Dilip Sardesai dies at 66

Dilip Sardesai: India's Renaissance Man in 1971 © Getty Images

Former India Test batsman Dilip Sardesai died in Mumbai after suffering a multiple organ failure. He was 66.

Sardesai was recently admitted to the Bombay Hospital with a chest infection. Suffering from kidney problems for a long time, he had been on dialysis since.

Sardesai played 30 Tests between 1961 and 1972, scoring 2001 runs, including five centuries, at an average of just under 40.

He will always be associated with India's glorious summer of 1971, when they notched up series wins in West Indies and England. He amassed 642 runs in the Caribbean, with two hundreds and a double, and provided an inspirational launching pad for Sunil Gavaskar in his debut series.

In England later that year, Sardesai's pivotal 54 and 40 allowed Bhagwat Chandrasekhar to hasten England's defeat at The Oval, their first against India at home. Sardesai was limpet-like and usually defensive, but he could attack when he needed to, and scored one of India's fastest hundreds, against New Zealand at Delhi in 1964-65.

He is survived by his wife Nandini Sardesai, a sociologist and a member of the Indian Censor Board, son Rajdeep Sardesai, the Editor-in-Chief of the news channel CNN-IBN, and daughter Shonali, who works on conflict-related issues at the World Bank in Washington DC.