1. Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar was an Indian cricketer.
36 Facts About Polly Umrigar
1. 2.
Polly Umrigar played in the Indian cricket team and played first-class cricket for Bombay and Gujarat.
3.
Polly Umrigar captained India in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958.
4.
Polly Umrigar scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
5.
Polly Umrigar was probably born in Bombay but his place of birth is often cited as Solapur, Maharashtra.
6.
Polly Umrigar grew up in Solapur and his family moved to Bombay when he was at school.
7.
Polly Umrigar was a Parsi, the community that dominated Bombay cricket in the early decades of the twentieth century.
8.
Polly Umrigar made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College.
9.
Polly Umrigar scored 115* for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians in October 1948.
10.
Polly Umrigar scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second.
11.
Polly Umrigar scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side at home a year later.
12.
Polly Umrigar was dropped from the fifth Test but was included at the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari.
13.
In England in 1952, Polly Umrigar scored heavily outside Test matches, but in Tests he was a complete failure.
14.
Polly Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers.
15.
Polly Umrigar scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King, Wes Hall, Roy Gilchrist and Charlie Stayers.
16.
Polly Umrigar reached his hundred at Port of Spain with a six off Sonny Ramadhin.
17.
Polly Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar, who was injured.
18.
Polly Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar, to replace Manjrekar, but Ratibhai Patel, the President of BCCI insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel to play in his place.
19.
Polly Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test.
20.
Polly Umrigar represented India for three more years but never again captained the country.
21.
Polly Umrigar scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad.
22.
Polly Umrigar made 230 runs in four Test matches, including 118 in the Old Trafford Test in his last meeting with Trueman.
23.
India followed on and Polly Umrigar reached his hundred in 156 minutes and 150 in 203.
24.
When Wes Hall took the second new ball, Polly Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over.
25.
Polly Umrigar finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets.
26.
Polly Umrigar was a powerfully built man who stood just under six feet.
27.
Polly Umrigar's batting combined the tall scores of this era with the adventurous spirit of the thirties.
28.
Polly Umrigar bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam.
29.
Polly Umrigar twice scored 1,000 runs in an Indian domestic season.
30.
Polly Umrigar spent a few years for Church in the Lancashire League.
31.
Polly Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia in the late 1970s.
32.
Polly Umrigar was the chairman of the national selection committee between 1978 and 1982, Executive secretary of the BCCI and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary.
33.
Polly Umrigar wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.
34.
Polly Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy in mid-2006.
35.
Polly Umrigar died in Mumbai from the illness on 7 November 2006.
36.
Polly Umrigar was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.