The following piece appeared in the July issue of Wisden Asia Cricket. Vinoo Mankad is fixed forever in my album of memories. He was the first Indian Test cricketer I saw. In 1938, during the unofficial Test match at Chepauk against Lord Tennyson's team, as I entered the ground, Vinoo Mankad went down on his knees to square-cut Alf Gover for four. It was a remarkable stroke from a remarkable player. Mankad, who was then on 99, went on to remain unbeaten on 113 when the innings ended soon after. But that was not all, for he went on to share the bulk of the bowling with Amar Singh, who had already won acclaim as one of the best allrounders in the game.

On a rain-affected pitch Amar Singh made batsmen like Joe Hardstaff, Bill Edrich, Norman Yardley and Stan Worthington fumble, while at the other end Vinoo added to their troubles. At the finish Mankad had 6 for 73 and in the field he stood so perilously close to the batsmen he could have picked their pockets.

It was as good an introduction to international cricket as any. India won the match which confirmed the view that Vinoo, then going on 21, was a player of many parts. Not long after, Hitler brought most international sport to a halt, but in India the game went on, giving Mankad a chance to prove his worth in the Ranji Trophy for Nawanagar.

Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad, to give his full name, had no formal education. However he was lucky to win the attention of Prince Duleepsinhji who put him on to Bert Wensley, the Sussex allrounder and coach. While Duleep encouraged Mankad's talent as a batsman, Wensley discouraged his youthful zest for fast bowling and instead turned his mind to bowling left-hand spinners. Yet it was as an opening batsman that Mankad first made his mark, with a knock of 185 in the Ranji final of 1936-37 against Bengal. This was a role in which he was to distinguish himself in later years. He did little bowling for it was all left to Amar Singh and Wensley.

It was a portent, as if he had been spared for the labours to follow: the hours when he would have to bear the burden of the Indian attack as wicket-taker and stock bowler both. And it was as a bowler of class that he was marked down by Lindsay Hassett who led a team of Australian servicemen (on their way home after the war) in a series of unofficial Tests in which Mankad fared creditably with bat and ball.

It now needed only an England tour – and it came in 1946 – for Mankad to capture the imagination of a cricket-starved nation. Especially the "Ancients" who saw in him an image of the veterans of the Golden Past. Indeed, the novelist CP Snow mentions that the great mathematician GH Hardy, who was a cricket fanatic, once asked him if Mankad was as good as Aubrey Faulkner and Wilfred Rhodes.

Mankad looked the part of a champion spin bowler, short and stocky. His physique gave him enough space to explore, experiment and flight the ball. His ability to vary his flight and slip in an inswinger with the usually flighted ball pitched outside the off stump made him a difficult bowler to face, especially on pitches which were receptive to spin.

Mankad completed his 1000 and scored three centuries. He held no firm position in the order, but he was clearly ahead of all as a bowler with 129 wickets (average 20.76) while Hazare who was second had 56 – figures that reflect the thinness of the attack. It was Mankad's lot to go it alone as a bowler in the Australian summer of 1947-48. As a batsman he scored two centuries helped, it is said, by the advice of Ray Lindwall who corrected his high backlift and cross-bat style. He will be remembered for introducing the phrase "Mankaded out" when he ran out non-striker Bill Brown in the Sydney Test after warning Brown a couple of times for trying to steal runs under the bowler's nose.

Thereafter it was always hard pounding in the field, for even as Subhash Gupte and Ghulam Ahmed shared the attack, Mankad had to do a fair amount of bowling – around 30 to 50 overs being the minimum. But there were a couple of occasions when the glory was mostly his. In February 1952 he bowled India to their first-ever win over England at Madras. Such was his mastery over flight that in the first innings wicketkeeper PK Sen helped him remove the last five batsmen while conceding just nine runs. England, who faced a deficit of 191, had no chance of saving the game as Ghulam spurred Mankad on to take the last four wickets and finish with 4 for 53, in the process securing an innings victory by tea-time on the last day.

On Diwali day the same year, he lit a bonfire of his own in the first Delhi Test against Abdul Kardar's Pakistanis. He took 8 for 52 followed by 5 for 79. He had savoured just such a personal triumph earlier that summer when he had taken on the might of England in England.

At odds with the establishment – for he had sought confirmation of his selection – he was dropped from the original team, but came in in the second Test to assist India who were driven to extremity by Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser. He virtually stole the show, hitting up 72 in an opening spell of 106 with Pankaj Roy and then in his quota of 73 overs he had Reg Simpson, Peter May, Allan Watkins, Roly Jenkins and Bedser for 196 runs. He then completed his contract, in a manner of speaking, by opening the innings again, hit the first ball bowled by Jenkins for six and scored 184 in an innings spanning over six hours.

In a tribute to Mankad, RC Robertson-Glasgow wrote: "Mankad is instantaneous in attack, timeless in defence; in both most courageous. He is the cat that springs and the cat that waits." A striking metaphor. To carry it further, the cat had to wait four further seasons before it could prove to the selectors that its batting had lost none of its sheen or its bowling any sharpness.

The New Zealanders on their 1955-56 tour of India never knew what had hit them. Mankad made 223 in the second Test at Bombay, the next best being Kripal Singh with 63 and then on the last day, within an hour of play, he helped Gupte round up the visitors for a paltry 136.

Later, on a docile wicket at Madras, he was to take part with Pankaj Roy in a record opening stand of 413 and join Gupte in mopping up the batting for an innings win. Easy pickings, but it was hard work when he had captained the team to Pakistan a season earlier. He was then content to play a subsidiary role, with Gupte and Ghulam his main bowlers.

In the last phase of his career it was apparent that Mankad had been reduced to a subsidiary role. And yet the burden of carrying the attack through the day was still his. He could not perform miracles but he could do his best for India. And so it was in the clammy warmth of Kingston in 1953, when he came through with figures of 5 for 228 in the fifth Test having bowled 82 overs to Worrell (237), Weekes (109) and Walcott (118). Reminiscing about it, Allan Rae, former opening batsman and West Indies board president, said that Mankad relied mainly on flight: he would turn the first few balls sharply and then it would be spin all the way, keeping the batsmen wary of the ball which could turn sharply. Rae also spoke admiringly of Mankad's commitment: he could be seen waiting late outside the West Indies committee-room for team details, for he liked to know the players he would have to bowl against so he could plan his tactics accordingly.

Mankad's Test career ended poorly with a brave attempt to rally the team under his captaincy in the shambles of the penultimate Test of the 1958-59 series against West Indies at Madras. He finished in the final drawn Test at Delhi and Wisden noted the end of a 44-match career in which he had "made a magnificent contribution to Indian cricket with 2100 runs, including five centuries, 162 wickets and 33 catches."

It did not end at that. Having started with Nawanagar, Mankad continued playing in the Ranji Trophy tournament, appearing in turn for Bombay, Gujarat and finally Rajasthan. Every Indian side would have been happy to accept him. For he was a professional to the core and very Indian at that.

KN Prabhu, formerly sports editor of The Times of India, is India's senior cricket writer.

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