Tamhane - The quietly efficient 'keeper
These days, when there is so much uncertainty about the wicketkeeper's slot in the Indian team, there is nothing better than taking a trip down memory lane and recalling the happier times when this was one position which was naturally and comfortably
Partab Ramchand
04-Aug-2000
These days, when there is so much uncertainty about the wicketkeeper's
slot in the Indian team, there is nothing better than taking a trip
down memory lane and recalling the happier times when this was one
position which was naturally and comfortably filled by cricketers
worthy of their place in the side. From the fifties (Naren Tamhane and
Nana Joshi) to the sixties (Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan) and
from the seventies and eighties (Syed Kirmani) to the nineties (Kiran
More and Nayan Mongia) there was never any problem in filling up this
vital slot.
In the formative years, there was much uncertainty about the stumper's
slot and in the first 13 Tests, India had five wicketkeepers on duty.
Probir Sen was perhaps the earliest to give the position a hint of
permanency and he was the first to appear in all five Tests of a
series. He appeared in 14 Tests in all, representing the country from
the late forties to the early fifties. But it was not until Tamhane
appeared on the scene during the 1954-55 series in Pakistan that it
was obvious that India had acquired their first world class 'keeper.
On the occasion of Tamhane's 69th birthday today, it is worth
recalling the work of this neat, efficient wicketkeeper who was the
country's first choice from 1955 to 1960. Those were the days when
Test matches were not as frequent as they are now. And yet Tamhane
played in 21 Tests, finishing with an impressive tally of 35 catches
and 16 stumpings. He held all the major Indian wicketkeeping records
till Engineer and Kirmani came along and a major reason for this was
the fact that they played many more Tests.
Tamhane started off with 19 victims in his first series. It is a
record that stands till this day and has been equalled only once by
Kirmani during the six Test series against Pakistan in 1979-80. The
Indian wicketkeeping slot was safe in Tamhane's steady hands. He was
not one of those flamboyant characters. He believed in doing his work
with quiet efficiency. Neat and tidy were the adjectives chiefly used
to describe Tamhane's stints behind the stumps. If he was not showy or
brilliant, he was also not known to drop catches and miss stumpings.
Tamhane read the spin and guile of Subash Gupte, Ghulam Ahmed and
Vinoo Mankad so well that it was said he could have fared better
against them in front of the stumps than some of the batsmen from the
opposing team. But he was equally adept at keeping to medium pace
bowlers and struck a good combination with Phadkar and Ramchand, Desai
and Surendranath.
Tamhane was not yet 30 when he played his last Test against Pakistan
at Calcutta in 1960-61. It was not that he had become slower in his
work but the selectors decided to go in for the better batsman, even
if his work was not up to Tamhane's class in keeping wickets. So he
gave way to Kunderan and that was the end of his international career
which, with the benefit of hindsight, came about too soon, for Tamhane
still had much to offer Indian cricket. In these uncertain days, we
could do with one of his kind.