Datta Gaekwad

Dattajirao Krishnarao Gaekwad  pronunciation  (born 27 October 1928) is a former Indian cricketer. He appeared in 11 Test matches, toured England in 1952 and 1959 and West Indies in 1952-53. He captained the Indian team in the 1959 tour. As a batsman Gaekwad "possessed a sure defence and delightfully crisp shots especially through the covers". He was also an occasional leg spin bowler.

Gaekwad played his early cricket for Bombay University and the Maharaja Sayaji University in Baroda. He made his Test debut at Leeds in 1952, opening the innings, though he had never done it before this tour. He was among the four victims (others being Pankaj Roy, Vijay Manjrekar and Madhav Mantri) in India’s miserable 0-4 start in the second innings of the Headingley Test of 1952 with Fred Trueman playing havoc. His West Indies tour in the next year was terminated abruptly during the second Test when he collided with Vijay Hazare while going for a catch and dislocated his shoulder.

In 1956-58, he captained Baroda to their first Ranji title in nine years. He scored a double hundred against the defending champions Bombay during the course of the season. This was followed by a recall to the Indian team for the final Test against West Indies in 1958-59. His 52 in the second innings was the only fifty of his career and went some way towards India earning an honourable draw.

With Hemu Adhikari, who had captained in this match, being unavailable, Gaekwad led the Indian team to the tour of England in 1959. He suffered from illness throughout the series and did not have much control over the team. It did not help that he had another man from Baroda as the manager, which did not go well with some players. India lost all the five matches and Gaekwad did not appear in another Test.

In Ranji Trophy, he scored 3139 runs with 14 centuries and a highest of 249 against Maharashtra in 1959-60. Gaekwad is the father of the Indian opener Anshuman Gaekwad. He was distantly related to the Baroda royal family and served as the Deputy comptroller to the Baroda state.

References

• Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Who's who of Test cricketers (1986). The description in the lead is from this book.
• Rajan Bala, The Covers are Off. Bala suggests that one of the reasons for the fiasco of the 1959 tour was the resentment of Bombay players towards those from Baroda.
• Richard Cashman, Patrons, Players and the Crowd.
• Cricinfo interview

External links

• Cricinfo profile
• Cricketarchive profile