Cricket lost a great man on 18th December when Vijay Hazare, aged 89 passed away at Vadodara. He had a first class career in cricket and captained India 14 times.

He was the grand old man of Indian cricket . His test average was bettered only by Gavaskar,  and he recorded only one test century against each of his opponents. He was the first Indian to make two hundreds against Australia in 1947/48.

Born on 11th March 1915 at Sangli , Maharashtra, Vijay Hazare was a quiet and undemonstrative person who let his bat do the talking for him. His technique was founded on very solid defence and he had amazing powers of concentration on the field.

Vijay Hazare was  one of the heaviest run scorers in the history of Indian domestic cricket. He  put together  runs of 264, 81, 97, 248, 59, 309, 101 and 223 in first-class matches between 1943 and 1944. He shared a mammoth 577-run partnership with Gul Mohammad in the Ranji Trophy final between Baroda and Holkar in 1946-47, a world record for any wicket in first-class cricket.

Once in 1947/48 at Adelaide, when India was faced with a mammoth Australian total of 674 and India were down for a meager 133 with five wickets,  Vijay Hazare took the crease with Dattu Phadkar and  the Australian crowd witnessed a spectacular recovery and the Indians ended the day at a respectable 299 for 5. In that innings Hazare made a 116 before he got out.

Vijay Hazarae, is a household name in Baroda, so much so, that every auto rickshaw driver knows his house. Cricket afficionados know all about his legendary partnerships with Gul Mohammed and his sporting rivalry with Vijay Merchant.

Although Hazare was an all time great batsman, he was also a reasonably good bowler.  He took 595 first-class wickets (including 20 in Tests, and Donald Bradmans wicket three times). On the Indian domestic circuit, Hazare played for the Maharashtra, Central India and Baroda teams. First Indian batsman to score a triple century in first class cricket ( if we consider KS Duleepsinhji as an English cricketer)

He was the first Indian to score two triple centuries and the first Indian player to score a century in three successive Test matches . Hazare was also the first Indian player to make fifty centuries in his first class career .

Although Hazare will always be remembered as one of Indias all-time great batsmen, he was also a reasonable bowler. In fact, for him, getting Bradman out in 1947-48 was no less a feat than scoring consecutive hundreds at Adelaide. "Though I got a couple of hundreds on the tour, another eternal memory is that of getting Bradman out on three occasions," he recalled. "While my first two successes against him had little practical value - he had scored well over 150 by then - on the third occasion I bowled him for 15.