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Ever since Manoj Prabhakar was suddenly axed following an indifferent World Cup in 1996, there has been a crying need for an all-rounder in Indian cricket. When Ajit Agarkar burst upon the scene in the late 90s, he was reckoned by some in Indian cricket circles to be the most exciting player since Kapil Dev. The lad had loads of talent and it remained to be seen whether he had the temperament for the big occasion to develop into the country's next all-rounder.

Till last month, he, however, carried the rather unwanted tag of one of the biggest disappointments in Indian cricket. In spite of ample opportunities, he had not cemented a place in the Test side, though, few doubted his capabilities in limited-overs cricket. And despite his recent hundred in the Lord's Test and his ability to occasionally trouble the best of batsmen with his deceptively whippy pace off the wicket, he cannot yet be hailed as the answer to the country's prayer for an all-rounder. At the moment, it is to be hoped that he emerges as one of the several utility players that Indian cricket has produced in the last 70 years.

I would like to think that there is a marked difference between a genuine all-rounder and a general utility player. An all-rounder has been termed as one who can hold his place in the side solely on the strength of his batting or his bowling. He is the kind who can win matches virtually on his own, can smite a hundred or take ten wickets in a match or better still, do both in the same Test like some of the greatest names in the game have done.

A utility player, on the other hand, is one who scores 30 or 40 runs and takes two or three wickets. Once in a way, he steps on the bigger stage with a hundred or a five-wicket haul.

Indian cricket has had the good fortune of producing all-rounders of the calibre of Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad, Dattu Phadkar, Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand, Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde (till a shoulder injury caused him to give up bowling his leg- spinners), Salim Durrani, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Manoj Prabhakar. All these players got at least one Test hundred and except in the cases of Ramchand and Borde, more than one five- wicket haul.

But, then, it is not possible for everyone to be genuine all- rounders and again it has been Indian cricket's good fortune to have produced a number of utility players, who have served the country admirably. Not one has scored a hundred, all have averages in the early or mid-twenties with the bat and in the thirties or early forties with the ball. Barring one, none of them has taken over 100 wickets in Tests.

Perhaps our first utility cricketer was discovered in India's first-ever Test match. Ladha Amar Singh is rated in some circles as an all-rounder - he was the first to complete the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. But his Test figures - 292 runs from seven Tests at an average of 22.46 with a highest score of 51, his only half-century and bowling figures of 28 wickets at 30.64 apiece prove otherwise. Perhaps over an extended career he might have developed into an all-rounder. But he never got the opportunity, due to the limited Tests played in the thirties and by the fact that he passed away at 29.

In the sixties, while there were fine all-rounders in Borde, Nadkarni and Durrani around, the Indian team also had the services of Rusi Surti. The 'poor man's Sobers' as he was known was an aggressive left-hand middle- or late-order batsman and a bustling left-arm medium-pace bowler who could also switch to spin, hence the comparison. Initially in and out of the team because of the presence of the all-rounders, Surti forced his way in as a regular member of the team late in the decade.

In Australia in 1967-68, Surti achieved the status of a genuine all-rounder with his notable double of 367 runs and 15 wickets in the four-Test series. Overall, however, he could be termed as a star utility man as his figures will convey - 1263 runs from 26 Tests at an average of 28.70 with a top score of 99. His bowling could be a bit wayward, symbolised by his career figures of 42 wickets at an average of 46.71 with one five-wicket haul.

As Borde, Nadkarni and Surti were all in the evening of their careers in the late sixties, Abid Ali appeared on the scene to take on some of their responsibilities. As opening batsman or in the middle-order, Abid Ali rendered yeomen service to the team with some invaluable knocks. As a medium-pace bowler who could swing the ball a good deal, particularly in the helpful conditions in England, Abid could be relied upon to give an early break or to end a troublesome partnership with one of his specialist shooters.

He fell just short of the genuine all-rounder status by his inability to get a Test hundred but his final figures convey his undoubted utility qualities 1018 runs from 29 Tests at an average of 20.36 with six fifties and a highest score of 81 and bowling figures of 47 wickets at an average of 42.l2 with one five-wicket haul.

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The popularity of one-day cricket in the 70s and 80s saw the presence of a greater number of utility players. But while they did more than their bit in the limited overs game, they were under the shadow of Kapil Dev in Test cricket. The figures of Madan Lal, Karsan Ghavri and Roger Binny clearly indicate this. All of them played much of their cricket alongside Kapil. And while the peerless all-rounder held centrestage most of the time, there were times when the trio stole the thunder from him. Their career figures are remarkably similar.

Binny, from 27 Tests, scored 830 runs at an average of 23.06 with five fifties and a highest score of 83 not out and finished with bowling figures of 47 wickets at an average of 32.63 with two five-wicket hauls. Ghavri in 39 Tests scored 913 runs at an average of 21.23 with two fifties and a highest score of 86 and had bowling figures of 109 wickets at 33.54 apiece with four five-wicket hauls. Madan Lal got 1042 runs from 39 Tests at an average of 22.65 with five fifties and a highest score of 74 and he had bowling figures of 71 wickets at an average of 40.08 with four five-wicket hauls.

Madan Lal played his last Test in 1986 and Binny a year later. Since then, Arshad Ayub flickered briefly but faded away after a bright start while Sunil Joshi has been more out than in the side.

To an extent, Agarkar has crossed the utility status with his Lord's hundred but there is little doubt that he has not yet reached the genuine all-rounder's status. For that, he will have to be much more consistent with both the bat and the ball. At the moment, though, he is still a valuable utility cricketer and remains the best bet to develop into the all-rounder that the Indian team sorely needs.

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