Manohar Shankar Hardikar (8 February 1936 – 4 February 1995) 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 fo ...
er.
Hardikar represented India in two Tests 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 Greater A ...
in
1958–59. He was dismissed by
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist (28 June 1934 – 18 July 2001) was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67.
Gi ...
off the very first ball that he faced in Test cricket. He then took a wicket with his third ball in Test cricket by dismissing
Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Babulal Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Tamil Indo-Guyanese origin , who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featur ...
. In the second innings, he scored 32* and added 85* with
G.S. Ramchand which saved India from a possible defeat.
In the next Test at Kanpur, Hardikar was hit on the head by a
beamer from
Wes Hall
Sir Wesley Winfield Hall (born 12 September 1937) is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bow ...
. Hall had been angered by no-ball calls from the umpire
Mohammad Yunus. The ball hit Hardikar behind his left ear and knocked him down.
He played no more international matches but was indirectly involved in
the controversy that led to the resignation of
Polly Umrigar
Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (28 March 1926 – 7 November 2006) was an Indian cricketer. He played in Indian cricket team (1948- 1962) and played first-class cricket for Bombay and Gujarat. Umrigar played mainly as a middle-order batsman ...
later in the series.
Hardikar played for
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- ...
from 1955/56 to 1967/68. In the
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 ...
final in his first year, he took a career best 8 for 39 against
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. He captained Bombay in twelve matches, winning five and drawing the rest. Bombay won the title in 1965/66 and 1967/68 under his captaincy.
Hardikar died of cancer in 1995.
References
* Obituary in ''
Indian Cricket 1995''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardikar, Manohar
1936 births
1995 deaths
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
Mumbai cricketers
Cricketers from Vadodara
Deaths from cancer in India