A familiar voice greeted me when I answered the phone on Saturday evening. It was raining heavily in Mumbai, and the person on the other end said, “Oh, I can hear the sound of the rain… Hope things are fine there.”
Having lived in Mumbai for years, he knew how annoying the rains could be. But as we spoke over the next 20-odd minutes, Dilip Doshi admitted he missed the Mumbai monsoon this time.
Calling from his home in London, he was watching India’s first Test against England in Leeds. During the lunch break, he suddenly decided to ring me.
“I’m quite impressed with the way Shubman (Gill) and (Rishabh) Pant batted,” he said, lauding the centurions. “This might be a young team, but it has enough firepower…”
A former India left-arm spinner, Doshi claimed 114 Test wickets in 33 appearances, including six five-wicket hauls. He represented Bengal and Saurashtra domestically and played County cricket for Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire — an experience that, he often said, shaped his understanding of modern-day cricket.
Knowing the Leeds conditions well, Doshi expected India to dominate — if the weather held up. He hoped to attend the third Test at Lord’s from July 10. “It should be a highly competitive series. If you’re here, we’ll watch it together,” he said.
Little did we know that would be our last conversation.
On Monday, Doshi passed away at 77, following a cardiac arrest — leaving behind a rich legacy and a lifetime of memories. A true gentleman, he never hesitated to talk cricket. If a young player reached out, he made time, always eager to guide.
That was him.
Despite debuting in Tests at 32 and often finding himself in and out of the squad, Doshi proved his mettle. Teammates remember him as a “thinking man’s cricketer”.
In his post-retirement life, he entered the corporate world and famously introduced Mont Blanc pens to India in the 1990s. But cricket was never far. He had a star-studded circle — Rolling Stones lead songwriter and vocalist Mick Jagger, former West Indies captain Garfield Sobers, former Pakistan skipper Zaheer Abbas among them — but lived simply.
Doshi’s star-studded circle included Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones lead songwriter and vocalist.
| Photo Credit:
CAB
Doshi’s star-studded circle included Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones lead songwriter and vocalist.
| Photo Credit:
CAB
Whenever in India, he’d visit his hometown Rajkot and quietly watch domestic matches at the Niranjan Shah Stadium. “This gives me immense satisfaction,” he once told me during a Ranji Trophy quarterfinal between Saurashtra and Punjab.
His warmth drew people to him. Sachin Tendulkar recalled their first meeting — in England, 1990. Doshi, already retired, bowled to Tendulkar in the nets. “He was really fond of me, and I reciprocated his feelings. A warm-hearted soul like Dilip-bhai will be deeply missed. I will miss those cricketing conversations which we invariably had,” Tendulkar wrote on social media.
The cricket fraternity will long remember his five-wicket haul in the 1981 Melbourne Test — achieved while playing with a broken toe. “I’d apply electrodes every evening to manage the swelling,” he once told me. “It was a crucial game — I couldn’t miss it.”
Off the pitch, he enjoyed Jagger’s company. The two watched cricket together often, including the recent World Test Championship final. Last Saturday, he reminisced about watching it with “Mick” and praised Temba Bavuma’s captaincy.
I recall him calling late one night during the 2023 World Cup. Jagger was in India.
“I need your help,” Doshi said. What for? “Mick wants to post a message in Hindi for his fans. I’ve written something. Can you check if it reads well?”
We spent half an hour working on it. Eventually, the message went out. The next morning, I found a long message from him. He told me I could call him “Dilip-da” and thanked me for the help. “We finished it in 30 minutes because it was a great partnership,” he wrote.
Dilip Doshi took a career-best 6/102 during the second Test match between India and England at Old Trafford. The match was held from June 24 to 28, 1982.
| Photo Credit:
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Dilip Doshi took a career-best 6/102 during the second Test match between India and England at Old Trafford. The match was held from June 24 to 28, 1982.
| Photo Credit:
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
That was quintessential Doshi — serious but full of wit.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, he gave us a long interview on the art of spin bowling. The 5,000-word piece ran in Sportstar’s ebook (the print edition was paused then). That edition also carried an interview with Bishan Singh Bedi. When it came out, Doshi called me and said, “It’s not for nothing that Bishan is a legend. He’s spoken so well…”
This, from a man whose own early career was overshadowed by Bedi. “He’s the best we have,” Doshi said. Then he spoke fondly of Chuni Goswami, the football captain and First-Class cricketer who once led Doshi.
I wasn’t even born when he played for India. But in school, I borrowed his autobiography ‘Spin Punch’ from a friend’s dad. It was one of the most explosive cricket memoirs I had read. Years later, I got to know the man behind it — warm, welcoming, and full of stories.
In our chats, he often quoted one of his favourite Rolling Stones songs:
“You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime
You’ll find you get what you need…”
Travel well, Dilip da. And thank you for the memories.