Syed Kirmani

Syed Mujtaba Hussain Kirmani (Kannada: ಸೈಯದ್ ಮುಜ್ತಾಬ ಹುಸೇನ್ ಕಿರ್ಮಾನಿ)  pronunciation  (born 29 December 1949, in Madras) played cricket for India and Karnataka as a wicket-keeper.

International career

1971–1982

He started off as an understudy to Farokh Engineer in the tours of England in 1971 and 1974 and to the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Kirmani made his debut against New Zealand and in his second Test, equalled the world record of six victims in an innings. He followed this with an atrocious series in West Indies where he missed numerous chances and considerably contributed to Vivian Richards scoring hundreds in three consecutive Tests.

When New Zealand toured India the next year, he topped the batting averages with 65.33, and scored 305 runs in the tour of Australia. He did not have a very good time behind the stumps against Pakistan and West Indies in 1978–79.

He was dropped in favour of Bharath Reddy for the 1979 Cricket World Cup and the subsequent series against England. Sunil Gavaskar was also sacked as the captain. Though Kirmani was dropped ostensibly for performance, there was a rumour that the real reason was that both he and Gavaskar had been approached by the organisers of the Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.