XtraTime Web Desk: Sad news for the cricket fraternity as former Indian cricketer as well as Bengal skipper Gopal Bose has breathed his last at the age of 71 years today morning at Birmingham in England. Earlier on August 23 www.xtratime.in revealed that Bose was admitted to a hospital for his heart diseases. Beside that he also had some problem in his kidney.
He and his wife went to London to meet his son Arijit Bose and spend holidays for some time. Suddenly he felt pain in his chest and his son took him to a nearby hospital. He was in observation in the ICCU but couldn’t survive more and died in the morning.
In his 10 years long domestic career he played 78 matches for Bengal. In this time he scored 3757 runs in 128 innings and beside that took 72 wickets as well for his home state.
A classy knock of 170 for Rest of India in the Irani Trophy match against Bombay in 1973-74 brought him closer to national selection. Picked for the tour of Ceylon later that season, Bose did commendably. In the first `Test’ he got a hundred and shared a 194-run opening partnership with Sunil Gavaskar. Not unexpectedly, he was selected for the tour of England in 1974. He started with a half century in the opening game but then found runs hard to come by and scored only 326 runs (20.37) in first class matches. He could not find a place in the Test side but played in the second one day international at the Oval where he opened the innings for India and scored 13 runs, beside that he also bowled a full quota of 11 overs with his off breaks and picked up the wicket of David Lloyd.
Former ICC match referee and former Bengal captain Raju Mukherjee was Gopal Basu’s neighbour. After hearing the news, he broke into tears. He said, “I am not feeling well since I got the news. I can’t believe that I won’t be able to see him anymore in the neighborhood.” He will not be seen in the morning going to the market, not even in the locality gatherings, nor will he go to his coaching camp next to Lake Gardens station. We’ll never see him again. When the neighbouring boys used to come to collect donations for our locality Durga Puja celebrations , he would say to them, “There are elderly people living here, so do not shout.”
Former Bengal captain Captain Chuni Goswami and Gopal Bose were from southern Kolkata. Gopal Bose had played Ranji Trophy final under his captaincy. He was shocked too. He said, “There has been very less eligent batsman like Gopal, in the history of Bengal Cricket. He could’ve played more matches for the national team, but had to retire due to the partiality of the Mumbai lobby. Even though his tactics are very responsible for not getting the opportunity, because he never knew the art of getting work from people through sweet talks. It was well beyond his understanding.”
Another former cricketer, Pranab Roy, said, “When I was only 15 years old, I was introduced to his captaincy. It is very much understandable from his career that how big a player he was. Gopal Bose started his career as an off-spinner and was also successful as an opener as well. He was involved in a 194 run partnership with Sunil Gavaskar in a ‘private’ Test match in Sri Lanka before the 1974 tour of England. He also scored a century in that very Test and also scored a century in the Ranji Trophy final against Mumbai and in the Irani Trophy for the Rest of India. He was very good, he did not think twice about helping the juniors.
Former Ranji captain of Bengal, Sambaran Banerjee, like the rest of the others said, “Gopal Basu is not only the legend of Bengal cricket, but also a protesting man who used to say simple things straightforwardly. He has suffered a lot, but he never withdrawn from his statement. So in the first practice match of 1974 England Tour, he made a half-century, but Ajit Wadekar’s team management did not allow him to play for an unknown reason. He played only one ODI match. Gopal Bose even took the wicket of England wicketkeeper David Lloyd in his 11 over spell in that match. I played Ranji in his captaincy, and he too played club cricket for East Bengal-Mohunbagan under my captaincy. He went to England to celebrate his grandson’s birthday apart from his own vacations. But unfortunately, he couldn’t return home in good health. “