Arun Lal (; born 1 August 1955) is a retired Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, and a

cricket commentator __NOTOC_is a list of notable media commentators and writers on the sport of cricket from around the world. A number of famous players have had a second career as writers or commentators. However, many commentators never played the game at a prof ...

. He played for India, as a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, between 1982 and 1989 was a gritty player though it didn't reflect in his batting average of 26.03. His columns about cricket analysis regularly appears in newspaper and internet columns. He moved from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in 1979 and started a cricket academy. He joined the

Bengal cricket team The Bengal cricket team represents the Indian state of West Bengal in domestic first-class cricket. It is considered Eastern India's strongest cricket team. The team plays its home matches at the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Bengal has wo ...

in 1981 and presently serves as their head coach.

Early life and education

Arun Lal did his schooling at

Mayo College Mayo College (informally Mayo) is a boys-only independent boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. It was founded in 1875 by Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, who was the Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872. This makes it one of the oldest Pub ...

, Ajmer and received his undergraduate degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Career

In 1982, he made his Test debut against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

with 63 and shared a partnership of 156 with Sunil Gavaskar. In his next test, he scored 51 against Pakistan and shared an opening partnership with Sunil Gavaskar for 105. His highest test innings score is 93 made against West Indies at Calcutta in 1987. His

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...

average stands at 9.36. At Indian domestic level he represented

and Delhi cricket team where he has a record of scoring over 10,000 runs with a top score of 287 and a batting average of 46.94. He resigned from domestic cricket in March 2001. His last club match was for East Bengal. He represented Bengal in the iconic

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

national integration song, "Mile Sur Mera Tumara". In that he comes out of the

Kolkata metro rail Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

. He usually commentates on matches India play at home, which are broadcast by Star Sports. In 2016, he was detected having jaw cancer which has kept him out of commentary box since January 2016. Arun Lal conferred with the Lifetime Achievement award by the Cricket Association of Bengal’s (CAB’s) on 3 August 2019.

Personal life

Arun Lal got married for the second time as the 66-year old tied the knot with his girlfriend Bulbul Saha on May 2, 2022, in Kolkata. Saha is 28 years younger than Lal.

References

External links

* 1955 births Living people Delhi cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Test cricketers Indian cricketers East Zone cricketers Bengal cricketers North Zone cricketers People from Moradabad Cricketers from Uttar Pradesh Indian cricket commentators Delhi University alumni Mayo College alumni {{India-cricket-bio-1950s-stub