Rajinder Goel
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Rajinder Goel (20 September 1942 – 21 June 2020) was an 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 str ...
er who holds the record for most wickets in Ranji Trophy, India's premier first class competition, despite which he was never selected to play 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 ...
. A
left arm This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...
spinner, he represented Patiala, Southern Punjab,
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 ...
and
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 a ...
in domestic cricket. The son of an assistant station master in the
Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...
, Goel came up through the Vaish school and college in
Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...
. His first major success was for North Zone schools in 1957 when he took four wickets against West Zone in the final of the All-India schools tournament and was declared the best bowler of the competition. He made his Ranji debut in the next season. Goel credits his early success to his teacher and coach Kishan Dayal. He started his first class career with Patiala, which then evolved into the Southern Punjab team. He moved to Delhi in 1963 and Haryana ten years later. Goel appeared for India against Ceylon in an unofficial Test at Ahmedabad in 1964-65 where he took 4 for 33 in the second innings. Thereafter, the presence of the "
Indian spin quartet The Indian spin quartet is the collective name given to the Indian cricket spin bowlers of the 1960s and 1970s: Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (both off spinners), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (a leg spinner), and Bishen Singh Bedi (a l ...
", especially
Bishen Bedi Bishan Singh Bedi (; born 25 September 1946) is a former Indian cricketer who was primarily a slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He played Test cricket for India from 1966 to 1979 and formed part of the famous Indian spin quartet. He played a total ...
who bowled in a similar style, restricted his appearances for India. When Bedi was dropped from the team for the
Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
Test 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 ...
in 1974-75 on disciplinary grounds for appearing in a BBC interview, Goel was selected for the Indian team but was excluded at the last moment. He also took 6-102 and 3-43 against the Australians in 1979-80. Goel rated his 12-134 against the South Zone in the final of the 1975-76
Duleep Trophy The Duleep Trophy, also known as Mastercard Duleep trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India. Named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar (also known as 'Duleep'), the competition wa ...
as his most satisfying performance. Goel went past V. V. Kumar's Ranji record of 417 wickets in the 1978-79 season. His 600th wicket was Chandrakant Pandit, caught at deep squareleg in the Ranji semifinal against
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-m ...
in 1983-84. He retired after taking 39 wickets in 1984-85 season. Goel's 637 Ranji wickets is a record by a long way,
Srinivas Venkataraghavan Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan ( (informally Venkat, born 21 April 1945) is an Indian former cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team at the first two ICC Cricket World Cups, and later became an umpire on the elite International Cric ...
with 530 wickets being the next best. He took more than 25 Ranji wickets in a season fifteen times, including in his last nine seasons. Haryana reached the Ranji semi-final thrice during Goel's time but lost on each occasion. Their first appearance in the final happened in the season after his retirement. Goel is one of two non-Test cricketers, the other being Padmakar Shivalkar, who
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 ...
chose among his "idols" in his book of the same name. "He is the one bowler whom I have really dreaded facing in my life," he wrote about Goel. "I have never been able to feel comfortable against his left hand spinners and Goel has been one who, because of his flatter trajectory, has not given me the opportunity to step down the track and drive." However, Gavaskar considered Bedi the greater bowler overall.
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 ...
, ''Idols'', pp 163–166
During his playing days, Goel was employed by the State Bank of India. He later served as a selector for Haryana and the Indian junior teams. His son Nitin Goel was also a first class cricketer for Haryana.


Notes

When referring to the 600th wicket, this article follows the Indian sources which credit Goel with 640 Ranji Trophy wickets. As pe
CricketArchive
he has 637 wickets. If one goes with CricketArchive, Goel's 600th wicket would be in the match between Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in the 1984-85 season.


References


External links

* * * Cricinfo interview with Goel

* Another Cricinfo interview

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goel, Rajinder Haryana cricketers Indian cricketers North Zone cricketers 2020 deaths 1942 births People from Jind district Delhi cricketers Patiala cricketers Southern Punjab cricketers State Bank of India cricketers