Madhav Apte, the former India Test opener, died in Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on Monday, aged 86.
In his seven Tests for India in 1952-53, Apte averaged 49.27, the highlight being a match-saving, unbeaten 163 against West Indies in Port of Spain. Five of his seven Tests were played on that tour of the Caribbean, where it seemed he was the next big thing in Indian cricket, averaging over 50 and finishing second on the runs charts for India.
In all, his first-class career ran 17 years, from 1951-52 to 1967-68. His scored a first-class ton on debut for Mumbai in 1952, and promptly went on to make his Test debut as a 20-year-old during Pakistan’s tour of India later that year. Next up was the tour of the Caribbean.
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Against a West Indies attack that included Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine and Frank King, Apte struck 64 and 52 in the first Test, 64 again in the second, and followed that up with that unbeaten second-innings 163 in the third Test to secure a draw for India. Despite his tour average of 51.11, Apte never played another Test.
Following the tour of the West Indies, India had no Tests scheduled in 1954. He was part of the “Silver Jubilee Commonwealth XI” match in 1954, playing for India against West Indies, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the BCCI. But his form was on the downslide by the time India’s next Test assignment came about, and so he was overlooked.
He had begun his career as a legbreak bowler before intervention from the great Vinoo Mankad – his coach at college – turned him into an opening batsman. Apte later confessed that he learnt the art of batting by observing Vijay Merchant bat in the nets every morning in Mumbai. It was Merchant’s subsequent injury in 1952 that handed Apte a first-class debut for Mumbai.
In 1989, Apte became the president of Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, one of the oldest clubs for the sport in the country. He was also instrumental in bringing a 14-year-old Sachin Tendulkar into the CCI side. Recalling what he thought of Tendulkar’s talent back then, Apte once said: “One sees a hell of a lot of talent at the age of 14, 16, and so on. Not all of that talent really matures because the future, no one can predict. [But] at that time, my comment in the dressing room was, ‘If this boy keeps his head on his shoulders, he will play for India sooner than later.’ But even the lord almighty could not have seen that he would go on to get hundred hundreds and so on.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo