After the Joshi and Tamhane rivalry which went on till 1960-61, which was the last year for both of them, Indian cricket witnessed another interesting rivalry, between Kunderan and Engineer, both of whom loved attacking batting more than keeping. Both crowd pullers, Kunderan and Engineer drove the fans crazy.
Two cricketers arrived on the Indian cricket scene
almost at the same time. Both were natural cricketers, immensely talented,
dashing stroke players. In the sixties two young smart wicketkeeper batsmen
came on the scene, who changed the style of wicket-keeping for others like
Kirmani, Dhoni and others to follow in the later years. One was a street-smart
cricketer, a product of Mumbai maidan cricket who had come up the hard way. His
father was a clerk in Voltas and not interested in sports. And another was a
suave and stylish product of University and club cricket. His father was a
doctor and loved sports.
Budhi
Kunderan hailing from Mangalore and brought up in Fort area in Mumbai close
to the maidans and the other was Farokh Engineer, a typical Mumbai Parsi
cricketer. Before him another Parsi was the Indian captain Nari Contractor and
later Rusi Surti. They brought in cavalier and attacking brand of cricket, in
both wicket-keeping and batting. In a way they were ahead of their times. Many
old fans say, they would have been successful and big names in today’s shorter
version of the game. Their keeping was good and batting was assertive putting
the opposition bowlers under pressure. They exhibited glimpses of changing the
approach of Indian cricket, particularly wicketkeepers. Their brand of cricket
was attack from the word go. Two of India's most flamboyant cricketers, Farokh
Engineer and Budhi Kunderan, in Lord's 1967; this was one rare occasion when
both played together. Otherwise the irony was one of them had to sit out to
accommodate the other.
After the Joshi and Tamhane rivalry
which went on till 1960-61, which was the last year for both of
them, Indian cricket witnessed another interesting rivalry,
between Kunderan and Engineer, both of whom loved attacking batting
more than keeping. Both crowd pullers, Kunderan and Engineer drove
the fans crazy. Kunderan rose to fame with a run-a-minute, 71 at
Madras against the Aussies in 1959- 60, playing outrageous
strokes. He also scored a double century on his debut in the Ranji Trophy
match for Railways against Jammu-Kashmir.
In 1965, Kunderan left his job in the Railways and
played for Mysore and the South Zone. The benefit was that he got a chance keep
wickets to the bowling of the famous three of the Indian quartet -Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan in
domestic matches. Recalled against West Indies in 1966-67, Kunderan
scored 79 in 92 minutes in the Bombay Test. It reminds of the famous
incident on the field in that test match. Early on in the innings, he appeared
to have been caught by Garry Sobers but as the batsman prepared to
depart, Sobers indicated that he had taken the catch on the bounce. One Test
later, Kunderan again found himself out of the team. The team that toured
England in 1967 included both Kunderan and Engineer, but from here Engineer
asserted himself as the primary keeper. Kunderan played purely as a batsman in
the second and third Tests of the series. When Sardesai retired with a hand
injury in the Lord's Test, he opened with Engineer and top scored
with 47 out of India's 110 all out. He opened both batting and bowling at Birmingham where
India played four spinners. This was to be Kunderan's last Test. Kunderan
was not happy with the selectors had made it amply clear in an interview.
He shifted to Scotland and married a local woman. He
served as a professional in the Lancashire league and then with Drumpellier in
the Western Union in Scotland. In the early 1980s, he played for Scotland in
the Benson and Hedges Cup in England. Kunderan lived in Scotland from the turn
of the 1970s. His brother Bharat, also a wicket-keeper, played first class
cricket for Indian Universities in 1970-71 and later played for Khar Gymkhana. Budhi
Kunderan died of cancer at the age of 66. In June 2018, he was awarded with a
Special Award by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He
was a down to earth cricketer.
Farokh Engineer
rose to fame with a seven-catch haul in a Ranji match in 1960-61, Bombay
against Delhi game, equalling Limaye's 1957-58 record. Both Engineer
and Kunderan were similar in the sense that they had a knack of
taking difficult catches while dropping easier ones. The Indo-China
war put Kunderan temporarily out of action as the team which he
represented, Railways and Services were withdrawn from the
competition; he just played one Ranji match. Engineer forged ahead; he even
started to open. But in 1964, when England toured India, Kunderan came
back following an injury to Engineer, where he had a chipped finger, and
scored nearly a double century as an opener (194) and also hit a 100 and 55 to
take his series tally to 525 runs. His keeping though slipped a bit. The
selectors kept him out of all the three Tests against Australia in 1964,
but he was not even replaced by Engineer, he was replaced by K.S.
Indrajitsinhji. In England, in a test match, Engineer kept wickets while
Kunderan opened the batting and bowling. When Pataudi asked Kunderan, what did
he bowl. He humbly replied, I don’t know. He bowled medium pace. Isn’t it
unique, a wicketkeeper opening the bowling for India!
Engineer resumed the rivalry
with Kunderan in the 1965 series against New
Zealand. Kunderan played in only one Test as an opener, with Engineer
performing the role of the wicketkeeper. Kunderan's chance came again
in 1966-'67 against the West Indies when he blasted 79 runs with 15 fours
in the first Test. Next Test he opened and hit 39 in 45 minutes before Hall bowled
him with a yorker. The selectors felt that his keeping was not up to the mark
and in spite of Kunderan scoring 104 in 120 minutes with 4 sixes and
11 fours two days after the second Test in a tour match against the West
Indies, it was Engineer who played in the next Test in Chennai. Engineer
silenced the critics and the public outcry against Kunderan's exclusion
by nearly scoring a century before lunch (94). He went on to score 109 and
thereafter he never looked back at Kunderan, who he had left behind.
The game of musical chairs between the two continued till 1966–67, when Kunderan packed
his bags and settled in Scotland.
Engineer was born into a Parsi family in Mumbai. His
father Maneksha was a doctor by profession, while mother Minnie was a
housewife. He studied at the Don Bosco High School in Matunga and
then studied at Podar College, Matunga where Dilip
Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Ravi Shastri also studied and
who also went on to play for the country. His father enrolled him in Dadar
Parsi Colony Sporting Club where he learnt the nuances of the game from the
seniors and later became a regular member of the team. Engineer played his
debut first-class match in December 1958 for the Combined
Universities side against the touring West Indies, while playing for Bombay
University. Farokh Maneksha Engineer played 46 Test matches for India, played
first-class cricket for Bombay in India from 1959 to 1975 and shifted to
England and played for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England from 1968 to
1976.
Mahindra is in early talks with global green funds
and private equity firms, says a source. Indian automaker Mahindra &
Mahindra is in talks with global investors to raise between $250 million
and $500 million to accelerate its plans to build electric vehicles (EVs),
a source with direct knowledge. Mahindra is in early talks with global green
funds and private equity firms, adding that it wants a long-term investor who
can help build out its EV business. Some investors, however, in recent months
have shown interest in participating in a funding round of worth around $800
million, two banking industry sources said, adding that they have held talks
with the company about such offers.
While Mahindra is not actively looking to raise a
higher amount than $250-$500 million, it is not closed to the idea of raising
the deal size depending on the terms and valuation, the first source said. Mahindra
told Reuters in a statement it has committed to investing $500 million in the
electric SUV space along with BII, and that the two companies will work
together to bring other "like-minded, climate focussed investors" in
the EV unit. The talks come weeks after Mahindra outlined an ambitious plan to
launch five electric SUVs over the next few years and is targeting such models
to make up 30% of its total annual SUV sales by March 2027. The carmaker's
first electric SUV is expected to be available for sale in January.
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