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This
is a hard to believe but no one will
dare to challenge the fact that when
it comes to counting of Sindhi
contribution to sporting arena of
India, finger tips proves sufficient,
but this is also fact whenever a
sindhi enters into sporting field,
most of times he goes to touch and
create new heights and record this may
be
Narendra Hirwani
- the world record creator leg spin
bowler or teen age Billiards and
Snooker World Champion
Pankaj Advani,
Even we go further deep in history,
when Indian cricket team register ever
first Test match victory against
Australia, Indian team was being lead
by none else but a sindhi "Ramchand
Gulabrai Sipahimalani" famous as G S
Ramchand.
G S
Ramchand was born on
26th July 1927
at Karachi Sindh and has represented
India in 33 Tests. He was a
hard hitting batsman,
very accurate bowler
with brisk medium pace deliveries and
reliable fine close
fielder,
who started cricketing career with
England tour in 1952. His first class
debut was the match between Sindh and
Maharashtra in the season 1945-1946.
After
partition he shifted to Mumbai.
In
his debut test he scored a pair at
Headingley against
Len Hutton's
strong England team, though he took
couple of wicket, this test is treated
historic as in the second inning at
one stage India was without score and
has lost four wicket, Ramchand was one
among these four. In his test career
he crossed the three figure twice,
both times on home soil, the
first an unbeaten 106 against
New Zealand at Kolkatta
in 1955-56, and the second the innings
he is most remembered
for - 109 at Bombay
against the mighty Australian attack
of Ray Lindwall, Alan
Davidson
and Richie Benaud
in 1956, his this inning become
significant as when he step in India
was struggling at 74 for 4 and his
inning helped the Indian team to end
the test with a creditable draw.
Beside scoring 1,180 runs at 24.58 he
took 41 wickets at 46.31 in 33 test he
played. In 145 first class matches
scored 6026 runs with average of 36.30
and 16 ton knocks, but for Bombay
[Mumbai] his record was incredible
averaging very high at 75.55 even his
first class highest runs 230 not out
were scored for Mumbai against
Maharashtra not only this but also his
best bowling
performance 8 for 12
against Sourashtra in 1959 was also
for Mumbai. He also played in the
English Cricket League for six year
from 1951 to 1957. The most remarkable
test of his life was
Kanpur Test
in [1959 -1960 series] against the
touring Australian
team
lead by Richie Benaud. He was captain
of Indian team and went on to record
ever first test win against the
Australia.
He
retired from first class cricket in
1965-1966 and kept on working with Air
India but his love and passion for
cricket was alive till his death on
7th September 2003. It is said that
the day before he died, he sent his
wife out from his bedside at the
Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai to get the
latest score in the Test between
Pakistan and Bangladesh.
G S Ramchand was the first cricketer
who endorsed a commercial
and was the team manager of Indian
team participated in ever first ODI
World Cup in 1975. Following words are
truly expressing greatness of this
player of unmatched caliber "Sir, my
name is Mark Taylor. I am here to
receive an award on behalf of my team.
Can I request to shake the hand of the
man who led India to their first win
over us?"
Test
debut England v India at Leeds, Jun
5-9, 1952
Last Test India v Australia at Kolkata,
Jan 23-28, 1960
First-class span 1945/46 - 1965/66
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