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Covid-19: Mumbai Cricket's 'Mini Gavaskar' Passes Away Due to Coronavirus Complications

Curated By: Cricketnext Staff

Last Updated: September 17, 2020, 12:56 IST

English women T20.

English women T20.

Mumbai's cricketing fraternity suffered a big jolt as a former local cricketer Sachin Deshmukh died due to Covid-19, at 2.57pm at Vedant Hospital on Tuesday. The 52-year-old made it to the squads of Mumbai and Maharashtra Ranji teams, but never made it to the playing XIs.

Mumbai’s cricketing fraternity suffered a big jolt as a former local cricketer Sachin Deshmukh died due to Covid-19, at 2.57pm at Vedant Hospital on Tuesday. The 52-year-old made it to the squads of Mumbai and Maharashtra Ranji teams, but never made it to the playing XIs.

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“He scored three hundreds – 183, 130 and 110 – in five innings under my captaincy for the Maharashtra under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy in November 1986. He was a hard-hitting batsman. We grew up together,” Deshmukh’s close friend Abhijit Deshpande, ex-Maharashtra Ranji player told the Times of India.

Deshmukh was also a superintendent Excise and Customs in Mumbai, which is now known as GST and Customs. He had a rather successful junior career, and smashed seven consecutive tons for Pune University in the All-India Inter-University tournament.

“He was a gifted, talented cricketer. He used to tell me that Madhav Mantri used to like him a lot. Unfortunately though, he never got a chance to play for Mumbai,” Deshmukh’s close friend Ramesh Vazge, a former managing committee member of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) told TOI on Wednesday. “His death is a message to us that no one should take this disease lightly. He had fever, but refused to get himself admitted to the hospital. He was detected with Covid nine days ago,” he added.

“After his superb show for Pune University, he played for the All-India Universities team against the visiting West Indies side. He was such a fantastic batsman that he was referred to as mini-Gavaskar in local cricket. However, injuries prevented him from growing further in his career,” said Iqbal Shaikh, ex-MCA managing committee member. “His untimely death has shocked me. He was a great human-being, who used to help a lot of Mumbai cricketers. He was like a Godfather to young cricketers in the city,” said MCA Apex Council member Nadim Memon.

first published:September 17, 2020, 12:49 IST
last updated:September 17, 2020, 12:56 IST