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Maninder Singh, the tall Sikh left arm spinner, made his debut for
Delhi in 1980-81 and two years later was chosen for the Indian Test
side. Throughout his career he often bowled in tandem with another left
arm spinner, at first Dilip Doshi and later Ravi Shastri. He had little
success in his first series in Pakistan in 1982-83 and did not play
again until the West Indies were in Ahmedabad in 1983-84, when he took
4-85, including Gus Logie for 0. In Sri Lanka in 1985-86 he took 4-31 in
the Kandy Test.
He was successful in England in 1986, taking 3-9 in 20
miserly overs in the second innings at Lord's and 4-26 in the second
innings at Headingley. He enjoyed success against Sri Lanka in 1986-87,
with 3-56 and 7-51 at Nagpur and six wickets at Cuttack. He took 3-60
against Australia at Madras the same season. By far his best series was
against Pakistan soon after when he had 5-135 at Madras and 7-27 and
3-29 in Bangalore, when he opened the bowling.
Maninder was in the
Indian World Cup side in 1987, when he took 3-21 against Zimbabwe in
Bombay, 3-34 against Australia at Delhi and 3-54 against England in the
semi-final, when Graham Gooch continually swept the left armers against
the spin on his way to a match winning hundred. He toured Pakistan with
India on three occasions and toured Bangladesh in 1988-89. He was part
of the Rest of the World team that toured in England for the M.C.C.
Bicentenary celebrations in 1987, where his superb outfielding caused
him to be used as the emergency fieldsman in the Bicentenary Match. He
played for Shropshire in 1986. (Bob Harragan)
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