Sudhir Naik (1945-2023) was an Indian cricketer known for playing for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy in the 70s.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sudhir Sakharam Naik was born on Wednesday 21 February 1945 (age 78 at death) in Tardeo, Bombay Presidency, British India. His zodiac sign was Pisces. He went on to do Masters in Organic Chemistry from Ruparel College, Mumbai. As a child, Tardeo used to play table tennis with the children of Chikalwadi. Together with his friends, he also hurt animals. When he was in class 10, his elder brother told him to take up coaching under Vinoo Mankadi. While in school, he was always studying when he was not playing cricket. On tour, he carried books and studied whenever he had time. He studied at 5 in the morning and practiced during the day. His first dream was not to become a cricketer but to become a company boss. In an interview, he said that at that time there was no money in cricket so he even applied for an engineering degree and attended VJTI (Veermata Jeejabai Institute of Technology) in Mumbai before deciding to become a chemist. He gave up on becoming an engineer after former cricketer Madhav Apte told him that he would not have time to play cricket if he became an engineer.
Sudhir Naik in his youth
Physical appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 9″
Hair color: gray (semi-bald)
Eye Color: Black
family
parents and siblings
Not much information is available about his parents. He had nine siblings.
wife and children
Sudhir was married to Vasundhara Pendse Naik who was an author. He died a few years before Sudhir’s death. Their daughter’s name is Radhika Deshpande, who lives in Melbourne.
Career
Domestic cricket
Sudhir used to play in the Mumbai cricket team. After enrolling in Bombay University, he became the captain of the team. He was also the captain of the Tata Oil Mills team where he worked. In 1967 and 1968, he was the only captain to win the Police Shield Tournament and the Mahindra Shield Tournament in two consecutive years at Bombay University. After graduation, he was selected for the Mumbai Junior Team and Senior Team. According to Sudhir, in 1970 only one team was allowed to play in the knockout rounds. Until 1970, Bombay won against Maharashtra, after which Maharashtra proposed to the BCCI that two teams from each group play in the knockout stage. The BCCI accepted the offer and in 1971, Maharashtra became number 1 and Bombay moved to number two in the West Zone. In 1970-71, his performance in the match won the Bombay Ranji Trophy even when players like Sunil Gavaskar and Ajit Wadekar were not in the team. He was not in the playing squad for the 1972 Ranji season. In an interview, he talked about it and said:
They threw me because of the knockouts. I had good grades and it was really unfair. This was the policy that some of our senior players were playing. They were afraid that if Sudhir plays in the knock-out, he might be selected for India and we would be out. It was dirty politics. But this is an integral part of the game. “
In the 1973-94 Ranji Trophy season, he scored 2687 runs (40.10) against Baroda. The score became the highest score 200 did not come out. In his domestic career, he scored 4,376 runs in 85 first-class matches with seven hundreds and 27 fifties.
Sudhir Naik in batting action
International cricket
Sudhir made his ODI debut on 13 July 1974 against England at Leeds. He made his Test debut between 4 and 8 July 1974 against England at Birmingham. In 1974, he played three Test matches and two One Day Internationals for the Indian cricket team. In 1974, he was part of India’s tour of England and was the opening batsman. He did not play in the first and second Test matches even after being the top scorer in every tour game. In the match he played, he scored 77 runs in the second innings but India failed to win the match. His score became the highest score and he became Man of the Match. In 1974, he became part of the Indian team and played the last Test at Edgbaston. He scored 730 runs (40.55) in the match. In a one-day international in England, he scored 18 runs off 29 balls, including the first four for the team.
Curator
He was a member of the Mumbai selection committee in 1984-85 and served as chief selector and member of the management committee. In 2005, he started working at the Wankhede Cricket Stadium as a grounds manager, taking care of the wicket and pitch before matches. In 2011, before the start of the World Cup at the Wankhede Cricket Ground in Mumbai, he prepared the pitch for the tournament. He was preparing the West Zone pitch and pitches in charge of the West Zone of the BCCI Ground and Pitch Committee. In 2016, he resigned as the Wankhede Cricket Stadium curator and in-charge of pitches after being criticized by Ravi Shastri for not being a pitch for batsmen. In an interview, he said that he could not bear what Shastri told him because he was 70 years old and had some pride.
Sudhir Naik as the groundskeeper who judges the grounds
death
Sudhir was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai on 24 March 2023 when he suffered a head injury after falling at his residence in Dadar. He died on March 5, 2023, having failed to recover from his injury. After his death, Zaheer Khan condoled his death and said:
A day after he was admitted to the hospital, I went and saw him. He was responding to treatment. He recognized me and tried to talk to me. I talked to him a little. Knowing the person I’ve seen over the years, I hoped he could handle it. But it was not to be. He became critical on Sunday night and we were told that the next 72 hours will be critical. While we were hoping for his recovery, all this time I was reminiscing about the countless conversations I had with him once I moved to Mumbai.”
Facts/Trivia
- He was a right bat.
- Apart from cricket, he worked as an organic chemist.
- He did not play cricket after 1974 but started coaching at his own national cricket club in Mumbai. He coached cricketers like Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, Rajesh Pawar, Raju Sutari and Paras Mhambrey.
Sudhir Naik with Zaheer Khan
- In 1975, he played his last Test at the Eden Gardens against the West Indies.
- In the club, his students referred to him as James Bond.
- In an interview, former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar said Sudhir was a straightforward person.
- During a trip to England in the 1970s, he was falsely accused of stealing two pairs of socks from a London department store. In an interview he said that BCCI did not support him at all because at that time BCCI was not very strong. He suffered a lot due to the incident. In his book Sunny Days, Sunil Gavaskar spoke about the incident and said that Naik would not have felt humiliated if better lawyers had given him his innocence. However, after the incident happened to him, he scored a half-century in a Test match. In an interview, former Mumbai captain Milind Rege spoke about the incident and said that Sudhir’s self-pity was so great that he wore torn gloves but did not ask anyone for spare gloves.
- In another interview, Milind Rege recalled his time with Sudhir and said that when they were playing, they used to travel to Ranji Trophy games together in a taxi with their kits. They spent half of the day together because they lived near each other’s houses and trained together. He also said that Sudhir was a great captain. In the interview, he also said,
He was very tactically sound. This was his plus. He knew his pitch, he knew the temperament of his players. Sudir never scolded us on the field. He never said to us, “Kiya kar raha hai? Barabar se bowling nahi ho raha hai (What are you doing? You are not bowling properly)… He put his arm around us and was very cool and calm. In the 1970-71 final, we were all young – most of us in our early 20s – except Vijay Bhosale and Padmakar Shivalkar. We were just talented and he captained the team amazingly. He was a great leader. “
Categories: Cricket
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
