Vijay Hazare

Vijay Samuel Hazare  pronunciation  (11 March 1915 – 18 December 2004) was an Indian cricket player from the state of Maharashtra. He captained the Indian cricket team in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953. In India's 25th Test match, nearly 20 years after India achieved Test status, he led India to its first ever Test cricket win (and the only victory under his captaincy) in 1951–52 against England at Madras, winning by an innings and eight runs in a match that began on the day that King George VI died.

Early life

Hazare was born in Sangli, in the then Bombay Presidency of British India in 1915, one of eight children of a schoolteacher.

Primarily a right-hand batsman, Hazare was also a right-hand medium-pace bowler. A "shy, retiring" man (according to Wisden in 1952), it was widely thought that he was not a natural captain, and that his batting suffered as a result. His rival, Vijay Merchant said that the captaincy prevented Hazare from becoming India's finest batsman: "It was one of the tragedies of cricket."