Veteran cricket journalist Rajan Bala dies

Rajan Bala, the veteran cricket writer, has died in Bangalore after suffering a cardiac arrest. Bala, 63, covered cricket for more than four decades, working in several of India's leading newspapers including the Statesman, the Hindu, the Indian Express and the Deccan Herald.

He was also the author of many cricket books, the first of which was Kiwis and Kangaroos, an account of New Zealand's 1969 tour of India. He also wrote books on the character of Indian technique (Glances at Perfection), the politics of Indian cricket (The Covers are Off) and biographies of Chandrasekhar and Sachin Tendulkar. His latest book Time Well Spent is due out this week.

Erapalli Prasanna, the former Indian offspinner, paid tribute to Bala, who collaborated with him on his autobiography. "In the passing away of Rajan Bala, I lost a very close associate, a person with whom I could discuss cricket in length. It's a personal loss to me," Prasanna said. "I felt that among all the cricket journalists, he was the best because he had a tremendous knowledge of the game."