A. K. ROY


🏏🏏
A. K. ROY
(5 Jun 1945 - 19 Sep 1997)

Of the three related Roys who have served India in the Test cricket arena, left-handed Ambar Khirid Roy is regarded in many quarters as the most talented strokeplayer Bengal has ever produced. Though his feet seldom seemed to move, Roy possessed the uncanny ability to caress the cherry with minimal effort, bisecting fielders with marksmanlike precision...

It was said of Roy that he was almost a non-believer of net-practice, that he used to doze in the dressing-room, and that his teammates used to wake him up when it was his turn to be at the crease. Out in the middle he would duly enthrall the crowds with some breathtaking strokes and then, just as they expected him to make it big, he would play the most ridiculous of shots to get out. Back in the dressing room he would relax with a smoke, whatever may be the match situation. That's the way Ambar Roy performed, detached from all tensions...

An aggregate of 91 runs from four Tests, 48 as highest, evidently does not do justice to his talent...

His Test career ended after having played two tests each against Graham Dowling's New Zealand and Bill Lawry's Australia in 1969, but Roy continued with Bengal till the 77-78 domestic season...

In the domestic circuit Roy scored 7163 runs from 132 games, 18 centuries and 32 fifties with 197 as his highest, 83 catches, 2 stumpings and 29 wickets...

Serving as a Bengal selector for 15 years, Roy is regarded as the person to spot Sourav Ganguly. He was the Indian selector from 1984 to 1986. He along with Chandu Borde, Hanumant Singh, Kripal Singh, and Bishan Bedi formed the panel that decided to drop Kapil Dev for the 1984-85 Test at Eden Gardens against England...

Diagnosed with a serious heart condition, the 'lazy-elegant' Roy breathed his last after a heart-attack (though for some reason Wisden attributes it to malaria) this day in 1997, in Kolkata, at the tender age of 52...

The Under-14 Sub-Junior and Under-17 Junior tournaments in Bengal have been named after him...

🙏🙏🌹💐    🇮🇳

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