as Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, and Ambati Rayadu as an under-16 coach. Having worked at the grassroots and then at administrative positions with the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), Roger Binny took over as President of the BCCI – a position he inherited from the Dada of Indian cricket – Saurav Ganguly. As an administrator, he not only managed to hold the balance between white and red ball cricket, Binny also had Team India winning yet another World Cup – the T20 title in the West Indies last year and the Champions Trophy immediately thereafter.

And he did all of these by staying in the shadows of the stars, never once allowing the focus to be on him or his words. Happy Birthday Roger! You have made cricket proud of you.

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