The Hindu : Sport : Budhi Kunderan dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 24, 2006

Sport

Sport

Budhi Kunderan dead

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Budhisagar Krishnappa Kunderan, a.k.a. `Budhi' passed away at Glasgow, Scotland on Friday.

The former Indian stumper, suffering from lung cancer, was 66. He is survived by wife, two sons, two brothers and four sisters.

Born in Mulky, Karnataka, Budhi played in 18 Tests, scored 981 runs with two centuries. Old timers like Nari Contractor described Budhi as a "an exciting right-handed batsman."

Budhi played his first Test against Richie Benaud's Australians in 1960 at the Brabourne Stadium after playing just two first class matches. He succeeded 'keepers like Naren Tamhane, Probir Sen and Nana Joshi.

Making Lala angry

According to Contractor, the then chairman of selectors, Lala Amaranth had asked Budhi to open the innings in the Madras Test at the Nehru Stadium because he was not well.

"Lala had asked him to play out the day, but he belted the Australian bowlers, leaving Lala fuming. Four years later, in 1964, Farokh Engineer was injured and Budhi made an aggressive 192 (31 fours) against England at Madras and Farokh was not considered for the rest of the series," said Contractor.

Playing for Mysore from the 1965 season, Budhi kept wicket to Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan after which he was back in the Indian team for the 1966-67 series against the West Indies.

He smashed 79 in 92 minutes at the Brabourne Stadium. It was in the same Test that Gary Sobers called back Budhi to the crease, gesturing the batsman that he had taken a `bump catch.'

Budhi changed his surname from Kunderam to Kunderan in 1964. He's the first of three Indian cricketers who played a Test before making an appearance in the Ranji Trophy. The other two are Vivek Razdan and Parthiv Patel.

205 on Ranji debut

He's also among the five Indian batsmen who scored a double century (205 for Railways v Jammu & Kashmir in 1959-60) in his first Ranji match. Budhi scored 2367 runs in the Ranji Trophy tournament.

Budhi was also in a select band of wicketkeepers who have scored in excess of 500 runs in a Test series. He aggregated 525 runs against the M.J.K. Smith-led England in 1963-64.

He played as a professional in the Lancashire league, for Drumpellier in Scotland and for Scotland in the Benson and Hedges Cup in England.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport