Khanwilkar, a cricketer gone too soon

Ranjit Khanwilkar, one of the brighter cricket talents from Karnataka, would have turned 60 next month. Unfortunately, the young life was snuffed out 32 years ago on July 8 when the Bangalore-Kanyakumari Island express derailed near Kollam in Kerala. He was just 27.

Khanwilkar was born in Maharashtra but played his early cricket in Saurashtra, mainly as an aspiring paceman. Once he moved to Bengaluru, he focused on his batting too and before long he was batting at No 3 for Karnataka which had the likes of G R Viswanath, Brijesh Patel, Roger Binny, R Sudhakar Rao among other state stalwarts.

Khanwilkar's first-class career lasted from 1980 to 1988 during which he gathered 1637 runs in 40 matches at an average 32.74. He struck three hundreds and eight half-centuries besides claiming 41 wickets. These numbers may not add up to the talks of him being an India material but his performances had begun to taper off after he had moved to Railways looking for better job prospects.

Apparently, he had also been promised of making it big from the Central Zone by a central minister. Forget an India call, he wasn't even picked for the Central Zone. From being a regular fixture in a strong South Zone team for Duleep Trophy to failing to break into a weaker Central Zone squad, Khanwilkar's career has taken a massive nosedive.

"For the life of me I still can't figure out why he moved to Railways," says another former Karnataka all-rounder J Abhiram who played with Khanwilkar at the Bangalore United Cricket Club and against him in college cricket. "That didn't turn out the way he wanted it to, and he was very disappointed with that. He regretted leaving Karnataka and wanted to comeback. But that wish remained unfulfilled. I believe, he lost his life while trying to save his co-passengers in his bogey. He was a brilliant swimmer and he could have saved himself but in trying to help others, he lost his life."

Abhiram remembers him as someone brilliant on the field and a fantastic human being off it.

"We were team-mates but at the same time there was a healthy competition between us since we were both all-rounders. Though I was already playing for the State team, there was always a drive to outdo each other and fortunately we both got to play for Karnataka together."

And the two went on to play crucial roles in Karnataka's 1982-83 Ranji Trophy final victory over Mumbai. This was Karnataka's third of the eight trophies they have won. When Abhiram (69) and Binny (115) had got out in quick succession after sharing a 154-run stand from being 293/6 in pursuit of Mumbai's mammoth 535 all out, Karnataka still needed 66 runs for the all-important first-innings lead.

"That's when Khanwilkar (32) and then B Vijayakrishna (42) went hammer and tongs and got us the lead. It was a tense situation but they played positively. We all went mad after the victory, we celebrated the whole night," recalls Abhiram.

It was a perfect redeeming moment for Khanwilkar whose century for Karnataka in the previous year's final against Delhi had gone in vain in a high-scoring match.

Khanwilkar never experienced this high in his career again. He was seriously considering returning to his roots but fate willed otherwise.