Raj Singh Dungarpur passes away

MUMBAI: Raj Singh Dungarpur finallylost his battle with illness when he breathed his last at his Worli home onSaturday.Also read: BCCI condoles Dungarpur's deathHe had been suffering from diabetes for thelast many years. He was 74. He was the youngest son of Maharawal LakshmanSinghji, the ruler of Dungarpur. He has two brothers, Jaisinghji andMahipalsinghji.Born in Dungarpur in Rajasthan on December 19, 1935Rajbhai played for Rajasthan in the Ranji trophy. He played in 86 first-classcricket matches between 1955 and1971. He studied at Daly College,Indore.He served as national selector for two terms and rose to theposition of president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He shouldtake credit for beginning the National Cricket Academy in 2000 with Rod Marsh,his protege Hanumant Singh and Vasu Paranjpe. Every contemporaryIndian player owes a debt to this academy and the least the BCCI could do is toname it after Raj Singh who never hankered after fame but named every nook andcorner of the CCI after prominent sportsfolk of every discipline.RajSingh should also be credited with the fact of getting foreign coaches to thecountry. He got Bob Simpson as consultant for the 1999 World Cup cricket sideand the turnaround for the side began in that era. He sought the help of ColinCowdrey to get John Wright to coach the later Indian team.Rajbhaiwas president of the Cricket Club of India and restored big cricket to the clubwhich lost out to the Wankhede Stadium when the Mumbai Cricket Association got aroof of its own. He even ensured meetings of the International Cricket Councilwere held there.Of all his achievements, Raj Singh prided himselfover the Cricket for Care academy at the CCI which he founded forunder-privileged youngsters. He was very happy when some of themplayed for the second eleven and would have been even happier when they made itto the first side. Nari Contractor, Vasu Paranjpe and Hanumant Singh threewell-known figures in cricket would be around to guide the youngsters. He wassad the academy was terminated.The only work he left unfinished waswriting his memoirs. And they would have filled volumes because he had scores ofstories to tell. Indian cricket hasn't had a better raconteur and every talewould have anecdotes of two heroes he worshipped, CK Nayudu and Vinoo Mankad.And every tale had to be wound with humour and a hearty laugh. He would havebeen the rightful president of any laughter club.He was manager ofthe Indian cricket team to England 1982 and more recently, Pakistan. He was alsoa member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and campaigned actively in during theelections.Rajbhai was among the greatest lovers of the game and itsplayers. Though he suffered at the hands of Mumbai players, losing seven Ranjifinals, the Mumbai stalwarts became his best friends and he would invite themfor every CCI function-- GS Ramchand, Madhav Apte, Polly Umrigar, NariContractor, Sharad Diwadkar, Chandu Patankar, Bapu Nadkarni and Dilip Sardesai.It was a circle he would have loved to take around with him, a grouphe would not trade for any other of any country or calibre though he countedamong friends the who's who of world cricket, among them Colin Cowdrey and another England great Raman Subba Row, who still spends winters in Mumbai andat the CCI and in Chennai.Everything about Rajbhai has been welldocumented. But this generation knows little about his cricket. GR Sunderam,former India fast bowler who opened the Rajasthan attack with Raj Singh said,"He was a decent bowler, mainly out-swingers. He loved to bowl the bouncer butwas not consistent because of his height. He was a useful tailend batsman. Oncewe were facing defeat against Mysore in the Ranji semi-finals. As No 11 batsmanI joined Raj who was No 10. We were up against great spinners BS Chandrasekharand Erapalli Prasanna. I asked him what should we do as merely holding on wouldserve no purpose because the pitch was bad. We decided to have a go and hit afew fours which got us victory and a place in the final. Some great names ofIndian cricket played under Rajbhai like Vinoo Mankad, Suhash Gupte, VijayManjrekar. But they all respected him because of his goodness andknowledge.''One of the best-kept secrets of Rajbhai was the one ofan English umpire telling him about an India player who actually told him tocall his teammate Manoj Prabhakar for chucking during a Test match in Pakistan.What a furore it would have caused. Rajbhai would have none of that. He lovedthe game far too much for that though in an aberration he said some unkindthings about Sunil Gavaskar which raised a lot of dust. As did Mohinder Amarnathwhen he called Rajbhai's bunch of selectora jokers.