RIP Rajendrasinh Jadeja: Both sides of a side!

Picture/Sandeep Patil’s Personal Collection

In pic: The Bombay University team which won the Rohinton Baria Trophy by beating Delhi in the January 16-20, 1975 final at Mysore. Standing: Rajendrasinh Jadeja (encircled), Bava Adam, Avadhoot Zarapkar, team manager Prof H Suvarna, Ravi Tuli, Raju Babla (captain), chief guest for the final, Sandeep Patil, Dilip Vengsarkar and Vijay Alva. Sitting: Bharat Nadkarni (extreme left), Chintamani Vaidya, Umakant Prabhu, Vijay Mohanraj, Suru Nayak and Hemant Shah.

Yet another gentleman has succumbed to a thoroughly ungentlemanly pandemic. On Sunday, it was the turn of former Saurashtra and Mumbai all-rounder Rajendrasinh Jadeja, 66, to join the list of cricketers who have succumbed to Covid-19.

Yes, Jadeja or Raju as his friends across the cricketing fraternity called him, was a gentleman as endorsed by his ex-teammates Sandeep Patil and Ravi Shastri in their tributes. "Really sad to lose a colleague from Nirlons, Mumbai and West Zone and a friend for many years, Raju Jadeja due to Covid-19 complications. A gentleman to the core. May his soul rest in peace... Om Shanti," tweeted Shastri.

‘Gentleman on and off field'

"Raju was a gentleman on and off field," Patil said of Jadeja who was in the same championship-winning Bombay University team which beat Delhi at Mysore in 1974-75. "He came into prominence after he toured England with the Indian Schoolboys team under manager Vijay Manjrekar in 1973. Unfortunately, he did not do justice to his batting. He looked so good in nets but was completely the opposite in the match. I last met him a few years ago when I was India's chief selector and we chatted about the old days and our time with Nirlon [office team in Mumbai]," Patil told mid-day.

The 1979 Cricket Quarterly issue which featured Rajendra Jadeja (below left) on the cover. Rajinder Singh Hans, Sandeep Patil and Shivlal Yadav are the others

A little after Patil spoke about Jadeja's neglected batting, we stumbled on a 1979 copy of Cricket Quarterly in which sports writer Sunder Rajan penned a profile of Jadeja. In it, Rajan mentioned how Jadeja put on 45 with Patil in pursuit of Delhi's 359 in the 1978-79 Ranji Trophy semi-final at Wankhede Stadium.

The seventh-wicket stand ended when Jadeja (7) hooked an S Madan Lal bouncer only to be caught by wicketkeeper Surinder Khanna in the first innings. Patil slammed 145 and Mumbai were 30 runs short in a match Delhi won on the first innings. Doubtless, it was as a pace bowler that Jadeja made the biggest impact and probably his finest hour in Ranji Trophy was when his 6-27 helped skittle out a full Mumbai side for 79 on a matting track at Surendranagar in Saurashtra on October 2, 1976. Karsan Ghavri, who was in that Mumbai team, recalled: "Though Raju was not a seasoned cricketer at the time, he was a specialist on matting. He kept all batsmen on the back foot because of the bounce. With his high-arm bowling action he troubled all including Sunil Gavaskar [who was dismissed by him for a duck in the first innings]."

Ghavri claimed 6-40 as Saurashtra were bundled out for 109 but the visitors still enjoyed the lead. Mumbai bounced back thanks to Ashok Mankad (124 not out) and Gavaskar's 83 to win the game by 163 runs. India's current one-drop batsman Cheteshwar Pujara's father Arvind made his Ranji debut in that match. "Raju was very accurate and was a big concern for most batsmen. It was tough to counter on matting wickets, because he had that knack of bowling on those knots of the matting," Pujara Sr told mid-day.

Jadeja was playing for Mumbai by the 1978-79 season and along with Ghavri, had to play against their original state team in the December 9-11 Ranji game at Bhuj where the Saurashtra men opened the bowling for their adopted team.

I lost a friend: Ghavri

Jadeja returned to Saurashtra in 1980-81 and played off and on till 1986-87. "Saurashtra and Mumbai lost a good cricketer, but I lost a very dear friend," said an emotional Ghavri.

Sandeep Patil and Karsan Ghavri

Jadeja's 134 wickets and 1,532 runs in 50 first-class games provide some indication of his utility but doesn't include his splendid performances in schools and University cricket. On that 1973 India schoolboys tour, he scored five half-centuries.

There is no instrument to measure class, but if someone like Vijay Manjrekar "raved about his talent at the end of the tour in 1973," according to Rajan, then there is good reason to believe that Jadeja was unfortunate not to adorn his country's colours.

Also Read: Former Saurashtra cricketer and BCCI referee Rajendrasinh Jadeja passes away