Mehli Dinshaw Irani (26 June 1930 – 3 April 2021) 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, who played as a left-handed batsman and

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

. Irani played in the Kanga Cricket League for over 50 years. He made one appearance for

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 ...

in the

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 ...

, and also played

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

for

Bombay University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

and Parsee Cyclists.

Career

Irani was a left-handed batsman and

. He captained the St. Xavier's College cricket team, and later played

for

Bombay Gymkhana The Bombay Gymkhana, established in 1875, is a premier private members' club in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located at the triangular end of Azad Maidan in the Fort area of South Mumbai and is in close proximity of Chhatrapati Shivaji ...

and Parsee Cyclists. At Bombay Gymkhana, Irani played alongside Rohan Gavaskar, the son of

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 ...

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

. In December 1951, Irani played for

in a match against the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

. In the match, he played alongside Madhusudan Patil, the father of Test cricketer Sandeep Patil. In the 1952–53 season, Irani captained a Bombay University team that included five future Test match players: (

Nari Contractor Nariman Jamshedji "Nari" Contractor (; born 7 March 1934) is a former Indian cricketer, who was a left-handed opening batsman. Contractor made his debut in 1955 and played till 1962 when his professional career ended after a serious injury. He w ...

, Naren Tamhane, Chandrakant Patankar, Gundibail Sunderam and Ramnath Kenny). In one match captained by Irani, five catches were dropped in the opening over. The Bombay University team won that year's Rohinta Barion Trophy, after defeating Delhi in the final. In 1953, Irani made his only appearance in the

, playing for

in a match against

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

. He was out lbw to Vijay Hazare for 17. Irani's team-mate Shishir Hattangadi said that Irani was disappointed to have only ever played one Ranji Trophy match. Irani played in the Kanga Cricket League, a monsoon season cricket tournament, for 57 years, starting in 1949. He described the difficulty of batting in the tournament: "A person who gets 30 or 40 runs is as good as getting a 50 or a 100 when you play on a dry wicket, the uncertainty of the wicket added to Kanga League’s beauty." He played for Parsee Cyclists, and took over the captaincy of the side from Nari Contractor. In 1991, Irani

stumped Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

in a Kanga League match. Irani played as a

even in his 60s, before retiring from cricket at the age of 69.

Personal life and death

At Bombay Cricket Club, Irani was nicknamed the "centre table man". Irani was married to Dhanu, and they had two daughters. He continued to attend Bombay Gymkhana cricket matches even after his retirement, until he moved to

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

in December 2020 to be near one of his daughters. Irani died on 3 April 2021 in Dubai, and his death was announced by the Mumbai Cricket Association. His funeral was held the next day.

References

External links

ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irani, Mehli 1930 births Indian cricketers 20th-century Indian sportsmen Cricketers from Mumbai 2021 deaths St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni University of Mumbai people Irani (India) people