Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad or Vinoo Mankad, who
passed away on 21 August 1978, in Mumbai, aged 61, was one of the greatest
all-rounders in the history of Indian cricket. Mankad, who represented India in
44 Tests, averaged 31.47 with the bat. He also scored 5 centuries and 6 fifties
during the course of his Test career. Being a slow left-arm orthodox bowler,
Mankad twice took 8-wickets in an innings. He ended his Test career with 162
wickets, striking at a rate of 90.6 balls per wicket.
His top performance as an all-rounder came against England at Lord's in 1952.
He was the top scorer for India in both the innings, scoring 72 and 184 in
first and second innings respectively. He also picked 5/196 during England's
first innings, making his way to both the batting and bowling honours boards.
Even though India ended the Test match and the series on the losing side,
Mankad's performance was lauded all over.
During New Zealand's tour of India in 1955/56, Vinoo Mankad scored 231 at
Chennai, the highest score in Tests by an Indian at that time. This record was
only broken in 1983, after Sunil Gavaskar made 236 against the West Indies.
In the same innings against New Zealand, Mankad and his
opening partner Pankaj Roy recorded the highest opening partnership of 413
runs, a record that stood for 52 years. This record was only broken by Neil
McKenzie and Graeme Smith, who put on 415 runs for the first wicket against
Bangladesh in 2008.
Vinoo Mankad will be remembered the most for what transpired during India's
tour of Australia in 1947/48. In the second Test, he ran out Bill Brown, who
was backing up too far at the non-striker's end. Mankad, who was the bowler,
broke the wickets down after seeing Brown out of the crease in his bowling
delivery. After this, a new term called 'Mankading' (because Vinoo Mankad used
it for the first time) was coined to describe running someone out this way.
The BCCI commemorated Vinoo Mankad's contribution to Indian cricket, naming the
domestic Under-19 One day tournament as the Vinoo Mankad Trophy.
