Thursday 22 September 2022

Two flamboyant cricketers ahead of their time!


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Two flamboyant cricketers ahead of their time!

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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M&M in talks to raise up to $500 mn for EV push

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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