Budhisagar Krishnappa Kunderan (born Budhisagar Krishnappa Kunderam 2 October 1939 – 23 June 2006) was an Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played as a

wicket keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...

for the most of his career, and was an exciting but unorthodox right-handed batsman who competed for international selection with contemporary

Farokh Engineer Farokh Maneksha Engineer (born 25 February 1938) is an Indian former cricketer. He played 46 Test matches for India, played first-class cricket for Bombay in India from 1959 to 1975 and for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England from 196 ...

. In his eighteen Tests between 1960 and 1967, he scored 981 runs with two centuries and a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 32.70. With the gloves he took 23 catches and executed seven stumpings.

Career

Early matches

Budhi Kunderan made his first appearance in

first class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for the Cricket Club of India against the touring

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in 1958–59. After just two first class matches, he was picked to play Test cricket for India against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the next year. Through the fifties India had wicket keepers of about the same quality in

Naren Tamhane Narendra Shankar Tamhane (4 August 1931 – 19 March 2002) was an Indian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches from 1955 to 1960. He was a wicket-keeper-batsman. His first-class career extended from 1951–52 to 1968–69. He played in th ...

Probir Sen Probir Kumar "Khokhan" Sen (; 31 May 1926 – 27 January 1970) was an Indian cricketer who represented his country in 14 Tests from 1948 to 1952. He was born in an eminent business family, to Amiya Sen and Basanti Sen. Biography Probir Sen, kn ...

and

Nana Joshi Padmanabh Govind "Nana" Joshi (7 October 1926 – 8 January 1987) was an Indian cricketer who kept wicket for India in 12 Test matches between 1951 and 1960. Personal life Joshi was born in Baroda, Gujarat, India in 1926. His father died whe ...

. Joshi and Tamhane had already been tried when Kunderan got his chance in the third Test. Kunderan got out

hit wicket Hit wicket is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is governed by Law 35 of the Laws of Cricket. The striker is out "hit wicket" if, after the bowler has entered his delivery stride and while the ball is in pla ...

on his first appearance while attempting to

pull Pull may refer to: Sports *In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who usually hits the ball to the side of the field from which he bats * Pull shot, a batting stroke in cricket * A phase of a swim stroke * A throw-off in the sport of ultimate (o ...

Ian Meckiff Ian Meckiff (born 6 January 1935) is a former cricketer who represented Australia national cricket team, Australia in 18 test cricket, Test matches between 1957 and 1963. A left-arm Fast bowling, fast bowler, he is best known for two matters tha ...

but scored 71 and 33 in his next Test. Kunderan had already played three Test matches when he made his

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

debut in 1960. In his first Ranji appearance, he hit 205 for Railways against Jammu and Kashmir. His was one of eight double-centuries scored during Ranji Trophy debuts. His second first class hundred was also scored later in the year against the same opponents in a match that Railways won without losing a wicket.

Playing in the 1960s

From the early 1960s, Kunderan had a new competitor for the wicket keeping position in

. Both played in the series against England at home and toured West Indies in 1961–62. Engineer was selected ahead of Kunderan when England again visited India in 1963–64, but he was found medically unfit on the eve of the first Test at

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. Opening the innings, Kunderan hit 192 with 31 fours, 170 of which came on the first day of the match. He scored another hundred at

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and finished with an aggregate of 525 runs in the series. Since this series, only two other wicket keepers have scored more than 500 runs in a Test series -

Denis Lindsay Denis Thomson Lindsay (4 September 1939 – 30 November 2005) was a South African cricketer who played 19 Test matches for South Africa between 1963 and 1970. His outstanding series was against Australia in 1966–67, when he scored 606 runs in ...

, 606 for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

v Australia in 1966-67 and

Andy Flower Andrew Flower (born 28 April 1968) is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and a former cricketer. As a cricketer, he captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and is, statistically, the greatest ...

, 540 for

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

v India in 2000–01. The Indian selectors dropped both Kunderan and Engineer from the next series against Australia and instead went for K. S. Indrajitsinhji. Engineer was then recalled for the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

series that followed while Kunderan played as an opening batsman in the place of injured

Dilip Sardesai Dilip Narayan Sardesai (; 8 August 1940 – 2 July 2007) was an Indian international cricketer. He played Tests for the Indian national team as a batsman, the first Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as one of India' ...

. In 1965, Kunderan left his job in the Railways and appeared for

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

and the South Zone. A side effect of this was that he was able to keep wickets to the bowling of

Chandrasekhar Chandrasekhar, Chandrashekhar or Chandra Shekhar is an Indian name and may refer to a number of individuals. The name comes from the name of an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva. In this form he married the goddess Parvati. Etymologically, the nam ...

, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan in domestic matches. Recalled against

in 1966–67, Kunderan scored 79 in 92 minutes in the

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Test. Early on in the innings, he appeared to have been caught by

Garry Sobers Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...

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 Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

Test, he opened with Engineer and topscored with 47 out of India's 110 all out. He opened both batting and bowling at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

where India played four spinners. This was to be Kunderan's last Test.

Post-international career

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. Budhi Kunderan died from lung 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 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

(BCCI).

References

;Footnotes ;References
Rahul Bhattacharya, ''Love Letters'', The Nightwatchman, August 2013

* ttp://ww3.mid-day.com/sports/national/2004/february/77012.htm Interview with Kunderan
Cricinfo Obituary

by Partab Ramchand * Sujit Mukherjee, ''Matched Winners'', Orient Longman (1996), p 61-75 * Christopher Martin-Jenkins, ''The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers''

External links

*
Budhi Kunderan
at

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

''Sporting Hall Of Fame'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kunderan, Budhi 1939 births 2006 deaths India Test cricketers Indian cricketers Karnataka cricketers South Zone cricketers Railways cricketers Scotland cricketers State Bank of India cricketers North Zone cricketers Deaths from lung cancer Deaths from cancer in Scotland People from Dakshina Kannada district Mangaloreans Tulu people Cricketers from Karnataka Indian emigrants to Scotland Wicket-keepers