Give Saha time to mature as wicket-keeper, says Kirmani

                                   
BENGALURU: Former India wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani has always been candid in his views. The recipient of the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award this year spoke to TOI on various issues on the sidelines of the Vijay Hazare Trophy final here. Excerpts:

Your thoughts on getting the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award before your mentor Farokh Engineer...

It's a huge honour and I am really grateful to the BCCI for recognizing my services. When I was selected among the reserves in the Indian team, Farokh was my senior. He was the No. 1 wicket-keeper but I performed consistently in the County and side games and the selectors showed faith in my abilities. That's how I made my India debut and never looked back for 10 years.

How has the wicket-keepers' role evolved over the years?

Wicket-keepers are indispensable in the game of cricket. He is the best guide to his captain, bowlers, fielders and he can find out the weaknesses of a batsman more easily. They say a wicket-keeper has to be born, which means he has to be born with reflexes, gifted ability of vision and he should be an athlete. Otherwise you cannot effect a stumping or take a tough catch. So I would say that the basics have remained the same over the years.

But now the teams need a batsman-keeper than a keeper-batsman...

Due to the advent of the limited overs game, they prefer to have an allrounder in the team instead of having a wicket-keeper who cannot bat. I remember during my tenure as the chief of national selectors, I had asked (then India coach) John Wright why he needed Rahul Dravid to keep when there were several specialists. He just said 'You were yourself a keeper and you know the best answer.' I didn't say anything to him. But then, I have always believed that all wicket-keepers can bat. You only need to give them confidence.
Yes, absolutely. The technique is not there at all because the game has become result oriented now. But I have no complaints. A few years ago, Dhoni was criticized for his keeping and batting. However, I felt that when he is delivering the results, these things are secondary. He has been performing consistently and no one would remember 10 years later that Dhoni didn't have a copybook technique. People would look at the results. You cannot keep harping on the copybook techniques, which are not being followed at the moment. You need to evolve with the game.

Your take on the present generation of wicket-keepers.

Wriddhiman Saha showed great technique in the South Africa series where the ball was turning square. He was coming in line to collect the ball beautifully on the leg-side. His movement behind the stump was fantastic. He is in the process of becoming good, better and best. It took me 15 years to become world's best. So you need to give Saha the time to mature. But he needs to perform consistently because Naman Ojha, Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik will give him tough competition because there is not much difference between these four.

You spoke about wicket-keeper being the best guide to his captain. Did keeping help Dhoni become the most successful India captain?

No doubt, it helped him. In my time, the selectors could have never appointed a wicket-keeper as a captain because they lacked vision. They thought captaincy would be a burden for the keeper. But I am happy that Dhoni proved this line of thought wrong. His appointment as a captain was the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket.