RIP Dilip da, the spin wizard who invested a part of his soul in Kolkata

The passing away of former Indian spin great Dilip Doshi, at his London home on Monday at 77, stirred up a lot of memories in Kolkata – a city where he grew up and played most of his domestic cricket for Bengal. A Gujrati born in a business family in Saurashtra, he had been the first of the so called ‘outsiders’ who played a significant role in toughening up the cricketers of the state before the likes of Arun Lal and Ashok Malhotra.

 For many of the new generation, Doshi’s name could well serve more an answer to a quiz question on Test bowlers apart from  Australia’s Clarrie Grimmett to end up with 100 Test wickets after making a debut after 30. The wait for a call-up eventually came but he was not the only left-arm spinner to have lived in the shadows of the great Bishan Singh Bedi – the other two being  Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel who never made it - but Doshi still ended with 114 wickets in 33 Tests between 1979 and 1983.

 The spinner with glasses may have betrayed the looks of an academic even during his playing days, but Doshi strode the domestic scene like a colossus on the way to picking up a staggering 898 first class wickets including 43 five-wicket hauls. In county cricket, he turned his arm over in that economic, silken smooth action for Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire in as 238 first class fixtures and later settled down in the Old Blighty as a hugely successful businessperson.

 However, the ties with Kolkata remained ever so strong and one’s last memory was that of him not making a very convincing case in arguing in favour of T20 cricket in the annual debate of a city newspaper at Calcutta Club in February this year.

Spotted: Mick Jagger at Eden enjoying the Eng-Pak WC encounter

May be, Dilip da – as the local media would take the liberty of addressing him as due to his comfort level in Bengali – was not entirely convinced with the topic but was too much of a gentleman to say ‘no.’ Always nattily dressed, the former student of St Xaviers College strode effortlessly in the marquee high society in London and be friends of the Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger to his occasional visits to the Eden Gardens when in Kolkata.

During a group game between England and Pakistan of the 2023 ICC World Cup at the Eden, sports buff Jagger turned up as a spectator – but most were not even aware that it was Doshi who organised his visit.

Reminiscing about him, Raju Mukherjee, a former Bengal captain and cricket historian told National Herald: ‘’I am fortunate that he had played for Bengal under my captaincy for a season. It’s common knowledge that Dilip had to wait at the wings for his international debut because of Bedi’s presence, but he was a great practitioner of his craft. It’s difficult to forget his hospitality during my stay in Nottingham – my thoughts goes out for boudi (wife) and children.’’

A product of the university cricketing system in the early ‘70s, Doshi was a contemporary of late Bengal opener Gopal Bose and once spearheaded Calcutta University’s triumph in Rohinton Baria Trophy. ‘’There is a story behind his delayed call-up to the Indian team related to me by Sunil Gavaskar. It was the West Indian great Rohan Kanhai who suggested giving Dilip a break to the then captain S. Venkataraghavan at a send-off party for the teams after the 1979 World Cup in England. While the Indian team was on their flight back, the captain announced on PA system that Gavaskar was the new captain in place of Venkataraghavan – and Dilip made his debut in the very next series against Australia at home,’’ Mukherjee said.  

 Starting with a six-wicket haul, Doshi’s career took and he became a fixture of the Test team for the next four years. The emergence of Maninder Singh, around whom the hype was that of being the ‘new Bedi,’ and a young allrounder in Ravi Shastri signalled the fading away of Doshi. Towards the finishing stages of his career, he went back for a couple of seasons with his birthplace Saurashtra but was no longer the same bowler.

RIP Dilip da…as Kolkata would say!