Ashok Mulvantrai Mankad (12 October 1946 – 1 August 2008) was an Indian cricketer. 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 ...

, he played for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 22 Test matches. Ashok Mankad was born in a Vadnagra Nagar Brahmin family as the eldest son of

Vinoo Mankad Mulvantrai Himmatlal "Vinoo" Mankad (; 12 April 1917 – 21 August 1978) was an Indian cricketer who appeared in 44 Test matches for India between 1946 and 1959. He was best known for his world record setting opening partnership of 413 runs wi ...

, who represented India in 44 Test matches, in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. His brothers Rahul Mankad and Atul Mankad were also first class cricketers. Mankad made a sequence of big scores in the Harris Shield as a teenager. After making 348, 325 and 258 in this inter-school tournament, he was picked to represent

and

West Zone cricket team The West Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents western India in the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy. It is a composite team of players from five first-class Indian teams from western India competing in the Ranji Trophy ...

in Under-19 tournaments. He represented the Bombay University in the

Rohinton Baria Trophy The All-India Inter-University Cricket Championship held for the Rohinton Baria Gold Trophy (or simply, Rohinton Baria Trophy) is India's premier inter-university cricket tournament. It has been contested annually since the 1935/36 season. Histo ...

in his first year in the college. He hit 62 against Nagpur University, 131 against

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and 152 against

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 ...

in the final. Mankad made his first class debut a week before his seventeenth birthday. Despite average performances in the domestic level in his first few years, he was selected to play Tests against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1969–70. The selection committee under

Vijay Merchant Vijay Singh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhav Thackersey (12 October 1911 – 27 October 1987) was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first-class cricket for Bombay c ...

tried out many new players that season and

Chetan Chauhan Chetan Pratap Singh Chauhan (; 21 July 1947 – 16 August 2020) was a cricketer who played 40 Test cricket, Test matches for Indian cricket team, India. He played Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra and Delhi. He played most of his international crick ...

and

Ajit Pai Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...

also made their debut in the same match. After failing to reach thirty in any of the four innings against New Zealand, he was dropped from the team for the third Test. Without much of a reason, Mankad was again selected against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

a month later. This time he scored 74, 8, 64, 68 and 97 in his first five innings. Mankad batted at No.3 in the first Test and added a record 146 for the fourth wicket with

Nawab of Pataudi The term Nawab of Pataudi refers to the lineage of rulers of the former princely Pataudi State in Northern India. Pataudi was established in 1804 by the British East India Company, when Faiz Talab Khan, an Afghan Muslim Pashtun of the Barech ...

. But when

Dilip Sardesai Dilip Narayan Sardesai (; 8 August 1940 – 2 July 2007) was an Indian international cricketer. He played Tests for the Indian national team as a batsman, the first Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as one of India' ...

was dropped, he opened in the remaining three Tests. Mankad and

Farokh Engineer Farokh Maneksha Engineer (born 25 February 1938) is an Indian former cricketer. He played 46 Test matches for India, played first-class cricket for Bombay in India from 1959 to 1975 and for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England from 196 ...

added 111 and 43 at

and 85 at

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 ...

. Though he played 15 more Tests in his career, Mankad scored only one more fifty and the 97 at Delhi was to remain his highest score. Mankad shared some good opening partnerships with

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

in the series in

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in 1970–71 but after a bad tour of England in 1971, he was dropped. He gave up opening in domestic cricket and reverted to batting in the middle order. In the 1976–77 season in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

, Mankad scored 827 runs at an average of 206. He hit 203* against Maharashtra and 208* against

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

in successive innings. He went past the Bombay record of

Ajit Wadekar Ajit Laxman Wadekar (; 1 April 1941 – 15 August 2018) was an Indian international cricketer who played for the Indian national team between 1966 and 1974. Described as an "aggressive batsman", Wadekar made his first-class debut in 1958, ...

for the highest aggregate in the tournament. These efforts found him a place for the Indian team for one last tour. In Australia in 1977–78, Mankad scored 508 runs at 50.80 in the tour matches, finished fourth in the season's averages and topped the averages for India. But three Test appearances brought him only 119 runs at 23.80, allowing

to establish himself as an opening partner of Gavaskar in this series. Mankad did not play another Test and ended his career with 991 runs. Mankad was a heavy scorer at the Ranji level. When he retired, he had a record aggregate of 6619 runs in Ranji matches at an average of 76, with his 22 centuries equalling

Vijay Hazare Vijay Samuel Hazare (11 March 1915 – 18 December 2004) was an Indian cricketer. He captained India in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953. In India's 25th Test match, nearly 20 years after India achieved Test status, he led India to its first ...

's record. He captained Bombay to titles in 1974–75 and 1975–76. His highest first class score of 265 was made in the 1981 finals where Bombay defeated Delhi by an innings. He also played some league cricket in England. Mankad was married to

Nirupama Mankad Nirupama Mankad ('' née'' Vasant; born 17 January 1947) is a former Indian tennis player. She is the first Indian woman in the modern era to play at a main draw of a Grand Slam. Nirupama Mankad is the daughter of G. Vasant, a leading tennis ...

(née Vasant), a former Asian Tennis champion. Their son

Harsh Mankad Harsh Mankad (born 10 November 1979) is a former world ranked ATP Professional tennis player from India. He played Davis Cup for India between 2001–2010 and was the No. 1 singles player on the team for several of those years. Personal life ...

is a member of the Indian

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

tennis team since 2000. Elder son Mihir Mankad was also a tennis player and is now an award-winning professor and leadership coach. Mankad served as a commentator and a coach of the Mumbai Ranji team for a few years. He died in his sleep on 1 August 2008.

References

* Sujit Mukherjee, ''Matched winners'', Orient Longman (1996), pp. 91–104 * Christopher Martin-Jenkins, ''The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers''

External links

*
Cricinfo obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mankad, Ashok 1946 births 2008 deaths Cricketers from Mumbai Indian cricketers India Test cricketers India One Day International cricketers Mumbai cricketers West Zone cricketers Indian Universities cricketers Gujarati people Indian cricket administrators Indian cricket coaches