Vinoo Mankad

Probably the foremost genuine all-rounder for India, Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad better known as Vinoo Mankad is a legendary name in the history of cricket. The phenomenal cricketer was the face of Indian cricket in the 1940s and 50s era.

Vinoo had a radiance of talent in him, which he well respected. He had an awe-inspiring self-esteem, and considered himself to be the best all the time. Being a hard-worker, Mankad proudly proclaimed that he was a self-made man.

As an individual, he had a charisma about him that humbled the people around him. The way he spoke, the way he moved; there was artistry to everything he did, a power about him that was just awesome. A showman by nature, the former Indian skipper hated to lose and was always positive in his approach.

 Born in era when India was still under the reign of the European nations, Vinoo Mankad didn't have any of the luxuries during his playing days, not even decent cricket gear. He came from the rural surroundings of Jamnagar and had to face several hardships during his early days in cricket. After being pushed from the house by his step mother, Vinoo spent most of his days and nights on the seashore sides of Bombay. The legend used to practice at the Cricket Club of India and played for the Hindus team. Mankad’s hard perseverance, grit and determination helped him fight all the odds and build a name for himself.

Top-notch skills:

As an opener, he had great power of concentration and had the quality to spend heaps of hours at the batting crease. With strong defensive technique, Mankad could see off the new ball attack with ease. The right-hander also had the potential to hit big sixes and never stopped himself from punishing a bad delivery. His capability to play long innings helped him create numerous batting records.

Mankad was a slow left-arm bowler of the traditional type. He used to bowl the old-fashioned orthodox left arm spin, but had plenty of variations in his armory. The tweaker had a straight-approach to the wicket and believed in giving the ball a loop. He was a smart and thinking bowler and was always successful in making use of the wear and tear on the pitch.

Records Galore:

Vinoo Mankad was the first cricketer to do many things for his nation. He was part of many historical tours, several historical wins, various bowling and batting records, etc. The all-rounder became the quickest to the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets, in just in his 23rd Test match. He played a crucial role in India’s maiden historic win against England and Pakistan. The talismanic batsman was also the first opener for India to hit double-centuries twice. These are only a few of the many accomplishments that the legendary Indian had to his credit.

Outstanding achievement:

On his debut 1946 tour of England, the Gujrat-born cricketer showed everybody why he is such a special player. In those days, the touring teams used to play lots of first-class matches compared to Tests. Vinoo impressed with the ball with a 5-wicket haul in the second match but his batting in the three Tests was ordinary with only a half-century to his credit in the series.

But stupendous performances in the first-class games witnessed a legend in the making. Mankad outclassed everyone with staggering scores to his name and was at the top of the list. Even with the ball, the spinner dominated by scalping tons of wickets on that tour. He became the first ever Indian and a touring cricketer to achieve a double of 1120 runs and 129 wickets in England.

Historic feat:

The star player was part of a strong 1950s India side which featured the likes of Vijay Hazare, Mushtaq Ali, Lala Amarnath, Polly Umrigar and Pankaj Roy. Vinoo Mankad played a big hand with his all-round skills to help India clinch its first historic win over England.

On its 1951-52 tour of India, England was a formidable side and was virtually unbeatable. The Poms took a 1-0 lead in the fourth Test and it would be an uphill task for the then Subcontinent minnows to pull off a win in the final Test at Chennai to level the series.

Vinoo, who was a constant nemesis to the Englishmen on that tour, continued with his wicket taking ways in the 5th Test too. The slow left-armer scalped eight wickets in the first innings and followed it up with a four-for in the second to script a thumping innings and 8 runs victory for India. His first innings figures of 8-52 were his best innings bowling figures in Test cricket.

Mankad’s Match:

The multi-faceted cricketer enjoyed playing against the English, and his most memorable performance against the Englishmen came in the second Test of India’s tour of England in 1952; that match would go down in history as ‘Mankad’s match’. Mankad scored a gutsy 72 runs in India’s first innings and picked up five wickets in a marathon spell of 74 overs in the Englishmen’s first essay.

Straight after that Herculean effort, Mankad came out to open the innings and played a top-quality knock of 184 runs. He again bowled 25 overs in the second innings. His superhuman efforts were appreciated worldwide and the then England skipper Len Hutton appreciated it saying, “He (Vinoo) played England on his own”. India though, lost the match by 8 wickets, but the Mankad’s exploits were reckoned as the greatest performance in Test match to have never resulted in victory.

‘Mankaded’:

The fabled cricketer’s highly successful career was marred by one of the most unusual controversies on the field of cricket. Mankad was involved in one of the strangest dismissals ever during the 1947-48 Sydney Test against Australia.

The spinner ran out Aussie Bill Brown at the non-striker’s end. In the act of delivering the ball, Mankad held on to it and whipped the bails off with Brown well out of his crease.

Vinoo had earlier dismissed Brown in a similar manner by Vinoo in a tour match. Even that time, the Indian allrounder had warned the Australian batsman of backing up too far. The Australian press criticised Mankad’s action heavily and termed the dismissal as "Mankaded".

Mankad got the biggest support from the Australian legend, Sir Donald Bradman who said, “For the life of me, I can't understand why [the press] questioned his (Mankad’s) sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the nonstriker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. By backing up too far or too early, the nonstriker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage."

Awesome-Twosome:

The pairing of Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy is one of the best opening pairs Indian cricket has had. The duo was involved in several records and scripted many a victories for their nation. One astonishing partnership between these two particularly remains Indian cricket's proudest statistical achievement ever.

In the 1956 fifth Test between India and New Zealand, the opening pair of Mankad and Roy shared a spectacular stand of 413 runs, a record that stood tall for several decades.

In the same Test match, Mankad too registered his personal best with the bat – 231 runs, a record that stood for more than two decades.

Captaincy stint:

Vinoo Mankad as a skipper was always lambasted by many as an over-defensive leader. In his 6-match short captaincy stint, India drew five consecutive Tests and lost a solitary match against West Indies.

Life after cricket:

The high-caliber cricketer retired in 1959 after the West Indies series. He tallied over 2000 runs in 44 Test matches at a healthy average of 31.47 and his 162 wickets shows that he was one of the best during his times. He excelled awesomely in first-class cricket and hung up his boots in 1961 from all forms of cricket. Vinoo was 42 years old when he retired and thus was the last player ever to play for India beyond the age of forty.

After retirement, Mankad took up the job of a coach and gave India some bright talents like his son Ashok Mankad, Sudhir Naik, Eknath Solkar, Umesh Kulkarni, Hanumant Singh and Salim Durrani.

His former team-mate Raj Singh Dungarpur says he is a big fan of Mankad and the latter is the finest cricketer India has ever produced. Dungarpur quoted, “My heart bleeds for Vinoo Mankad. He has been my hero and will remain my hero. When the Indian millennium cricketer award was given, Mankad was hardly even in the picture because very few people know him.”

August 21st, 1978 was a sad day in the annals of Indian cricket, as the legend Mulvantrai Mankad passed away at the age of 61 years.

Vinoo Mankad was a whole-hearted and a larger than life cricketer the world has ever seen. He was confident in every thing that he did and was the pioneer of Indian cricket during the era 1940-50.

Despite being the best all-rounder and left-arm spinner of his time, Mankad was a keen learner of the game and is still an icon for many aspiring cricketers. Lord Tennyson once said, “Vinoo Mankad would already get a place in a World XI.”