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Mumbai: Former India Test cricketer Vasant Ranjane passed away in Pune following brief illness. Ranjane made his debut against West Indies and played in only seven Tests.
He was 74 and is survived by two sons, one of whom - Subhash - also played first class cricket for Maharashtra.
Incidentally, Subhash's son and Vasant's grandson Shubham is representing the association in under 19 cricket conducted by BCCI.
"He was briefly ill and was admitted to Ruby Hall Clinic where he died," said former Maharashtra opener and national selection panel member Surendra Bhave.
Ranjane, born in Pune on July 22, 1937, played at a time when pace bowling was given the short shrift by Indian captains and selectors.
As a result he played in only seven Tests between 1958-59, when he made his debut against the all-powerful West Indies side led by Gerry Alexander at Kanpur, and 1964 - when he played his last game against Australia at Chennai.
His club, Maharashtra and India mate Chandu Borde described Ranjane as a very good bowler who should have played more number of times for the country.
In all, Ranjane grabbed 19 wickets in Tests at 34.15 per innings and 175 wickets from 64 first class ties, most of them secured on shirt front or spinning tracks, for Maharashtra and Railways.
He burst on the national scene in a sensational fashion, with a hat-trick and innings figures of nine for 35 against Saurashtra on his first class debut in 1956-57 that he complemented with a haul of four for 36 in the second innings.
After his debut Test, when he got hit and could not bowl in the second innings after having taken 1 for 35 in the first, Ranjane played in the next Test series at home, against Ted Dexter's Englishmen in 1961, took nine wickets in three games.
Selected for the disastrous visit to the Caribbean in 1962, the tour in which first-choice captain Nari Contractor suffered a near-fatal skull injury and was replaced by Pataudi at the helm, Ranjane was given a chance to play only in the fifth and final Test and impressed with figures of four for 72 and two for 81.
He played only two more Tests, one against Mike Smith's England at Chennai in 1964 and the other against Bob Simpson's Australia in the same year and in the same city, but never played for India again.
