Roshan Harshadlal "Deepak" Shodhan (18 October 1928 – 16 May 2016) was an Indian

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

er.

Background

Shodhan was a left-handed batsman and occasional medium pace bowler. He was the second Indian batsman, after

Lala Amarnath Lala Amarnath Bharadwaj (11 September 1911 - 5 August 2000) was an Indian cricketer. He scored a century on test debut and became the first player to score a century for the India national cricket team in Test cricket. He was independent India ...

, to score a hundred on Test debut. He was selected against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

on the weight of the 89 * that he scored for West Zone against the Pakistanis earlier in the tour. Named as 12th man for the 1952 Calcutta test, he took the field after

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 ...

was unable to play. At

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 a curious Indian innings where every batsman reached double figures, Shodhan scored 110 batting at No.8. In an interview Shodhan later reminisced about his hundred: "I was an attacking player myself. I relished the attacking field set by Pakistan. Even when the ninth wicket was lost, I managed to hit two consecutive boundaries to reach 100". He added 40 runs for the last wicket with Ghulam Ahmed. Shodhan scored 45 and 11 in the first Test at Port of Spain against

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 Greate ...

that followed. He missed the next three Tests, and when picked for the last match of

the series ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

he fell ill. He scored an important 15* in the second innings batting at No.10. That turned out to be his last Test as he was never again selected to play for India.

Odd explanation

The exclusion of Shodhan from the Indian team thereafter has never been convincingly explained. It is sometimes attributed to the eccentricities of the selectors. In his book ''The Covers Are Off'' published in 2004, Rajan Bala interviewed the various people involved, and it seems to indicate that it was the animosity between Shodhan and

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 ...

that ended his career . Mankad, a senior player in the side, was apparently not on good terms with

who had captained India in the series in West Indies. "There was a story doing the rounds that Mankad asked him (Shodhan) as to which side he was on – on his or Hazare's. And when Shodhan replied that he was on the Indian side, Mankad had the knives out for him". The West Indian tour was to be Hazare's last series and he was succeeded by Mankad. Hazare once told Bala that he was "not aware of the exchange between him (Shodhan) and Vinoo, but I must say that Vinoo was not too keen that Deepak play. I suppose Vinoo found Deepak's attitude casual. ... (Shodhan) was not interested in touring (after the final Test of the series) ... Maybe it had to do with his business commitments. He had made himself unavailable for the tour of Pakistan and it might have been because Vinoo was the captain." Shodhan also hinted at the same : "All I can tell you is that no youngster could hope to play for long at that time because he had to ally himself to one camp or the other. One had to know how to survive. What did I know about the politics? The captain Vijay Hazare was not a strong personality and the truth is, Vinoo Mankad was. He always had his way... I would have loved to play on. But then Hazare called quits and Mankad became captain. I made myself unavailable for the tour to Pakistan in 1954/55. It is unlikely that I would have been chosen".

Highest record

Deepak Shodhan's 60.33 still remains the highest average in a completed career by an Indian batsman. He represented

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

for most of his

Ranji Colonel H. H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, (10 September 1872 – 2 April 1933), often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as Ma ...

career before switching to

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

. As a youngster, he was a good

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

player. But being a left-hander he needed a specially made 'left-handed hockey stick' which dissuaded him .

Death

Shodhan died at the age of 87 on 16 May 2016 at his Ahmedabad home after suffering from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

, which was detected in February 2016. He was India's oldest former Test cricketer at time of his death.When I met India's oldest living Test cricketer
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References

External links

* Rajan Bala, ''The Covers are Off'', (2004), p. 53–54 * Richard Cashman, ''Patrons, Players and the Crowd'' (1979), p. 100

(accessed 9 September 2005) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shodhan, Deepak 1928 births 2016 deaths Indian cricketers India Test cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Gujarat cricketers Baroda cricketers Indian Universities cricketers West Zone cricketers Gujarati people Cricketers from Ahmedabad Deaths from lung cancer in India