Death must have come as a merciful release for Naren Tamhane, who had been ailing from prostate cancer for a long, long time. Indeed, his last few years in cricket were no less painful to him, for as chairman of selectors, he was dragged into controversy. And dragged is the operative word, for controversy was never of Tamhane's seeking. The truth is that he was needlessly blamed for not asserting himself when confronted by his partisan colleagues. But actually this habit of avoiding harsh truths - and a seeming inability to assert himself - was Tamhane's strength as well as his weakness.

Sometime in the 1960s, before Gallup polls were taken, Tamhane was ranked among the best wicketkeepers in the game. On the strength of his performances against Pakistan and Australia, I would have voted him as the best.

I wonder what any of those who succeeded him would have made of the Kanpur pitch of 1959-60, when he kept to Jasu Patel and Polly Umrigar against Richie Benaud's Australians. The ball turned as well as reared. His stumping of Colin McDonald opened the gates to victory, for McDonald was the only batsman who used his feet to play the spinners. He made the top-score of 34 as Australia crumbled to 105 all out, chasing 225 for a win. This was the last time Tamhane figured prominently in a Test match. In all he won 21 caps, scoring 225 runs (10.22) and making 51 dismissals, 16 of them stumpings.

Tamhane began his career in the 1954-55 away series against Pakistan, and shone as a batsman and a keeper. He had 19 victims in the five-match series, including seven stumpings. His unbeaten 54 at Bahawalpur, in only his second match, remained his highest Test score.

It was not uncommon to see him share the honours with bowlers like Vinoo Mankad, Subhas Gupte and Ghulam Ahmed, who depended on his swift, smart keeping behind the wicket. There were no flourishes, and this is where he scored over the flashers and dashers who came after him.

Apart from this, Tamhane was one of the mainstays of Bombay cricket on and off the field. His support to bowlers like the late Ramakant Desai, and the legspin star of them all, Subhas Gupte, was exemplary. He was also able to stand up to the medium-pacers like Dattu Phadkar and GS Ramchand, as he did against Pakistan in the fifth Test of that 1954-55 series at Karachi when he took four catches (all of them to dismiss front-rank batsmen) off their bowling.

A picture of him standing behind the wicket should serve as a model for aspiring young wicketkeepers. There were no cheap theatricals in his glovework.

KN Prabhu is a senior Indian cricket-writer.

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