Anandji Dossa, the Grand Old Man of Indian Cricket Statistics
Anandji Dossa, a wicket-keeper, was among the reserves for India's tour of Pakistan in 1954-55 and lost his place to Madhav Mantri.
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Anandji Dossa, the grand old man of Indian cricket statistics passed away at 98 in his sleep in the night of September 22 in the United States. He had moved with his wife to the US in 1998, but could not adapt to American life, although his two daughter are settled there. Dossa returned to Mumbai.
Two years ago, he went to the US again with his wife, since there was no one to look after them in Mumbai. While in Mumbai, Anandji Dossa was active and went for a walk every morning and also did his own bank work.
Though Dossa's association with cricket touched many facets of the game, it was as a statistician that he achieved international fame. He also was a noted scorer for All India Radio along with Vijay Merchant as the commentator.
Dossa carried the pioneering work of statistics done by P.N.Polishwala, S.K. Gurunathan and S.K. Roy. He formed the Statistical Committee along with P. Sundaresan in the 30s for the BCCI and produced the BCCI Statistical Annuals. He was the chairman of the committee from 1933-34 to 1980.
At 16, he shone as a sportsman -- winning the champion athlete award in 1932. Yet, it will be unfair not to acknowledge him as an able cricketer having represented school and college in the inter-school and inter-collegiate tournament. He captained his school team and also shone for his college in his debut season.
Although Dossa played for Hindu Gymkhana, Bombay Cricketers, Fort Vijay Cricket Club till 1962, he was the founder of Jolly Cricketers. A wicketkeeper, he narrowly missed a match at first-class level after being among the reserves for the Hindus in the Pentangulars in 1941 and for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy in 1941-42 and in 1947-48. He was among the reserves for India's tour of Pakistan in 1954-55 and lost his place to Madhav Mantri.
He was the secretary of the Dr H.D. Kanga Memorial Library and was in the Mumbai Cricket Association's managing committee from 1949 to 1953.
When the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Scorers was formed in 1987, he was the automatic choice as its president and held the post till 1994-95. He guided the association and took it to great heights, encouraging the scorers and statisticians in the country. The ACSSI finally named a trophy for the Best Scorer in Mumbai after Anandji Dossa.
He was a collector of Indian cricket literature and built one of the best collections of books. The books were finally donated to the Cricket Club of India based at Brabourne Stadium. The CCI named the library after him, calling it the Anandji Dossa Reference Library.
He was the Statistical Editor of Dicky Rutnagar' Indian Cricket Field which ran from 1957-58 to 1964-65, he was the Editor of Cricket Quarterly along with Anant Setavad and Virenchee Sagar, he was the co-author of CCI and the Brabourne Stadium, Duleep the Man and his Game, besides his own works -- Cricket Ties Pakistan vs India, Believe it or Not and Art of Scoring in Gujarathi.
Dossa was truly the grand old man of Indian cricket statistics.
(With inputs from Theo Braganza)