The story of domestic cricket star Ramesh Saxena and his challenging times which led to his death

The final chapter of Ramesh Saxena, the child prodigy, who ironically ended up playing only one Test for India in 1967, reflects the ebb and flow of cricket -- adversity, recovery and a crushing defeat. Saxena died on August 16 this year, failing to come out of a coma. He left behind wife Karuna and two sons, Saurav and Vineet. Yesterday, he would have celebrated his 67th birthday.


Classy: Ramesh Saxena at the Eden Gardens during the 1960s.
Pic Courtesy: Saxena family

In May last year, Saxena travelled from his home in Jamshedpur to Kolkata en route to Sikkim for a holiday. At Howrah Station, he told Karuna that he was unable to move the hand he put into his pocket to pluck out some money. Within a few hours, his family was told that he had suffered a stroke.

The Sikkim holiday was cancelled and after a few days at Ruby Hospital in Kolkata, Saxena returned to Jamshedpur where he made a steady recovery. The stroke did not cause any memory loss, but speech was an issue. "He used to get stuck for words especially when it came to long answers," said Saurav. He was fit enough to attend a few cricket-related meetings too. However, earlier this year Saxena and his wife suffered from fever at a time Jamshedpur was filled with cases of chikungunya. According to Saurav, his father suffered from hospital phobia, but getting admitted was inevitable when one evening, he fell off his chair and lost consciousness.