Dilip Vengsarkar

Hi friends ! I am back after a big vacation (Again!) And I am very excited as I am on to another vacation in just a week. I will be visiting my home country, India, next week and I am so looking forward to it.

It amazes me on how Bombay always seems to produce players with immense talent; mostly batsmen and how our regional politics in cricket always messes things up.

For many years Bombay and Southern India has been giving Indian cricket all the stars and so it is good to see some kids on the block from way up North.

Well another starry eyed teenager from Bombay scored a breezy 110 Vs ROI in my hometown of Nagpur in 1975; No, I did not see the match as I was yet to be born! But Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar was born as a star.

Vengsarkar was inducted into the Indian team with the same pace as he batted in Nagpur – Thwarting the attack of Bedi and Prasanna who were at their peak.

His debut in Auckland was very dissapointing as he managed only 13 runs in 2 innings. After that series Vengsarkar dropped from opening to No.3 and this is where his career took off. He was never a blaster of the ball, he relied solely on his stroke play. The drive was his forte, and soon enough he was in the hot seat. He led the country in 10 test matches but unfortunately his resume was not something to be proud of.

And it was not his fault, a good player does not mean a good captain. He never was “leader” material. He lost his captaincy soon. Then he was dropped from the team after a very controversial fiasco over some matches he played in the US of A. He did make a come back but it was nothing like his old self.

At one time he blurted out in the media and said that the selectors were a bunch of jokers. That pretty much sealed his fate.

And so to politics and big sized egos we lost a good player once again.

Here are Vengsarkar’s statistics.

Career Statistics: TESTS (career) M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St Batting & Fielding 116 185 22 6868 166 42.13 17 35 78 0

O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ Bowling 7.5 1 36 0 - - 0 0 - 4.59

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