Today is the birthday of Budhisagar (Budhi) Krishnappa Kunderan (born 2nd October 1939). He was a wicketkeeper-batsman who played 18 Test matches between 1960 and 1967 for India, scoring 981 runs at an average of 32.70, with two centuries and three fifties. His best series was against England at home in 1963-64, when Farokh Engineer was injured. Kunderan scored 192 at Madras plus another hundred at Delhi, and became the first wicketkeeper ever to score over 500 runs in a Test series. He often lost the wicketkeeper's spot to Engineer.
In 1969, Budhi Kunderan married an English woman, Linda Pullar, whom he met in 1967 on the England tour. He then emigrated to Scotland, settled in Glasgow in the early 1970s, worked outside cricket, played in local cricket league. He left the world in 2006.
Let's pay our respect to this neglected Indian cricketer on his birthday.
Kabhi un mad-bhari ankhon se piya tha ek jaam, aajtak hosh nehi, hosh nehi, hosh nehi—Jigar Moradabadi ("Once I drank a cup from those drunken eyes; till now I haven't regained my senses!")
