An forgotten name from the long lineage of Parsee wicketkeepers to have played for India, Jenni Irani was born August 18, 1923. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the man whose career was truncated due to an overlap with Probir Sen.
Jamshed Khudadad “Jenni” Irani lived up to the Parsee tradition of producing quality wicketkeepers: from RD Cooper and Khershed Meherhomji to Farokh Engineer and Rusi Jeejeebhoy, the Parsee men behind the stumps have produced quality glovemen on a consistent basis. Irani was no exception.
Irani was tall (6 feet) but was unusually slim, weighing only 60 kg. Border Watch (South Australia) wrote of him,“Irani is a very tall player, which is unusual for wicketkeepers, but nevertheless he is a very clever man, and few liberties can be taken.”
Despite his abilities he got limited opportunities since Sind did not have the strongest bowling attack of the era; he played 22 First-Class matches, and his 23 catches and 6 stumpings all came from the 18 matches where he kept wickets. Not a good batsman by any standards, Irani also scored 430 runs at 17.20 without a fifty, and played 2 Tests without much success.
Early days
Born in Karachi, Irani went on to study at Bai Vibhaji Sopratiwala High School, and later at DJ Sind College before moving to Bombay University. Before all that happened, however, he made his debut at 14 as a specialist batsman for Sind against Lord Tennyson’s XI: he scored 22 before Stan Worthington cleaned him up.
With studies to handle, his appearances became sporadic, but he scored 46 (against Maharashtra) and 41 (against Bombay) in consecutive innings in 1945-46 along with a tidy job behind the stumps. He missed the England tour of 1946, but slowly established himself as one of the leading wicketkeepers of the country. He did a sound job that winter, and despite not being a sound batsman, he was selected for the 1947-48 tour of Australia.
Test cricket
Irani was the first-choice wicketkeeper of the side with Probir Sen as his deputy, and impressed with 43 against an Australian XI; walking out at 229 for 9 he helped Gogumal Kishenchand put on 97 for the last wicket and was selected for the first two Tests.
India ran into Ernie Toshack on a wet pitch at The Gabba in Brisbane on Irani’s debut. Irani caught Bill Brown and stumped Ray Lindwall, but that were his only high moments as India were bowled out for 58 and 98 as Toshack finished with 5 for 2 and 6 for 29 on a ‘sticky’. Irani scored a duck and an unbeaten two to become the first Indian wicketkeeper to register a duck in his first Test innings (this has later been “emulated” by Ajay Ratra and Parthiv Patel).
India had the upper hand in the second Test at SCG: though they were bowled out for 188 they came back by dismissing Australia for 107 on a wet pitch. They were themselves down at 61 for 7 when no more play was possible. Irani remained unbeaten on one, caught Don Tallon, and never played another Test. Probir Sen, with his superior batsmanship and nimble-footed glovework, took over for the rest of the series.
Final days
Irani returned after a torrid tour of Australia, where he scored 94 from 7 matches at 11.75, and had 15 dismissals to show against his name. He moved to Pakistan after the tour. He umpired a match between against the visiting Commonwealth XI and Pakistan, and played the next match for Karachi and Sind against the same opposition. Opening batting Irani scored 28 and 3, took a catch, and never played another match.
Following his retirement Irani took up a job at Habib Bank. He passed away at Karachi on February 25, 1982 at the age of 58.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
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