User:Tintin1107/Umrigar

Pahlanji Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar (born 28 March 1926 in Sholapur, Maharashtra, India) was an Indian middle order batsman and captain in Test cricket.

Polly Umrigar hailed from the Gujarati community that dominated the Bombay cricket in the early decades of the twentieth century. He made his first class debut at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944. Four years later a 115* for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians earned him a single appearance in the Test matches against the same team.

By the time two Commonwealth teams visited India in 1949-50 and 1950-51, Umrigar had become a regular in the team. He scored 276 runs in the unofficial Tests against the first team and 562 runs against the second. In the Madras 'Test', he moved from 90 to 102 with two successive sixes off Frank Worrell. Somewhere along the line, he picked up the sobriquet of "palm-tree hitter".

He scored only 113 runs in the first four Tests against a weak England side at home a year later. He was dropped from the last Tests but was included in the last minute due to an injury to Hemu Adhikari. Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match. Though the bowling attack was not of a very high quality, Umrigar later called it the best innings of his life

In England in 1952, Umrigar scored heavily outside Test matches. He made more than 800 runs in May, double hundreds against Cambridge University, Lancashire and Kent, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy against Cambridge. His aggregate of 1688 was the highest in the season for the Indian team but in the Tests he was a complete failure. In seven innings he made 43 runs at an average of 6.14. But more than the lack of runs, it was the way that he batted that was disturbing. While facing Fred Trueman, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner" Trueman dismissed him four times, on three occasions he was bowled backing away.

More has perhaps been written about this series than any other phase of Umrigar's career. But it must also be noted that Umrigar had far more success in his other encounters with fast bowlers. He 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. It was off the bowling of Hall and Stayers that he played probably the finest innings of his career.

Umrigar scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties. He reached his hundred at Port of Spain with a six off Sonny Ramadhin. His innings of 223 against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1955-56 was the first double century scored for India.

Umrigar had led India in two unofficial Tests against the Commonwealth XI in 1953-54 winning one of them. From the second Test match against New Zealand in 1955-56 till the first Test against the West Indies three years later, he captained the side in eight successive Test matches. India won two of the New Zealand Tests by an innings.

After one Test against the West Indies in 1958-59, he was replaced by Ghulam Ahmed who then announced his retirement from Test cricket after two successive defeats. 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. Umrigar wanted another batsman, Manohar Hardikar, to replace Manjrekar, but Rathibhai Patel, the President of BCCI insisted on the off-spinner Jasu Patel to play in his place. Umrigar resigned the captaincy on the night before the Test. He represented India for three more years but never again captained the country. His 337 runs the the five Tests of the series was the highest for India.

During the tour of England in 1959 he scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University being the highest by an Indian in England. But this time he also made 230 runs in four Test matches. In the last meeting with Trueman, he hit 118 in the Old Traffod Test. Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel in India's win over Australia at Kanpur in 1959-60. He scored three hundreds in the series against Pakistan in 1960-61 and another against England at home in 1961-62.

A few weeks later, India lost every match in a five Test series in West Indies. In the fourth Test at Port of Spain, Umrigar scored 56 and 172 not out and took 5 for 107 in the West Indian first innings. His fifty in the first innings came after India had lost their first five wickets for 30. India followed on and Umrigar reached his hundred in 156 minutes and 150 in 203. When Wes Hall took the second new ball, Umrigar hit him for four fours in an over. The last two Indian wickets added 143. Umrigar's 172* came out of India's last 230 runs in 248 minutes. He finished the series with 445 runs and nine wickets. His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home. Umrigar continued to play first class cricket for Bombay till 1963.

Umrigar was a powerfully built man who stood just under six feet. An attacking player especially strong infront of the wicket, he was capable of destroying anything short of extreme pace. In this attitude towards the bowling, he was different from most of his contemporaries. From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant-Hazare school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket. Umrigar's batting was a throwback to the thirties when attacking players like C. K. Nayudu and Mushtaq Ali dominated the game. Umrigar originally had a crouched stance which he changed to an upright one in about 1953. This made him more of an onside player.

Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam. Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954-55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At Bahawalpur he only bowled about six overs "at the maxium pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken at later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee. (See the article on G. S. Ramchand for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)

Umrigar's aggregate of 3631 runs and 12 centuries were India's best till bettered by Sunil Gavaskar in the late seventies. He led the victorious Bombay sides in Ranji Trophy in 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1962-63. In 59 Ranji matches, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets. His highest score of 245 was made against Saurashtra in 1957-58.

Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia between 1975 and 1978. He was the chairan of the national selection committee between 1978 and 1982, Executive secretary of the BCCI and the Mumbai Cricket Association Secretary. For a time, he was also the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.

Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy in mid-2006.