Baroda's Vishnu Solanki plays on despite death of his father and daughter

Heartbroken 29-year old wants to stay with the team and play their final league match on March 3

However, on February 12, Solanki was woken up close to midnight by the Baroda team manager Dharmendra Arothe, who told the player that his day-old daughter had passed away. The next day, a distraught Solanki packed his bags and flew back home to be with his wife Jagruti. He missed Baroda’s first match of league phase, against Bengal, which was played between February 16-19.

“He said he had dedicated the century to his daughter,” team manager Arothe told ESPNcricinfo on February 25. Solanki never even got to hold his little girl while she was alive.

On Sunday morning, Solanki was once again struck by tragedy. Around 8.40 am, Arothe received a call that said the player’s father had passed away. With the match starting at 8.45 am on the final day, Arothe relayed the information initially to Baroda captain Kedar Devdhar via Ninad Rathwa, the 12th man. Rathwa, who is a good friend of Solanki, then told him the news and watched him leave the field. According to Arothe, Solanki’s dad, Purshottam, who was 75, was ailing for a while and in hospital for about two months.

Chandigarh and Baroda wore black arm bands into play on Sunday. The match referee Amit Pathak also gave Solanki permission to use the phone in the dressing room to talk with his family. “He saw the funeral of his dad virtually from the dressing room,” Arothe said. Both teams along with the match officials also observed two minutes’ silence in the memory of two family members Solanki had lost.

The Baroda Cricket Association has promised him all the help he might need, including flying him back home, but Solanki informed the team management he wants to stay and play their last league game of the season, against Hyderabad, starting March 3.