Janardan Gyanoba Navle (December 7, 1902, Fulgaon, Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 – September 7, 1979, Poona, now Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

) was an early Indian

Indian cricket team

The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....

 Test cricket

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

er.

Career

Navle faced faced the historic first delivery of India's first Test innings in 1932. He opened in both innings at Lord's in 1932 and also kept wickets. A small man, Wisden

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...

 called him "a first-rate wicket-keeper, very quick in all that he did". He played for Indians against Arthur Gilligan

Arthur Gilligan

Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Sussex, Surrey and England....

's MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 team in 1926-27 and Jack Ryder's Australians nine years later. For many years he kept wickets for Hindus in the Bombay Quadrangular

Bombay Quadrangular

The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, India from 1912 to 1936. At other times it was known variously as the Presidency Match, Bombay Triangular, and the Bombay Pentangular....

 and Pentangular

Bombay Quadrangular

The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, India from 1912 to 1936. At other times it was known variously as the Presidency Match, Bombay Triangular, and the Bombay Pentangular....

tournaments. He made his debut for Hindus at the age of 16.

Personal life

In his later life he worked as a security guard in a sugar mill and lived in a humble two room flat in Poona. He had his schooling at the Bhave School in Poona.