Dinkar Balwant Deodhar (14 January 1892 – 24 August 1993) was an Indian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

from 1911 to 1948.

Cricket career

Deodhar was born in

Poona Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

(now Pune),

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. He was a professor of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

at Pune College. Popularly known as the Grand Old Man of Indian Cricket, Deodhar was an aggressive right-hand batsman and a

leg-break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called a leg spinner. Leg spinners bowl with their right-arm and a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery is called a leg break, which spins fr ...

bowler. He captained

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI ...

matches from 1939 to 1941. In his first-class career, he played 81 matches, scoring 4,522 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 39.32 with a highest score of 246. Deodhar was vice-president of the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

, the President of the

Maharashtra Cricket Association The Maharashtra Cricket Association ( Marathi: महाराष्ट्र क्रिकेट संघटणा) is the governing body of the cricket in the Maharashtra state of India. Its Maharashtra cricket team represent Maharashtra stat ...

, and also a national team selector. Like

Bill Ashdown William Henry Ashdown (27 December 1898 – 15 September 1979) was an English professional cricketer. He is one of a very few men who played first-class cricket before the First World War and after the Second World War. Ashdown was born in Brom ...

, Deodhar is one of the few people known to have played first-class cricket both before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, having played in the

Bombay Triangular The Bombay Tournament was an annual cricket competition held in British India between 1892 and 1946. Until 1936, matches were played on either the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay or the Deccan Gymkhana Ground in Poona, and then at the Brabourne Stadiu ...

in 1911 and the

in 1946. In a Ranji Trophy game against Nawanagar in 1944, he scored

centuries A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A ...

in both innings, helping his team win. He was aged 53 at the time. He was awarded the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

award in 1965 and the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

in 1991 by the Indian Government. He was the first Indian

first-class cricketer First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

known to have lived to 100.

Vasant Raiji Vasant Naisadrai Raiji (26 January 1920 – 13 June 2020) was an Indian first-class cricketer and cricket historian. He featured in nine first class matches between 1939 and 1950. Life and career Raiji was born in Baroda. Representing a Crick ...

became the second in 2020. Raiji died a few months after becoming a centenarian.

Personal life

India's former National Badminton Champions Tara Deodhar, Sunder Deodhar, and Suman Deodhar are his daughters.

Legacy

The

Deodhar Trophy The Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy or simply Deodhar Trophy (also known as IDFC First Bank Deodhar Trophy due to sponsorship reasons), is a List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cr ...

, a limited overs inter-zonal cricket tournament played in India since 1973, is named after him. In 1996,

India Post The Department of Posts, d/b/a India Post, is an Indian Public Sector Undertakings in India, public sector postal system statutory body headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is an organisation under the Ministry of Communications (India), Minist ...

issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. A bronze statue of Deodhar was unveiled at Pune's

Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium is an international cricket stadium in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It is owned and operated by the Maharashtra Cricket Association. It is the home ground of the Maharashtra cricket team and Maharashtra ...

in 2012.

References

External links

* 1892 births 1993 deaths Maharashtra cricketers Indian cricketers South Zone cricketers Hindus cricketers Indian men centenarians Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in sports Cricketers from Pune Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports {{India-cricket-bio-stub