C.K. Nayudu award for Kirmani

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Syed Kirmani gave some of his best wicketkeeping performances when standing up to the famed spin quartet of the ’70s. Here he puts an end to Australian Tony Mann's innings, off Bishan Singh Bedi, in the December 1977 Test at Perth.

Popularly known as ‘Kojak’ for his Telly Savalas-look, Kirmani will be the 23rd recipient of the award.

Former India stumper Syed Kirmani was chosen for the prestigious Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award for 2015 here on Thursday.

The 65-year-old Kirmani has served as chairman of the senior national selection committee and vice-president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) during his long four-and-a-half decade contribution to the game. He was perhaps the only candidate discussed before being chosen for the award by the BCCI’s special committee comprising Shashank Manohar, president, Anurag Thakur, secretary, and N. Ram, Chairman & Publisher, Kasturi and Sons Ltd.

Incidentally he is the first wicketkeeper in 21 years to be nominated for this award. Popularly known as ‘Kojak’ for his Telly Savalas-look, Kirmani will be the 23rd recipient of the award.

On January 5 next year he will be presented a medal, citation and prize money of Rs. 25 lakh at a function to be held here before the Indian team’s departure to Australia for the five-match ODI and three Twenty20 match series.

The BCCI had already chosen Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar from the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian team for the Lifetime award and on Thursday the special committee completed, what was considered, a formality of choosing Kirmani for the award that was founded two decades ago in memory of India’s first Test captain Col. C.K. Nayudu.

Kirmani played the first of his 88 Tests in 1976 against New Zealand at the Eden Park, Auckland, a match made famous by B.S. Chandrashekhar’s six for 94 in the first innings and E.A.S. Prasanna’s eight for 76. He kept wickets to India’s finest spin quartet in Bishan Singh Bedi, Prasanna, Chansdeasekhar and S. Venkatraghavan and when he bid goodbye to Test cricket at Sydney in 1986, he had even done the glove work for Ravi Shastri, Shivlal Yadav and L. Sivaramakrishnan.

A notable highlight of his career was the 126-run partnership with Kapil Dev in the 1983 World Cup league match against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, Kent; he remained unbeaten on 24, as India rallied from 140 for eight to 266, thanks to Kapil Dev’s admirable 175 not out.

Another fine performance came from him in the 1981-82 series against England when he did not concede a bye in three consecutive Tests. As a night watchman he made an unconquered 101 against Kim Hughes’s Australia in the last Test of the 1979-80 series at the Wankhede Stadium.

Kirmani will be remembered most for his work behind the stumps, especially to spinners on Indian wickets. But lack of consistency — especially against the West Indies — saw him lose his place, but he regained his position as the No. 1 wicketkeeper.

Previous winners: 1994 — Lala Amarnath, 1995 — Syed Mushtaq Ali, 1996 — Capt. Vijay Hazare, 1997 — K.N. Prabhu, 1998 — Polly Umrigar, 1999 — Col. Hemachandra Adhikari, 2000 — Subhash Gupte, 2001 — Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, 2002 — Bhausaheb Nimbalkar, 2003 — Chandu Borde, 2004 — B.S. Bedi, B.S. Chandrasekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna, S. Venkatraghavan, 2007 — Nari Contractor, 2008 — G.R. Viswanath, 2009 — Mohinder Amarnath, 2010 — Salim Durani, 2011 — Ajit Wadekar, 2012 — Sunil Gavaskar, 2013 — Kapil Dev, 2014 — Dilip Vengsarkar.