M. H. MANKAD

REMEMBERING AN ICON

M. H. Mankad
(12 April 1917  -  21 August 1978)

Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad, fondly known as "Vinoo Mankad", set an opening partnership of 413 runs with Pankaj Roy against New Zealand in 1956, a record which stood for 52 years till it was surpassed by Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith (415) of South Africa in 2008 against Bangladesh...

Also, the Indian duo held another record for India, of 106 for the first wicket against England in 1952 at the home of cricket, which was surpassed, after 69 years, by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in August 2021, a Test that India won...

In the list of genuine all-rounders that the gentleman's game has seen, Vinoo Mankad stands tall alongside Garfield Sobers, Keith Miller, Eddie Barlow, Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev etc. to name a few...

Vinoo Mankad, a right-hand opening batsman and a slow left arm orthodox bowler, played 44 Tests scoring 2109 runs at an average of 31.47, with five Test centuries, his highest being 231. He scalped 162 wickets at an average of 32.32, with eight five-wicket hauls, and 33 catches. He was the fastest to reach 1000 runs and 100 wickets in 23 Tests, surpassed by Ian Botham in only two Tests less...

He is one of the three cricketers to have batted in every position during his Test career, the other two being Syd Gregory (Australia) and Wilfred Rhodes (England)...

He is one of only three non-England 'away' players whose names appear on both batting and bowling honours boards at Lords, the other two being Keith Miller and Sir Gary Sobers...

His highest of 231, scored in the same innings of the first wicket partnership of 413 at Chennai was an Indian record which was surpassed in 1983 by Sunil Gavaskar...

In the domestic circuit, Mankad had represented 8 teams at different points in time. From 233 first class games he scored 11591 runs with 26 hundreds and 52 fifties, 190 catches and 782 wickets...

He pioneered the cause of "Mankading" when he ran out Bill Brown at the non-striker's end which led to a controversy during India's 1947-48 tour of Australia. It is worth noting that Don Bradman in his autobiography defended the Indian all-rounder...

He was awarded the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan in 1973...

The Vinoo Mankad Trophy is a national level under 19 age group One-day cricket tournament instituted by BCCI in his honour...

In 2021 Mankad was finally inducted, along with nine others, into the ICC Hall of Fame, an honour which he perhaps deserved much earlier...

Mankad passed away this day, 1978, in Mumbai. He was 61...

🙏🙏🌹💐   🇮🇳

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