Excellent nostalgia! A memorable catch by Mansur Ali Pataudi gave Bishen Bedi his first Test wicket at Eden Gardens in 1967. Deceived by the flight, Basil Butcher lofted his cover drive well over Pataudi's head. The Nawab sprinted back at least 25 metres initially not even watching the ball, to cover distance fast, then turning to balance himself as the ball dropped into his excellently positioned hands. It was a marvellous effort, the more remarkable remembering that Pataudi had no binocular vision due to his eye injury.

a must read article 4 indian cricket lovers,good work

although the time was really tough at that time about half-century ago,they changed the style of fielding without much facility which i really like...Pali umrigar was finest fielder at that era.Dravid is goof fielder but he is little bit slow...he needs to improve...my all good luck with him...

Many a times Indian fielders escort ball to the boundury

You have missed the names of Ajit Wadekar and Venkatraghavan.

I find two glaring omissions. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar was an outstanding outfielder, and his left arm was as swift, flat and accurate as could be. Another Surti in the making was V. Subrahmanyam - could bat, could bowl, was an excellent fielder and a great captain. Unfortunately, he moved to Australia after a few tests for India.
Ramnath Parkar had very short test career, but was India's Colin Bland. Ane remember G.R. Viswanath's record in the slips?

rahul has soft hands which is definitely an advantage for a slip fielder.

I remember the 1969-70 series vs Australia. At the Brabourne, Bedi and Prasanna were flighting the ball to Chappell and Stackpole, who were using their feet and coming down the track to drive the spinners. Borde (in his last Test) and Surti were at long on and long off. To see them collect the ball and whip it back just over the stumps to Engineer was a thrilling sight indeed!

Excellent article. Brings back lot of good memory. Who can forget Kapil Dev's match winning catch of Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup Final.

Very informative article about a quite unpopular aspect of cricket in India (unfortunately)...I have been watching cricket since 1987 and I can confidently state that the best Indian fielder I have seen is Azhar ...some may have been better atheletes (Robin Singh, Kaif, young Yuvraj) but no one matched the grace and effortless anticipation of Azhar...Best catchers would have to be Dravid (especially at short leg) and Laxman.....worst fielder? comfortably ganguly!

Excellant Article.Thank you

Arguably , the Nawab of Pataudi is India's finest Fielder because of his blurred vision he still fielded loke a champion in covers & took many outstanding & spectacular catches there.

Pataudi was tiger and he reaches ball as tiger to prey, I believe kaif, Azhar, Robin, Fresh blood of indian team in 2nd to none.

Awesome article.Thanks go make younger generation of Indian cricket lover by telling about such great cricketing heroes of the past whose match we will newer see in recording also.

Yuvi is the best fielder for Indian team.

India has always had good fielders, but the problem is that the standards of fielding for the entire time has been miserable. FOr every Kaif and Raina, you will have a Praveen Kumar and a Munaf Patel. One hopes that with Dhoni at the helm, this aspect of Indian cricket will change.

Disappointed that Azharuddin doesn't get a special mention and is clubbed along with the likes of Tendulkar, Madan Lal and Kapil Dev. The guy revolutionalised fielding in India.

Great. Tiger was really the best bet. So keen he was on the importance of feilding, he didnt want Amber Roy in the team who was good in batting but very poor in fielding.

azharuddin is best fielder of indian cricket

You missed out Mohinder Amarnath and his header catches. An amazing one was where he "headed" the ball using bare head to Venkat the bowler who completed the catch. Mohinder 's fielding ability put pale to the athletic efforts of the Keeper Kiramni who a great in his own right. In the Faisalabad test 1982, his catches to dismiss Mansoor, Mudassar and Mohsin were par excellent, he took the mudassar catch which would have eluded the third leg slip, was so much outside the screen that from TV we could not make out what happenned and then they showed the amazing action replay from a long shot to really appreciate the amount of ground Kirmani actually covered.

Eknath Solkar and Rusi Surti two of best fielders. Ekki was great that he has picked up some balls on the wicket itself by diving forward and standing at the edge of wicket. Rusi Uncle (he was my dad's friend) has great anticipation and often time will tell the bowler and captain that how he will catch the batsmen by moving after the ball is delivered. He is one of the rare player who has the ability to pick up the ball with either hand and throw it in one motion from deep right on top of the stumps. I was lucky to meet him personally.Great guy and great teacher.

Hey, how can you forgot some one called Ajay Jadeja and and the catch he took to remove Border

Now a days Indian fielding standards has improved a lot, even in the past we had some good fielders but also there were few who will only disappoint.Fielding is something you can improve upon,Classical example is Navjot singh Sidhu who once called Jonty Singh :) but we have someone like Munaf who will never improve.

I guess the list can include - Kris Srikkanth, Roger Binny, Ghulam Parkar,..
But the best were Solkar & Azhar I feel.

Its great to read about our good fields in past. Now dats alos its very difficult to match the standred of Ekki

Nice article; good observations, and a fairly complete coverage of the Indian fielding scene of the old days. I wonder how we would have faired in Test cricket as a team if only the other members in each era had been even half-way decent fielders.

Great work. Thanks. A comment one heard of Venkat's fielding skills in Tamil was, "Moram madiri kai", meaning he has hands the size of a large dust pan. A pity that Monty Panesar, with arguably the largest hands any cricketer has been endowed with, has turned out to be one of the worst ctachers!
In many ways, the 1971 success India had in England was due to the catching strength of close-in fielders - Solkar, Surti, Venkat and Wadekar. Glad the authors paid them their due respect.
Keep up the good jog Raghu and Giridhar.
A final comment from a very poor fielder: If the current practice of not having deep third man position manned had been in vogue in the '60s, my school and college caprains would have had a problem where to place me on the field!

Another wonderful article guys, great to see Rusi Surti get a mention, one of my favourite Indian cricketers of yesteryear.Keep up your excellent work!

you two take us to the glories of past so beautifully through your reserch and way of writting an article. Fielding generally is not a seperate topic for discussion. thanks for the brillient piece.

Excellent article. Generally fielding is not discussed in isolation.Thanks for selecting this wonderful topic.

stupid article really. my symapthy to the author.

Dravid is not such a great fielder. The number of sitters he has dropped at slip will outnumber those he has held! He is no good in the outfield (ever watched him chase a ball?). Azhar is perhaps the best all round fielder we have produced, equally adept in close catching positions and in the outfield. Tendulkar is adequate, not outstanding.

Guys !
stop coming up with name like Dravid, Azhar, Yuvi or even Jadeja, the title clearly states "India's best fielders before the ODI era",

i think the great Eknath solkar was tge very best, fielding at minefield like position wherein a batsmen is likely to go berserk most of the time, that too without a helmet or protecting gears !

this needs someone with his heart up on his sleeves !
salute to the legend :)

Excellent article. very insightful and informative. For me, the two best fielders India has ever produced across all forms are Solkar and Azhar. Period. Thereafter, Dravid, Robin Singh, Jadeja, Yuvraj, and a few others come to mind. But Solkar and Azhar were beyond brilliant in an era when India was arguably the world worst fielding side and wasnt particulalry knownm for producing great, even good fielders.

we have mainly talked about fielding pre-one dayers or from 83 onwards,when it was not necessary to be a good fielder.Therefore,Azhar,Jadeja,kaif and yuvraj are not mentioned.Over all fielding standards improved dramatically in the last three decades in India thanks to the shorter version of the game.Ganguly,a slow mover,no doubt was a very safe catcher-look at the number of catches he has taken.In comparison some of the bad fielders of the old brigade were really bad-Ghulam Ahmed,Sardesai and the like.Today if you do not come up to a certain level in fielding you wont make it to a first class side.It was very different in the old days.

we have mainly talked about fielding pre-one dayers or from 83 onwards,when it was not necessary to be a good fielder.Therefore,Azhar,Jadeja,kaif and yuvraj are not mentioned.Over all fielding standards improved dramatically in the last three decades in India thanks to the shorter version of the game.Ganguly,a slow mover,no doubt was a very safe catcher-look at the number of catches he has taken.In comparison some of the bad fielders of the old brigade were really bad-Ghulam Ahmed,Sardesai and the like.Today if you do not come up to a certain level in fielding you wont make it to a first class side.It was very different in the old days.

i think ajay jadeja should also have been mentioned in the list. Azhar back side effort less flicks were also brilliant.

One team that has been outstanding in fielding is South Africa. Next is Australia. Individual brillince in the field is ok but does not serve the purpose of the team as a whole

This was an interesting article. However except for a fleeting mention the main reason for the poor fielding by most Indian players seems to have been missed. Even today barring a few international grounds in cities there are no proper cricket grounds in India. The youngsters (school and college kids) of today , and I have watched many hesitate to throw themselves at the ball because of the fear of injury due to the poor playing surfaces. Unless we improve our infrastructure we will always lag bhind the other countries. Those who were/are good fielders are more of an exception and we will continue to struggle in the field as long as conditions dont improve at the grassroot level.
Anil

Azhar was outstanding at all positions man.
He is the best fielder India has produced.According to an article by Ian chappel in cricinfo he had put Azharuddun ,ricky ponting and couple of other guys amongst the all time best allround fielders world has seen.

yes,solkar was the best close in catcher.
outfielders-the best is debatable.Of all that i have seen,Surti was the best because he ran,picked up and threw flat in one action without getting up to regain balance for the throw-this way he saved perhaps 2 seconds-in which you can cover half the pitch.I have seen Simpson and Lawry stop after running one when Surti was yet to gather the ball at fineleg/deep square leg.With anybody else,Azhar and Pataudi included,they would have run two.
the greatest catch by an Indian Fielder-again,debatable,but here is my option:
Madan Lal catching Toohey at Sydney-the batsman played a fine hook shot off Ghavri-Madan took off running to his left from fine-leg,dived to catch a falling ball low down,somersaulted and stood up holding the ball high-the commentators couldn't believe he had caught it-in the Australian press,O'Reilly the next day said it was the best catch he had ever seen!!Today,they roll on the ground after the simplest of catches.

What about Venkat at Gully? One of the best we have had.

This is in response to a reader's point that reason for our poor fielding have not been covered. Sorry, but we have devoted two paragraphs to describe the reasons. We have later also said that practice and drill is a must work ethic. I have scars on my elbows and forearms because of close in catching on gravel army grounds but I just like fielding. years later when I played on green grounds in Delhi I revelled in throwing myself at the ball - I was past thirty by then.
Raghu has described Surti. Let me tell you the other extreme - of people like Jaisimha and Sardesai signalling a boundary to the umpire even as he jogged behind the ball.
And finally - please once again nte that we are talking of India's best fielders before the ODI era, no use raising the names of Azhar and Jadeja again and again. Azhar being the most versatile or among the best who will argue with that!

Raghunath and I would also like to acknwledge the good fielders in our first class cricket who did not become test players. Two names come to mind - SVS Mani of Chennai with whom Raghu has played was easily the best fielder in South zone cricket of the sixties. Vasu Paranje of Dadar Union and Mumbai was the panther of West Zone cricket. Sometimes we forget to remember what an important role these unsung heroes play in developing our cricket. For an article on this theme please read my piece "They too played for India" - Inbox November 2008

Eknath Solkar,Rusi Modi were the best before ODI Era.
Kapil-Remember Vivian Richard's catch ,Azhar,Yuvraj,Robin Singh,Kris Srikanth later.

I think that Yuvraj singh is one of the great fielder that india has got, he is classic fielder on the field.He also has very good class of fielding tactics.I have not seen a athletic fielder like him in indian cricket history.I always liked to be fielding like him when i am playing cricket.

The Catch that won India the WORLDCUP!!!!

How can you for get that sensational Kapil Dev catch of Sir Viv Richards. Running towards the boundary with the ball in the air behind you hit by arguably the best timer of the cricket ball when he was on song and still managing to pouch it has to rank as one of the very best. In my dictionary it will rank as the best, since that was the effort from a young captain which won Indi'as only World cup!!

I believe that Azhar has to be the best all round and athletic fielder Indian ever had

Very, very interesting read. I am actually delighted to learn that we had atleast some good fielders 50' and 60's. India and Pakistan can comfortably contribute a majority if one were to pick an worst-of-all-time fielders list. I read Sunny repeatedly mention Tiger's fielding at cover with awe. He must have been truly good outstanding. Athletic fielding,especially in the outfield, was so alien to Indian team even well into 90's. I watched cricket from 83 onwards and my memories are realy strong of the worst fielders since they caused so much heartburn. Vengsarkar/Prabhakar were clearly gateways of India. Ravi Shastri,Shivlal,Gopal Sharma add to that illustrious list. The first electric fielder that i watched was undoubtedly Kris Srikant, followed by the peerless Maninder,Siva and ultimately a category unto himself 'Azhar'. Ghulam Parker, as a sub in 83 series against Windies,seemed worldclass.Binny, Madan,Yashpal,Mohinder were safe and sound! Kapil was the most natural,permeating joy!

Polly was a good fielder. Surti was a consistent and reliable fielder. Tiger was outstanding while Solkar, Abid and Venkat brought a lethal edge to Indian fielding. Ever since, fielding got significant importance as a result, India saw electrifying fielding from Azhar, followed by Kaif. The reigining champ of fielding is undoubtly Yuvraj Sing. Take a look at some of his catches, run-outs and saves. Indian fielding has turned into strength, thanks to the foundation laid by Polly, Surti, Solkar and Abid.

A nice article indeed. Bravo solkar and co who used to patrol the 5 metres around the batsman without helmet

Coming to the readers discussion abou the best fielder of the ODI era, azhar stands out thumbs up. There wasnt any fielder who was versatile and made indian crazy audience feel at peace, when the ball is headed towards him. Ajay Jadeja and Yuvraj are good but they have a serious flaw which only drags them away from best fielder position. Both of them have taken spectacular catches , but have dropped numerous straight forward catches, where they are not required to move even the thigh muscles. Dropping easy catches will seriously hamper their bid for best fielder inspite of involving in breath taking catches.
I have no qualms in placing sachin tendulkar ahead of them, even when he is not a terrific agile fielder. Reason being simple, sachin hardly miss a ball, or a throw or a catch coming towards him. He provides the same sense of confidence in specatators like Azhar

A nice article indeed. Bravo solkar and co who used to patrol the 5 metres around the batsman without helmet

Coming to the readers discussion abou the best fielder of the ODI era, azhar stands out thumbs up. There wasnt any fielder who was versatile and made indian crazy audience feel at peace, when the ball is headed towards him. Ajay Jadeja and Yuvraj are good but they have a serious flaw which only drags them away from best fielder position. Both of them have taken spectacular catches , but have dropped numerous straight forward catches, where they are not required to move even the thigh muscles. Dropping easy catches will seriously hamper their bid for best fielder inspite of involving in breath taking catches.
I have no qualms in placing sachin tendulkar ahead of them, even when he is not a terrific agile fielder. Reason being simple, sachin hardly miss a ball, or a throw or a catch coming towards him. He provides the same sense of confidence in specatators like Azhar

A nice article indeed. Bravo solkar and co who used to patrol the 5 metres around the batsman without helmet

Coming to the readers discussion abou the best fielder of the ODI era, azhar stands out thumbs up. There wasnt any fielder who was versatile and made indian crazy audience feel at peace, when the ball is headed towards him. Ajay Jadeja and Yuvraj are good but they have a serious flaw which only drags them away from best fielder position. Both of them have taken spectacular catches , but have dropped numerous straight forward catches, where they are not required to move even the thigh muscles. Dropping easy catches will seriously hamper their bid for best fielder inspite of involving in breath taking catches.
I have no qualms in placing sachin tendulkar ahead of them, even when he is not a terrific agile fielder. Reason being simple, sachin hardly miss a ball, or a throw or a catch coming towards him. He provides the same sense of confidence in specatators like Azhar

Also would like to mention Navjot Singh Sidhu in his sunset days. Jonty Singh!!

It is very difficult to pinpoint best fielders. It is such a specialised area that we need to choose specialist for each position eg. Yuvraj at Gully, Solkar at forward short leg, Srikanth/ Brijesh Patel at Cover Point, Rahul at 1st slip. Needless to mention even wicket keepers cannot be left out in this discussion. In my memory, I think we had Kirmani and the classic Farooq Engineer, who can be compared with the very best. Kapil was a nutural talent and a great fielder in the outfield. For many years, third man used to considered as the best position for hiding the worst fielders in the squad. Having said all the above, if I have to single out one fielder who won us matches and whom our famous spin quartret should give credit, then it has to be Solkar - who had tremendous reflex, uncanny acumen to make the right move at a fraction of a second and pull off the miraculous catch. 1-Day cricket has made fielding a important part and parcel of the game which was ignored earlier.

Lovely article. You have tried to verbalise what could only be seen by a lucky few, at a time when cricket coverage was audio not video. Nonetheless, I did manage to see a few matches on TV, many in B&W. I still cannot forget Ekki's sensational catching at short leg. For the first time batsmen were scared of a fielder! Two catches of Knott were really fantastic. One of course was at the Oval but the other was in a Test that India lost at Delhi. In both these, Solkar suddenly popped into the TV frame, a hudredth of a second before he took the catch. I am sure that the batsmen of opposing sides must have had nightmares about facing Chandra, Bedi, Pras and Venkat and with a set of fielders like Vishy, Ekki and Venkat standing close to their bat.

where is our fielding coach Robin Singh???

I have started watching cricket since 1990 and since than I can say Azhar has been the best among all.. For catches its Dravid n Laxman..yuvraj n Ajay Jadeja were good only few of the time..mostly they were normal fielders only...Even Shewag is also better one... At point it has to be Robin Singh or Suresh Raina...Worst among post 1990 is Munaf n Nehra...

Have been watching cricket since 1970. Pataudi is overrated - both as a batsman and captain. His fielding may be better than most Indians at that time but most Indians now-a-days are better. Azar is by far the best fielder in any position. Solkar the best shortleg, and the modern fielders are so much better than the old ones and it is hard to compare. Kaif should be there for his fielding alone.

Kaif should be in any team as he is +30 in the field ahead of anyone else today.

Who can forget the sensational fielding displays of Pataudi in the covers, Surti anywhere especially in the deep, Solkar at shortleg and Venkat at the gully. Do not forget the very young Sengupta covering the whole ground to make up for the Ramchands & Roys. They were the reason that India had any success in those days.

Eknat Solkar was the best & it was best & world class spinners, Chandra, Prasanna, Bedi & Venkat. With present fielding status, Mr. Mohammed Kaif should undoubtedly get the chance. He is the best fielder at present & a good runner in between the wickets.

Perhaps, you have rather inadvertantly forgotten to include the name of Ghulam Parkar, who was one of the finest fielders India has seen over the years. He was known to be on par with the best in the world in his times.

although the time was really tough at that time about half-century ago,they changed the style of fielding without much facility which i really like...Pali umrigar was finest fielder at that era.Dravid is goof fielder but he is little bit slow...he needs to improve...my all good luck with him...

First thing it is wrong to put any name from the recent history anybody who played after 1975 atleast thats when the first world cup came into effect, because as the article says, it is India's best fielders before the ODI era.
You can have some players who played before and during this period.
I have been closely following cricket from 1973/74 because I have had a few cricketers in my family and proximity.
I have seen Abid Ali's name as a floating reference which is wrong, he was there before Solkar and if you search the archives you will have some remarkble close catches and even in the outfield he was just a cheetah. I would say the people in action i have seen though not much, the best is these twins, Abid Ali/Solkar. Venkat, Gavaskar, Wadekar, Mohinder.
There have been a few who did not make it to the big scene like Zulfikar parkar, Ghulam Parkar, Abdul Jabbar of TN, and few more who I could not recollect.
I would like a list of best allround fielders not just positions wise.

Apart from all those easy catches dropped or stunning catches taken, I would regard this as a criterian , where the even the best of the batsmen, who are the fleetest on their feet wouldn't dare to take risk of even offering a halfchance (catch), or will think twice before taking a run after placing the ball atleast 15-25 feet either to the left, right or front of the fielder. If any fielder could create such a fear and earn that kind of a respect, I would regard him as one of the best fielders.
I would recall an incident when Gavaskar during a commentary said when Kaif dropped a catch even though it was a stunner, asked the photographers to take a picture and preserve it in the archives because you are not going get another chance of Kaif dropping a catch, now I would call this as the best complement from a man who has played and watched cricket for over 45 years, who himself if not the best,was a better alround fielder even though this is not related to the article in question.

Azzu zz da best ever fielder i found in my lifetime for India. His fielding at slip gave india many wickets n saved too many runs..

Jadeja n Robin singh r da good pair like so Kaif n yuvi..

but i can compare here Jadeja wid Kaif n Robin wid Yuvi as " Though Robin n Yuvi r good fileders Kaif n Jadeja r more than jus fielders, they r good motivators.. When if Jadeja or Kaif on field, they will clap, move here and there, motivate themselves n too they make other fielders to active too, i dont understand the magic that when if both these players r on field, team sprit n confident level become high for all the fielders.. these two guys r good at running between wickets too..

Rahul too Good at slip... all these fielders i mentioned here saves atleast 20 Runs in a match with their fielding, their presence of mind

Mohammed Azharudeen is the best fielder for all time... We can call him as synonym for the word Fielding ( Azzu = Fielding )

in recent days we can able to see many talented fielders in our side, Its really nice to watch good fielding from guys like, Yuvi, Kaif, Raina n so on... India Roxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You should have seen A S Krishna swamy, (He played for Mysore State, captained one season in the Ranji trophy matches,) held a catch of Conrad Hunt of Opening batsman for West Indies, off Vasudava Murthy, an off spinner...what a catch it was! Hunt could not believe his eyes. He was one of the best alrounders of his time, only made to 12th man in one of the tests against Newzeland. In those days, there was too much stupidity and Nepotisim in Indian Cricket when it came to selection.

please remember the names of yejuvendrasingh, and gulam parkar the two players who played few test and they were brilliant fielders, some how they could not do much for india.

india to improve in field by learning in indian team itself raina, yuvi , sharma......

no doubt azhar is the indias greatest fielder.

Madras Test in 1964-65 series against WI. Sobers off the back foot hits hard to Covers, takes a step and immediately puts his bat down a split second before wickets were knocked off. Tiger Pataudi without ever bending down for the ball puts his shoe in the line of the ball, let it raise and in a single action, catches, throws, and hits the wicket. I can never forget that. Then there was an incident of Rusi Surti taking a catch right at the feet of the batsman. Enough already said about Eknath Solkar. The only person from the last decades who can join these great fielders is Azhar. These four were the best I have seen. We should not compare the rest with these three. Tiger Pataudi, when both eyes were good, was known to be a phenomenal close-in fielder.

Thanks for writing an article about fielders.

Madras Test in 1964-65 series against WI. Sobers off the back foot hits hard to Covers, takes a step and immediately puts his bat down a split second before wickets were knocked off. Tiger Pataudi without ever bending down for the ball puts his shoe in the line of the ball, let it raise and in a single action, catches, throws, and hits the wicket. I can never forget that. Then there was an incident of Rusi Surti taking a catch right at the feet of the batsman. Enough already said about Eknath Solkar. The only person from the last decades who can join these great fielders is Azhar. These four were the best I have seen. We should not compare the rest with these three. Tiger Pataudi, when both eyes were good, was known to be a phenomenal close-in fielder.

Thanks for writing an article about fielders.

Considering the names people mentioned in this thread, particularly of those who played in 70s and after, I believe Brijesh Patel was one of the best but I did not see anyone mentioning his name.

I THINK CHANDU BORDE DESERVES A MENTION AS WELL AS ALOKE SENGUPTA WHO PLAYED ONE TEST MATCH FOR INDIA OFCOURSE BEFORE ODI DAYS

raina,yuvi are the best fielders in modern day cricket in india for me as i have started watching cricket only after 1992..i like dinesh karthik also in field....

Amongst the cricketers of the early ODI era, I find that two very important names are missing: Maninder Singh and Kridhnamachari Shrikanth.

The Best Best Fielder is MOHAMMED AZHARUDDIN he is the best simple the best no one can match him he was superb at all places he was very fit agile and very quick i cant see any one close to him even now in these indian team

I always knew that Eknath Solkar and Rusi Surti were extraordinary fielders in the pre-ODI era. But it was really nice to read about them through this article

Catches Win Matches, and the one that count most was running back in 1983 World cup by Kapil to catch Richards off Madan Lal.Other wise result would have been different.Saw it in Person.

Glad to see someone remembered my uncle V.Subramanyam the former captain of mysore, also known as "sixer subbu" and "kunju mani".

Shankar, it is intesrting you mentioned V. subramanyam. When I was about 10 I saw Subbu hit one of the finest centuries in Duleep Trophy at Delhi against North Zone. He had just No.11 for company when he added about 100 runs. I hope I have sweetened your day further!

I thank everyone who shared their views on this great topic, I enjoyed reading all. I started watching cricket since 1985 and it is nice to know about the best fielders of the past like Pataudi, Eknath Solkar, Umrigar and Surti. Generally, we all consider the best players watching in our period but ignore the best of the past. Now, at least we can conclude that who are the best so far, I really appreciate Mr. Giridhar and Mr. Raghunath for this fantastic article which has served the purpose.

I have watched this game for nearly fifty years. Please don't mention ANY name alongside Solkar. He is to fielding what Bradman is to batting. A catch rate of nearly 2 catches per test where 'great' fielders have a catch rate of around 1. Wadekar and Abid Ali were outstanding. The catch taken by Venkat to dismiss Doug Walters at Madras in 1969 off Bedi was a gem. The other aspect to close in fielding was the accuracy of the spin quartet that enabled Solkar and company to stand up close at short leg or silly point without a helmet to the likes of Sobers.

Giridhar, You sweetened my day and my father's ! He recollected as well the partnership of Uncle Subbu with Habeeb Khan in the Duleep Trophy match against North Zone. Pataudi apparently was the captain for North Zone then. Uncle Subbu also had a similar last wicket partnership with Chandrasekhar against Tamil Nadu.

In most of the posts,some undeserving names have come up as great fielders.Like for example K.Srikkant.He cannot even pick up a ball on the run.He knocks it down first and then retrieves it.The others are Gavaskar and Tendulkar.Do not glorify their fielding skills just because they are world class batsmen.Dravid is too slow to be called an all round fielder.Azhar is a great fielder but possessed no diving skills.So was Kapil too.None of the fielders of that era could dive except Maninder.