JOIN USTalent that didn’t receive serious attention
November 2009, Delhi's Roshanara Club ground. From a winning position, Karnataka were in a spot at 60 for four while chasing a last-innings target of 172 against the hosts in a Ranji Trophy Super League tie. The fourth batsman to be dismissed was skipper Rahul Dravid; in walked Thilak Naidu to join a free-flowing Manish Pandey.
It was a breakthrough season for Pandey, who had begun with 194 against Uttar Pradesh, while Naidu had endured two poor scores (12 and 6) coming into the second match of Karnataka’s campaign. There was pressure on him with C M Gautam, who eventually took over the big gloves, already playing in the 11 as a specialist batsman. With his place in the side on the line and Pandey collecting boundaries at will, Naidu could have batted to save his spot. Instead, he went for the win as he notched up 22 off 23 balls (4x4) before being dismissed. Soon, Pandey too was out and Karnataka were forced to settle for a draw, helped in no small measure by fading light and Delhi’s delaying tactics.
“At the start of the season itself, I had been told that if I didn’t get runs, it would be tough for me to be in the side,” Naidu had said then. “Yes, I could have gone for my 50 but there was an opportunity to win the game, so I went for my shots. I got out and I knew that I had played my last match. But I never regretted it for a moment. If anything, I am happy with the way I played my game."
In an era when wicketkeepers were expected to be better with the bat than with the big gloves, Naidu was a rare combination in that he was an excellent stumper, besides being a fine batsman. In addition to effecting 237 dismissals behind the stumps, he stacked up over 4000 runs in 93 first-class matches. He was easily the most accomplished of three wicketkeepers -- Parthiv Patel and Ajay Ratra being the other two -- in the race for an India berth but missed out for reasons other than talent. If you can keep to the likes of Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Dodda Ganesh, David Johnson, Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi and still come out unscathed, you’ve got to have a special pair of hands.
Naidu came the closest to making that big breakthrough when he caught the attention with his attacking batting and fine glove-work during the 2003-04 Challenger Series in Bengaluru, but Ratra and Parthiv eventually won the selectors' nod. The snub had an immediate effect on Naidu, whose performance dipped the following season. He did come back scoring lots of runs after that, but his time had passed, especially once a certain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made his India debut towards the end of 2004.
Naidu struck a century on his first-class debut against Haryana and it was evident from then that he was a special talent. For the better part of his career, he remained one of Karnataka's batting mainstays, a player with the rare ability to switch gears at will. He once played 55 balls without scoring a run against Railways, and on another occasion, struck 88 in an 89-run association with K P Appanna for the last wicket against Delhi.
Naidu was perhaps the last of the characters to emerge from Karnataka and his carefree attitude did give an impression that he wasn't serious enough because as much as he excited you one day, he would leave you completely exhausted the next. But, as his last first-class appearance will testify, he was a team man to the core, even if it came at a heavy personal cost.