It is particularly tragic when a sportsman dies young, and the passing away of Narayanan Gautam at 34 was received in cricketing circles in Chennai with shock and disbelief. Gautam had been out of the spotlight for some time, and few were aware that he was battling cancer. He finally succumbed to it on Tuesday.

A tall, elegant right-hander, Gautam was a well-behaved and soft-spoken youth; he preferred to let his bat do the talking. Style and timing were his trademarks, and I can well remember the fluency of his drives and the effortless manner in which he cut the ball square to the boundary. An element of power was seen in his leg-side shots, and he used the pull to good effect. He was technically sound, but above all was his temperament, which remained ice-cool under pressure.

It was against the visiting New Zealanders in 1988 that Gautam made his first-class debut. He comfortably negotiated the swing and speed of Danny Morrison and Martin Snedden and the spin of John Bracewell to score 23 impressive runs. It was obvious that he was a batsman who could not be judged only by scores but by his class.

Sure enough, Gautam fulfilled his potential by getting a hundred on his Ranji Trophy debut in 1990-91. The Gymkhana ground in Secundarabad reverberated to his cultured strokeplay. Tamil Nadu were 144 for three when he entered, and it soon became 149 for four. Gautam figured in a 193-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Robin Singh. At the end of that season, he finished second in the Tamil Nadu averages with 196 runs at 65.33.

It was in the following season that Gautam showed he had both style and substance. Tamil Nadu made the Ranji Trophy final, and one of the reasons was the batting of Gautam, who had a tally of 543 runs with two hundreds -­ 129 against Goa and 190 against Uttar Pradesh. Against Goa, he and VB Chandrasekhar added 232 runs for the second wicket, erasing the 25-year-old state record of 210 between PK Belliappa and Kripal Singh; the 190 remained his highest first-class score. Throughout the season he batted at number three and lent both grace and strength to that pivotal slot.

Gautam found runs harder to come by during the next season, but he remained an integral part of the Tamil Nadu batting. However, by 1993-94 the runs had completely dried up, and Gautham found it difficult to command a place in the state squad. The following year he switched over to play as a professional for Goa. A stroke-filled 62 against Hyderabad was his best effort, but that remained the extent of his first-class career. In all, he played 18 matches for Tamil Nadu and four for Goa.

Considering his great start and the promise he held, Gautham's final first-class figures of 1007 runs from 23 matches (35 innings) at an average of 30.51 with three hundreds and two fifties can be termed a mite disappointing. But for the few years he played, he was the shining example of a gentleman cricketer and a team man. Former Indian skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth was among those who had a high opinion of Gautam's capabilities.

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