Polly Umrigar
Encyclopedia
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 - 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricket
er. He played first-class cricket
for Bombay, and Test cricket
in the Indian cricket team
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
. He captain
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
, India, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
, Lancashire
and Kent
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
of Cambridge
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
, Wes Hall
, Roy Gilchrist
and Charlie Stayers
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
at Hyderabad
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
A few weeks later, India lost every match in a five Test series in West Indies. In the fourth Test at Port of Spain, Umrigar scored 56 and 172 not out and took 5 for 107 in the West Indian first innings. His fifty in the first innings came after India had lost their first five wickets for 30. India followed on and Umrigar reached his hundred in 156 minutes and 150 in 203. When Wes Hall
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
-Hazare
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 - 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricket
er. He played first-class cricket
for Bombay, and Test cricket
in the Indian cricket team
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
. He captain
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
, India, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
, Lancashire
and Kent
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
of Cambridge
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
, Wes Hall
, Roy Gilchrist
and Charlie Stayers
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
at Hyderabad
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
A few weeks later, India lost every match in a five Test series in West Indies. In the fourth Test at Port of Spain, Umrigar scored 56 and 172 not out and took 5 for 107 in the West Indian first innings. His fifty in the first innings came after India had lost their first five wickets for 30. India followed on and Umrigar reached his hundred in 156 minutes and 150 in 203. When Wes Hall
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
-Hazare
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 - 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricket
er. He played first-class cricket
for Bombay, and Test cricket
in the Indian cricket team
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
. He captain
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
, India, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
, Lancashire
and Kent
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
of Cambridge
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
, Wes Hall
, Roy Gilchrist
and Charlie Stayers
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
at Hyderabad
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
A few weeks later, India lost every match in a five Test series in West Indies. In the fourth Test at Port of Spain, Umrigar scored 56 and 172 not out and took 5 for 107 in the West Indian first innings. His fifty in the first innings came after India had lost their first five wickets for 30. India followed on and Umrigar reached his hundred in 156 minutes and 150 in 203. When Wes Hall
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
-Hazare
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. He played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Bombay, and 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...
in the Indian cricket team
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....
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
. He captain
Indian national cricket captains
This is a list of all cricketers who have captained Indian national cricket team at the international level. The list includes all Indian captains of men's, women's and youth cricket. India became a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference on 31 May 1926...
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
Early life
Polly Umrigar was born in Sholapur, MaharashtraMaharashtra
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, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
Mumbai cricket team
The Mumbai cricket team is a cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. It is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, India's top domestic cricket competition, with 39 titles, the most recent being in 2009–10. The team's home ground is the Wankhede Stadium in...
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
Early Test career
He scored 115* for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians in October 1948. This performance brought him to national attention, and earned him a single appearance in the 2nd Test against the same team in Mumbai seven weeks later.By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is a cricket stadium in Chennai , India, named after M. A. Chidambaram, the former President of BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. The stadium was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground or Chepauk Stadium. Commonly known as Chepauk, its first match was...
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
Frank Worrell
Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell is sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae and was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator...
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
Hemu Adhikari
Colonel Hemchandra Ramachandra Adhikari was an Indian cricketer, representing his country as both a player and coach in a career that spanned three decades....
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
England in 1952
In England in 1952, Umrigar scored heavily outside Test matches, but in Tests he was a complete failure. His aggregate of 1,688 was the highest in the season for the Indian team. He made more than 800 runs in May and double hundreds against Oxford UniversityOxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
, Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
and Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
Cuan McCarthy
-External links:****...
of Cambridge
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
Frank King (cricketer)
Frank McDonald King was a West Indian cricketer who played in 14 Tests between 1953 and 1956.Born in Delamere Land, Brighton, St Michael, Barbados, King was a hostile right-arm fast bowler who opened the bowling for the West Indies in three consecutive home series in the early 1950s...
, Wes Hall
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
, Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67....
and Charlie Stayers
Charlie Stayers
Sven Conrad Stayers was a West Indian cricketer who played in four Tests in 1962....
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies and has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean. It also hosted a number of matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It is privately owned by the...
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
at Hyderabad
Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium is a cricket stadium in Hyderabad, India. The stadium was originally known as Fateh Maidan and was re-named in 1967 after Lal Bahadur Shastri, India's former Prime Minister....
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
Test captain
Umrigar had led India in two unofficial Tests against the Commonwealth XICommonwealth XI cricket team
The Commonwealth XI cricket team played over 100 first-class cricket matches from 1949 to 1968. The team started out as a side made up of mostly English, Australian and West Indian cricketers, that toured the subcontinent but later on played first-class fixtures in England...
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed was an off spin bowler, who captained India in Test cricket. After his retirement, he served for many years as the secretary of BCCI....
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Laxman Manjrekar is a former Indian cricketer who played 55 Tests. A small man, he was a fine cutter and hooker of the ball. He was the father of Sanjay Manjrekar....
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Shankar Hardikar was an Indian Test cricketer.Hardikar represented India in two Tests against West Indies in 1958/9. He was dismissed by Roy Gilchrist off the very first ball that he faced in Test cricket. He then took a wicket with his third ball in Test cricket by dismissing Rohan Kanhai...
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
Late Test career
During the tour of England in 1959, he again scored heavily outside Test matches, but struggled in the Tests again Trueman and Brian StathamBrian Statham
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowlers in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast...
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
Green Park Stadium
Green Park Stadium is a 60,000 capacity floodlit multi-purpose stadium located in Kanpur, India, and the home of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team. The stadium is under the control of the Sports Department Uttar Pradesh...
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
Analysis of cricket career
Umrigar was a powerfully built man who stood just under six feet. An attacking player especially strong in front of the wicket, he was capable of destroying anything short of extreme pace. In this attitude towards the bowling, he was different from most of his contemporaries. "He was a link between two generations", wrote K. N. PrabhuK. N. Prabhu
K. Niran Prabhu is a prominent Indian journalist who specialized in cricket.Most of his best work was done while working for the Times of India newspaper. He joined the ToI in 1948 and was the sports editor from 1959 to 1983. None of his works have been published as books.He was awarded the C. K...
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
-Hazare
Vijay Hazare
Vijay Samuel Hazare was an Indian cricket player from the state of Maharashtra. He captained the Indian cricket team in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953...
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
Bahawal Stadium
The Bahawal Stadium is a cricket ground in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. Locally known as Dring Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in used mostly for Cricket games...
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
Gulabrai Ramchand
Gulabrai Sipahimalani 'Ram' Ramchand was an Indian cricketer who captained India to a famous win against Australia in his only series as captain....
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
Gujarat cricket team
The Gujarat cricket team is one of three Ranji Trophy cricket teams representing the state of Gujarat . It was in the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy although it has had very little success. There have, however, been many cricketers that have passed through its ranks and gone on to play for the...
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
Saurashtra cricket team
Saurashtra is one of three cricket teams based in Gujarat which competes in the Ranji Trophy . Formerly known as Nawanagar cricket team it won the Ranji Trophy in 1936-37.-Competition history:...
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
Later life
Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia in the late 1970s. He was the chairman of the national selection committee between 1978 and 1982, Executive secretary of the BCCIBoard of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
Wankhede Stadium
The Sheshrao Krushnarao Wankhede Stadium is a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Mumbai. This ground was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, and the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches...
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
External links
- Cricinfo profile
- Cricketarchive profile
- Umrigar turns 80, Profile
- Interview
- Raju Bharatan, An account of the events that led to Umrigar's resignation
- Obituary, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 9 November 2006
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 - 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. He played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Bombay, and 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...
in the Indian cricket team
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....
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
. He captain
Indian national cricket captains
This is a list of all cricketers who have captained Indian national cricket team at the international level. The list includes all Indian captains of men's, women's and youth cricket. India became a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference on 31 May 1926...
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
Early life
Polly Umrigar was born in Sholapur, MaharashtraMaharashtra
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, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
Mumbai cricket team
The Mumbai cricket team is a cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. It is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, India's top domestic cricket competition, with 39 titles, the most recent being in 2009–10. The team's home ground is the Wankhede Stadium in...
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
Early Test career
He scored 115* for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians in October 1948. This performance brought him to national attention, and earned him a single appearance in the 2nd Test against the same team in Mumbai seven weeks later.By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is a cricket stadium in Chennai , India, named after M. A. Chidambaram, the former President of BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. The stadium was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground or Chepauk Stadium. Commonly known as Chepauk, its first match was...
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
Frank Worrell
Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell is sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae and was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator...
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
Hemu Adhikari
Colonel Hemchandra Ramachandra Adhikari was an Indian cricketer, representing his country as both a player and coach in a career that spanned three decades....
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
England in 1952
In England in 1952, Umrigar scored heavily outside Test matches, but in Tests he was a complete failure. His aggregate of 1,688 was the highest in the season for the Indian team. He made more than 800 runs in May and double hundreds against Oxford UniversityOxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
, Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
and Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
Cuan McCarthy
-External links:****...
of Cambridge
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
Frank King (cricketer)
Frank McDonald King was a West Indian cricketer who played in 14 Tests between 1953 and 1956.Born in Delamere Land, Brighton, St Michael, Barbados, King was a hostile right-arm fast bowler who opened the bowling for the West Indies in three consecutive home series in the early 1950s...
, Wes Hall
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
, Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67....
and Charlie Stayers
Charlie Stayers
Sven Conrad Stayers was a West Indian cricketer who played in four Tests in 1962....
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies and has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean. It also hosted a number of matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It is privately owned by the...
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
at Hyderabad
Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium is a cricket stadium in Hyderabad, India. The stadium was originally known as Fateh Maidan and was re-named in 1967 after Lal Bahadur Shastri, India's former Prime Minister....
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
Test captain
Umrigar had led India in two unofficial Tests against the Commonwealth XICommonwealth XI cricket team
The Commonwealth XI cricket team played over 100 first-class cricket matches from 1949 to 1968. The team started out as a side made up of mostly English, Australian and West Indian cricketers, that toured the subcontinent but later on played first-class fixtures in England...
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed was an off spin bowler, who captained India in Test cricket. After his retirement, he served for many years as the secretary of BCCI....
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Laxman Manjrekar is a former Indian cricketer who played 55 Tests. A small man, he was a fine cutter and hooker of the ball. He was the father of Sanjay Manjrekar....
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Shankar Hardikar was an Indian Test cricketer.Hardikar represented India in two Tests against West Indies in 1958/9. He was dismissed by Roy Gilchrist off the very first ball that he faced in Test cricket. He then took a wicket with his third ball in Test cricket by dismissing Rohan Kanhai...
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
Late Test career
During the tour of England in 1959, he again scored heavily outside Test matches, but struggled in the Tests again Trueman and Brian StathamBrian Statham
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowlers in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast...
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
Green Park Stadium
Green Park Stadium is a 60,000 capacity floodlit multi-purpose stadium located in Kanpur, India, and the home of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team. The stadium is under the control of the Sports Department Uttar Pradesh...
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
Analysis of cricket career
Umrigar was a powerfully built man who stood just under six feet. An attacking player especially strong in front of the wicket, he was capable of destroying anything short of extreme pace. In this attitude towards the bowling, he was different from most of his contemporaries. "He was a link between two generations", wrote K. N. PrabhuK. N. Prabhu
K. Niran Prabhu is a prominent Indian journalist who specialized in cricket.Most of his best work was done while working for the Times of India newspaper. He joined the ToI in 1948 and was the sports editor from 1959 to 1983. None of his works have been published as books.He was awarded the C. K...
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
-Hazare
Vijay Hazare
Vijay Samuel Hazare was an Indian cricket player from the state of Maharashtra. He captained the Indian cricket team in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953...
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
Bahawal Stadium
The Bahawal Stadium is a cricket ground in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. Locally known as Dring Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in used mostly for Cricket games...
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
Gulabrai Ramchand
Gulabrai Sipahimalani 'Ram' Ramchand was an Indian cricketer who captained India to a famous win against Australia in his only series as captain....
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
Gujarat cricket team
The Gujarat cricket team is one of three Ranji Trophy cricket teams representing the state of Gujarat . It was in the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy although it has had very little success. There have, however, been many cricketers that have passed through its ranks and gone on to play for the...
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
Saurashtra cricket team
Saurashtra is one of three cricket teams based in Gujarat which competes in the Ranji Trophy . Formerly known as Nawanagar cricket team it won the Ranji Trophy in 1936-37.-Competition history:...
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
Later life
Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia in the late 1970s. He was the chairman of the national selection committee between 1978 and 1982, Executive secretary of the BCCIBoard of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
Wankhede Stadium
The Sheshrao Krushnarao Wankhede Stadium is a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Mumbai. This ground was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, and the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches...
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
External links
- Cricinfo profile
- Cricketarchive profile
- Umrigar turns 80, Profile
- Interview
- Raju Bharatan, An account of the events that led to Umrigar's resignation
- Obituary, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 9 November 2006
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 - 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. He played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Bombay, and 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...
in the Indian cricket team
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....
, mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
. He captain
Indian national cricket captains
This is a list of all cricketers who have captained Indian national cricket team at the international level. The list includes all Indian captains of men's, women's and youth cricket. India became a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference on 31 May 1926...
ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
Early life
Polly Umrigar was born in Sholapur, MaharashtraMaharashtra
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, where his father ran a clothing company. His family later moved to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(then Bombay).
He was a Parsi (from the Zoroastrian community in India) that dominated the Bombay cricket
Mumbai cricket team
The Mumbai cricket team is a cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. It is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, India's top domestic cricket competition, with 39 titles, the most recent being in 2009–10. The team's home ground is the Wankhede Stadium in...
in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College. He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.
Early Test career
He scored 115* for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians in October 1948. This performance brought him to national attention, and earned him a single appearance in the 2nd Test against the same team in Mumbai seven weeks later.By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is a cricket stadium in Chennai , India, named after M. A. Chidambaram, the former President of BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. The stadium was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground or Chepauk Stadium. Commonly known as Chepauk, its first match was...
'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell
Frank Worrell
Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell is sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae and was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator...
.
He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
at home a year later. He was dropped from the fifth Test but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari
Hemu Adhikari
Colonel Hemchandra Ramachandra Adhikari was an Indian cricketer, representing his country as both a player and coach in a career that spanned three decades....
. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling was not of a very high quality, Umrigar considered it the best innings of his life
England in 1952
In England in 1952, Umrigar scored heavily outside Test matches, but in Tests he was a complete failure. His aggregate of 1,688 was the highest in the season for the Indian team. He made more than 800 runs in May and double hundreds against Oxford UniversityOxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
, Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
and Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy
Cuan McCarthy
-External links:****...
of Cambridge
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
. However, he made only 43 runs in seven Test innings, at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner". Bedser dismissed him twice; Trueman dismissed him four times, and on three occasions he was bowled backing away.
More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King
Frank King (cricketer)
Frank McDonald King was a West Indian cricketer who played in 14 Tests between 1953 and 1956.Born in Delamere Land, Brighton, St Michael, Barbados, King was a hostile right-arm fast bowler who opened the bowling for the West Indies in three consecutive home series in the early 1950s...
, Wes Hall
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
, Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67....
and Charlie Stayers
Charlie Stayers
Sven Conrad Stayers was a West Indian cricketer who played in four Tests in 1962....
. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played one of the finest innings of his career.
He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952-53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain
Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies and has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean. It also hosted a number of matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It is privately owned by the...
with a six off Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
. His innings of 223 against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
at Hyderabad
Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium is a cricket stadium in Hyderabad, India. The stadium was originally known as Fateh Maidan and was re-named in 1967 after Lal Bahadur Shastri, India's former Prime Minister....
in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.
Test captain
Umrigar had led India in two unofficial Tests against the Commonwealth XICommonwealth XI cricket team
The Commonwealth XI cricket team played over 100 first-class cricket matches from 1949 to 1968. The team started out as a side made up of mostly English, Australian and West Indian cricketers, that toured the subcontinent but later on played first-class fixtures in England...
in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.
After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced as captain by Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed was an off spin bowler, who captained India in Test cricket. After his retirement, he served for many years as the secretary of BCCI....
who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Manjrekar
Vijay Laxman Manjrekar is a former Indian cricketer who played 55 Tests. A small man, he was a fine cutter and hooker of the ball. He was the father of Sanjay Manjrekar....
, who was injured. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Hardikar
Manohar Shankar Hardikar was an Indian Test cricketer.Hardikar represented India in two Tests against West Indies in 1958/9. He was dismissed by Roy Gilchrist off the very first ball that he faced in Test cricket. He then took a wicket with his third ball in Test cricket by dismissing Rohan Kanhai...
, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs in the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.
Late Test career
During the tour of England in 1959, he again scored heavily outside Test matches, but struggled in the Tests again Trueman and Brian StathamBrian Statham
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowlers in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast...
until the fourth Test. He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad. He made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel
Jasu Patel
Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was an off-spinner who played Test cricket for Indian cricket team. His fame lies entirely on a single match against Australia where he took 14 wickets.-Early days:...
in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur
Green Park Stadium
Green Park Stadium is a 60,000 capacity floodlit multi-purpose stadium located in Kanpur, India, and the home of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team. The stadium is under the control of the Sports Department Uttar Pradesh...
in 1959-60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62 (his third century in as many Test innings).
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...
took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 144. Umrigar's 172* in 248 minutes were scored off India's last 230 runs. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.
Umrigar continued to play first-class cricket for Bombay for another season and played his last first class match in 1967-68.
Analysis of cricket career
Umrigar was a powerfully built man who stood just under six feet. An attacking player especially strong in front of the wicket, he was capable of destroying anything short of extreme pace. In this attitude towards the bowling, he was different from most of his contemporaries. "He was a link between two generations", wrote K. N. PrabhuK. N. Prabhu
K. Niran Prabhu is a prominent Indian journalist who specialized in cricket.Most of his best work was done while working for the Times of India newspaper. He joined the ToI in 1948 and was the sports editor from 1959 to 1983. None of his works have been published as books.He was awarded the C. K...
. "Theoretically he belonged to that assembly of cricketers of the thirties, but in practice his cricket was conditioned by the hard, professional approach of the immediate post-independence years". From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
-Hazare
Vijay Hazare
Vijay Samuel Hazare was an Indian cricket player from the state of Maharashtra. He captained the Indian cricket team in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953...
school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur
Bahawal Stadium
The Bahawal Stadium is a cricket ground in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. Locally known as Dring Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in used mostly for Cricket games...
he only bowled about six overs "at the maxmium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand
Gulabrai Ramchand
Gulabrai Sipahimalani 'Ram' Ramchand was an Indian cricketer who captained India to a famous win against Australia in his only series as captain....
for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)
Umrigar's aggregate of 3,631 Test runs and 12 Test centuries were India's best until bettered by Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...
in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat
Gujarat cricket team
The Gujarat cricket team is one of three Ranji Trophy cricket teams representing the state of Gujarat . It was in the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy although it has had very little success. There have, however, been many cricketers that have passed through its ranks and gone on to play for the...
, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest Ranji score of 245 was made against Saurashtra
Saurashtra cricket team
Saurashtra is one of three cricket teams based in Gujarat which competes in the Ranji Trophy . Formerly known as Nawanagar cricket team it won the Ranji Trophy in 1936-37.-Competition history:...
in 1957-58. He twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season. He also spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
Later life
Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia in the late 1970s. He was the chairman of the national selection committee between 1978 and 1982, Executive secretary of the BCCIBoard of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium
Wankhede Stadium
The Sheshrao Krushnarao Wankhede Stadium is a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Mumbai. This ground was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, and the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches...
. He was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
in 1962 and the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1998-99 for his contributions to the game. The national Under-15 championship is contested for the Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
in mid-2006. He died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006
He married his wife, Dinu, in 1951. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
External links
- Cricinfo profile
- Cricketarchive profile
- Umrigar turns 80, Profile
- Interview
- Raju Bharatan, An account of the events that led to Umrigar's resignation
- Obituary, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 9 November 2006 - Obituary, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 9 November 2006