Indian Starlets were a team of young
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 ...
n
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 ...
ers who played 16
first-class matches between 1960 and 1967.
Tour of Pakistan, 1959-60
Seventeen players took part in a tour of
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
in April and May 1960. They played seven first-class matches; all were drawn. The players, with their ages at the beginning of the tour, were:
*
Sudhakar Adhikari (20)
*
Lala Amarnath (48) (captain in the two matches he played)
* Prem Bhatia (20)
* Dinabandu (age unknown)
*
Farokh Engineer (22)
*
William Ghosh (31)
*
Habib Ahmed (21) (captain in four of the five matches he played)
* Harcharan Singh (21)
*
M. L. Jaisimha (21) (captain in one of the five matches he played)
*
V. V. Kumar (24)
* Gulshran Mehra (22)
* Madan Mehra (25)
*
Vijay Mehra (22)
*
A. G. Milkha Singh (18)
*
B. B. Nimbalkar (40)
* Chatta Ramesh (26)
*
Ponnuswami Sitaram (27)
Milkha Singh was the leading batsman, with 469 runs at an average of 117.25 and three centuries. Ghosh, Kumar and Sitaram were the most successful bowlers.
Apart from the experienced Amarnath, while most of the players had substantial careers in Indian domestic cricket, only Engineer, Jaisimha, Kumar, Vijay Mehra and Milkha Singh went on to play Test cricket.
Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament
Indian Starlets played a
friendly match
An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...
in March 1963 against an Andhra Chief Minister's XI. It was drawn.
Between 1964-65 and 1967-68 Indian Starlets competed in the annual first-class
Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament held in
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
at
Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium. They played eight matches in all, drawing the first six and losing the last two. They reached the final in 1964-65 (in which their opponents,
Associated Cement Company, were declared the winners on the basis of their 253-run first innings lead) and in 1966–67, when they lost to
State Bank of India
State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Public sector undertakings in India, public sector bank and financial service body headquartered in Mumbai. It is the largest bank in India with a 23% market shar ...
by 16 runs.
Of their 16 first-class matches, Indian Starlets drew the first 14 and lost the last two.
Indian Starlets teams also toured
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
in 1973 and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
in 1978–79, but no first-class matches were played on either tour.
References
{{reflist, 3
External links
First-class matches played by Indian Starlets
Former senior cricket clubs of India
Indian first-class cricket teams