IN REMEMBRANCE - INDIAN TEST CRICKETERS

🏏🏏 J. M. PATEL (26 Nov 1924 - 12 Dec 1992) One of the first cricketers to be awarded the Padma Shri, Jasubhai Motibhai "Jasu" Patel, the right arm off-break bowler from Gujarat is better known as the architect-in-chief of India's first Test win over Australia at Kanpur in December 1959. He was 35 and on the verge of retirement when he weaved that magic spell to upset the applecart of the men from Down Under... Making his Test debut in February 1955 against Pakistan in Karachi, Jasu Patel played 7 Tests, his last being against Australia, January 1960 in Calcutta... Jasu Patel's 7 Tests fetched him 25 runs @2.77, highest being 12, captured 29 wickets @21.96, best being 9/69 and 2 catches... In 68 first class games representing Gujarat from 1943/44 - 1961/62, Jasu Patel scored 780 runs @12.78, one hundred being his highest (152) and three fifties, claimed 248 wickets @21.70 and 26 catches... He held two Indian records, best bowling in an ...

🏏🏏 PRINCE OF VIZIANAGRAM - VIZZY (28 Dec 1905 - 2 Dec 1965)  Perhaps the only Indian cricketer who had hardly anything to boast of by way of positive exploits on the cricket pitch, Lieutenant Colonel Pusapati Vijay Ananda Gajapathi Raju, popularly known as "Vizzy" was the son of Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapathi Raju, the ruler of Vizianagram... In the strong words of cricket writer Abhishek Mukherjee - "he was the second son, and did not inherit his father's kingdom and went on to ruin Indian cricket instead. The most undeserving of all Indian cricketers who brought shame and ridicule to the nation. There may have been worse cricketers than Vizzy, but few as evil." Known in several circles as "the prince who paid rather than played", the shrewd and calculative organiser Vizzy formed his own cricket team in 1926, constructing a ground in his palace compounds and recruiting players from India and abroad. Being at logger...