Friday, 9 October 2015

Madhav Apte - India's most unfortunate cricketer

Despite having a healthy overseas tour of West Indies where he averaged around 50, Apte was never considered for the Test side again. In the 7 Test matches that he played for India, he scored 542 runs at 49.27, notching up three fifties and one hundred.

 Madhav Apte started his career as a leg-spin googly bowler. He performed decently in that role as well and made people sit up and take notice with his 10 wickets for 10 runs in a match during the Gilles and Shield tournament.

Apte attended Elphinstone College in Mumbai, where Vinoo Mankad became the coach in 1948. The star Indian all-rounder felt that Apte would make a good opener, and asked him to carefully watch Vijay Merchant in order to learn the right technique. At 20, Apte made his debut for India against Pakistan in their 1952 tour of India. He opened the innings with his guru Vinoo Mankad and scored 30 and 10* in the match.

Apte is the only player to have played alongside D.B Deodhar – the “Grand Old Man of Indian Cricket”, and Sachin Tendulkar. In the 1987-88 domestic season, 55-year old Apte was playing for the CCI at Shivaji Park Gymkhana against a 14-year old Tendulkar. The following year, as the president of CCI, it was Apte who bent the rules of the dressing room to allow Tendulkar to be a playing member of the club.

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