Published: Aug 04, 2016, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 04, 2016, 12:30 PM (IST)
Naren Tamhane, born August 4, 1931, is considered by many as India’s first great wicketkeeper. He made keeping wickets to world-class spinners look ridiculously easy, and would have played many more Tests had his career not overlapped with that of Probir Sen’s. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the man with the big gloves that handled first spin trinity with proficiency matched by few.
There was nothing sensational about Narendra Shankar Tamhane behind the stumps. He was neither spectacular nor ebullient, and went on with his job without much fuss. He seldom flung himself to cover distance, for he was always there, somehow there, when the ball arrived, following an edge or otherwise.
A correspondent of The Hindu wrote: “Any captain would love to have a player like Tamhane on his team. There was nothing flamboyant about him but he was extremely sound in his technique.”
Wally Grout compared Tamhane to Don Tallon, rated by many, including Don Bradman, as the greatest wicketkeeper ever. Vijay Merchant called him “as safe as the Bank of England”.
Even if one ignores the statements as hyperbole, there is little doubt regarding his efficiency to the relentless Ghulam Ahmed, the guileful Subhash Gupte, and the probing Vinoo Mankad.
The spin trinity, India’s first of its kind, were no less than their successors of the 1970s. The combination was similar as well, complete with an off-spinner, a leg-spinner, and a left-arm spinner, every one of them outstanding in his field.
Keeping wickets to men of such proficiency was no easy task, but just like Probir Sen before him, the 5’6” Tamhane was up to the task. One must remember that Tamhane kept more to Gupte — the most difficult of the trio — than Sen.
Not only was Gupte hailed by many (Garry Sobers included) as the greatest leg-spinner of all, he also had two googlies, one of which turned marginally and the other sharply. This, however, was not a problem for Tamhane, who had kept to Gupte since their days at Shivaji Park Gymkhana.
Polly Umrigar recalled: “He could read the bowlers intentions by just watching the grip. When spinners like Subhash Gupte ran in to bowl, he would predict the type of delivery about to be bowled.”
Before his place was usurped by Farokh Engineer, no Indian wicketkeeper had played more Tests than Tamhane (21). Along with Sen (with perhaps ‘Nana’ Joshi as the other contender), he was also the greatest wicketkeeper in the era preceding Syed Kirmani.
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Tamhane was good enough to reduce Madhav Mantri to a specialist batsman in the Bombay Ranji Trophy side and Sen in the Test team. Just like Sen and Joshi, Tamhane kept wickets to quality spinners, which meant that that his 51 Test dismissals included 35 catches and 16 stumpings, and was the most for any Indian wicketkeeper before Engineer.
Note: Sen had 20 catches and 11 stumpings, and Joshi, 18 catches and 9 stumpings.
Of these 51 dismissals, 18 (9 catches, 9 stumpings) came off Gupte, and 12 more off Mankad and Ghulam combined (8 catches, 4 stumpings).
Despite the lack of showmanship, there was one salient feature of Tamhane — his trademark stumping, where he almost inevitably whipped one, and exactly one bail off.
Despite his neat glovework, Tamhane was not outstanding with the bat. This was not surprising, for quality batsmanship was not expected of wicketkeepers of the era. Tamhane’s 21 Tests fetched him a mere 225 runs at 10.22; his First-Class numbers, 1,459 runs with a hundred and 5 fifties, came at 18.23.
Another feature of his First-Class records was the fact that Tamhane batted only 96 times in 93 First-Class matches, despite sometimes opening batting and being used as night-watchman. That is not good news…
Meteoric rise
Tamhane was born in a well-to-do family in Bombay. His father worked as a cashier in Government service, and was also a landlord, which meant that the Tamhanes did not really have to worry for money.
Tamhane rose through college cricket at a rapid rate, and was picked for Indian Universities against both the Englishmen of 1951-52 and the Pakistanis of 1952-53.
At this stage of his career he was also a proficient batsman. With 341 runs at 68.20, Tamhane was the leading run-scorer in Rohinton Baria Trophy 1952-53, playing a crucial role in the final against Delhi University with 29 and 73.
The following season he was picked for an all-India team for the unofficial ‘Tests’ against Frank Worrell’s Commonwealth XI.
The Ranji Trophy debut happened that year. So good was he behind the stumps that Mantri played on as a specialist batsman. Tamhane played in the final as well, where Bombay beat Holkar by 8 wickets.
The following winter he was chosen for the Pakistan tour.
Test cricket
Led by the Mankad, the Indian squad also had Gupte and Ghulam. All three played in all 5 Tests, which meant that it was nothing short of baptism by fire for Tamhane. He lived up to expectations with 12 catches and 7 stumpings from 5 matches. Of these, Gupte accounted for 8 (3 catches, 5 stumpings).
Tamhane’s 19 dismissals in a series has been equalled only by Kirmani (in a 6-Test series against Pakistan in 1979-80). Tamhane also equalled Sen’s record of 7 stumpings in a series (set against England in 1951-52).
On debut at Dhaka he had 3 catches and 2 stumpings. In his third, at Lahore, he had exactly the same. And in his fifth, at Karachi, he improved on that with 5 catches and a stumping.
In between all this, he excellent with bat in the second Test at Bahawalpur. India were reeling at 107 for 7 when he joined Gulabrai Ramchand. The pair added 82 in a display of extreme caution against Fazal Mahmood, Mahmood Hussain, and Khan Mohammad.
Even after Ramchand fell, Tamhane marched on, eventually running out of partners. He top-scored with 54 not out as India were bowled out for 235 in 119.2 overs. Pakistan secured a 77-run lead but India played out time, Tamhane finishing with 12 not out.
Unfortunately, he would reach double-figures only thrice more in his career in 24 more innings, the first of which would come four years after this. To be fair, in every occasion he made it to 20.
Tamhane impressed enough to be named an Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year. He also played the home series against New Zealand and Australia, and was set for the future.
By this time even Joshi was out of contention. Sen, Vijay Rajindernath, or Ebrahim Maka never earned a recall. Chandu Patankar played a single Test. There was no doubt regarding Tamhane’s supremacy in the second half of the 1950s.
Then, with India 0-2 down against West Indies amidst the discombobulating proceedings in the 1958-59 home series (the winter of four captains), Tamhane was replaced by Joshi in the fourth Test at Madras.
Tamhane responded with 109 not out against Baroda. Meanwhile West Indies won, and Tamhane was recalled for the fifth Test.
England, 1959
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Both Tamhane and Joshi went to England in 1959, where India were duly whitewashed 0-5. Surprisingly, Datta Gaekwad and Pankaj Roy (standing in for Gaekwad in the second Test) went for Joshi in the first two Tests, and later, the fourth.
Tamhane was recalled for the third and fifth Tests. “His keeping in the 1959 Headingley and Oval Tests drew praise from knowledgeable observers,” wrote Wisden. He had 6 dismissals, and exceeded expectations with 20 at Headingley (when nobody reached 30) and top-scored with 32 at The Oval.
He also did well in the tour matches with 38 catches and 11 stumpings from 17 matches. The most significant of these were his 3 catches and 4 stumpings when Warwickshire lost only 16 wickets in the match.
Sujit Mukherjee summed up the series in Playing for India: “India batted and bowled erratically throughout this tour, but at least the wicketkeeping was consistently good.”
An abrupt end
Things did not look too bad for Tamhane, but by this time the selectors had found a swashbuckling opening batsman who also kept wickets. Budhi Kunderan was nowhere in the league of Tamhane when it came to glovework, but he was a significantly superior batsman.
A bizarre game of musical chairs followed when the Australians arrived that winter. Joshi played the first Test at Delhi before being dropped for no reason. Tamhane was recalled for the newly-laid wicket at Kanpur, where he kept soundly as Jasu Patel bowled India to a historic win.
But Tamhane was dropped as well. Kunderan played the last 3 Tests. There is a beautiful anecdote about Kunderan’s debut at Bombay. When Kunderan was selected for India (he had not played Ranji Trophy till then), he could not afford new gear. His club, Fort Vijay, lent him bat and batting pads. As for the wicketkeeping gloves, they were lent by Tamhane.
As mentioned above, Kunderan did not exactly set the ground ablaze with the big gloves, but batted soundly. Opening batting at Madras, he smashed 71, and followed it with 33 in the second innings. To put things into perspective, India were bowled out for 149 and 133.
Tamhane was recalled for one final time, against Pakistan at Calcutta in 1960-61, and that was it. If Joshi’s presence and Kunderan’s arrival were not enough, a new nemesis appeared in the form of Engineer. Tamhane’s Test career was over before he was 30.
The other innings
Tamhane played Ranji Trophy till 1963-64. When he stumped Venkataraman Subramanya off Bapu Nadkarni in the 1963-64 semi-final against Mysore, Tamhane became the first to reach the 100-dismissal mark in Ranji Trophy.
He did not get a dismissal in the final and finished his Ranji Trophy with 77 catches and 26 stumpings. However, he opened batting in the final, scored 53, and added 107 for the opening stand. He played a few relief fund matches, and played the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup of 1968-69.
Thereafter he continued to play club cricket. Makarand Waingankar mentions in A Million Broken Windows: The Magic and Mystique of Bombay Cricket that Tamhane played for Dadar Parsee Zoroastrians in the Kanga League till the late 1970s.
He continued to work for Tata. He served as a National Selector through the 1980s, and was Chairman in 1991 and 1992. He was instrumental in picking a certain Sachin Tendulkar for the teenager’s debut tour. When the press asked him of the consequences of the youngster’s failure, Tamhane’s oft-quoted response was iconic: “Gentlemen, Tendulkar does not fail.”
Naren Tamhane passed away on March 19, 2002 in a Mumbai clinic. He was 70.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
