Dattaram Dharmaji Hindlekar (1 January 1909 – 30 March 1949) was a
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 who
kept wicket for
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in
Test cricket
Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...
.
Cricket career
Hindlekar toured
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in
1936
Events January–February
* January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House.
* January 28 – Death and state funer ...
and
1946
1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...
as India's first-choice wicket-keeper. A right-handed batsman, he wore his cap at a "bewildered angle" and "stood with his toes pointing up at an angle of 45 degrees". He opened in the First Test at
Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...
in 1936, but had to stand down after he chipped a bone in his finger and suffered from blurred vision.
[ This injury and his subsequent exclusion from the next Test led to the famous opening partnership between ]Vijay Merchant
Vijay Singh Madhavji Merchant , (born Vijay Madhavji Thackersey; 12 October 1911 – 27 October 1987) was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first-class cricket for Bombay c ...
and Mushtaq Ali.
He was an unexpected selection for the 1946 tour. Injuries limited his appearances here as well. In the Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
Test, he went in last and batted out 13 minutes with Ranga Sohoni to save the match.
Personal life
Hindlekar was born in a Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
family in Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
, the son of a farmer from Ratnagiri
Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...
in 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 ...
. He worked in the Bombay Port Trust for a salary of 80 a month. His means were so limited that he could not afford to buy a pair of gloves, and used to visit Khershed Meherhomji and borrow his. He was the uncle of Vijay Manjrekar and great-uncle of Sanjay Manjrekar.
Hindlekar died at the age of 40 for want of proper treatment. It was only at a very late stage of his illness that he was moved to the Arthur Road Hospital in Bombay. He was survived by his wife and their seven children. After his death, the BCCI
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 ...
and Bombay Cricket Association issued appeals for contributions to help his family, but there was little response. The Bombay Port Trust then organised a cabaret dance on 6 August 1949 which raised a little over Rs. 7,000. Almost every major Indian cricketer of the time attended the dance.[ Majumdar, Boria, ''Twenty-Two Yards to Freedom''(2004), p. 100]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hindlekar, Dattaram
Indian cricketers
20th-century Indian sportsmen
India Test cricketers
Mumbai cricketers
Hindus cricketers
Rajasthan cricketers
West Zone cricketers
1909 births
1949 deaths
Cricketers from Mumbai
People from Ratnagiri
Wicket-keepers