KC Ibrahim

KC Ibrahim, who played four Tests for India against West Indies in 1948-49, was, at the time of his death, India's oldest living Test player. He made his Test debut in the first match of the 1948-49 series at home to West Indies, his sheer weight of runs the previous summer making him an automatic pick. Opening with Vinoo Mankad, he scored 85 and 44, but in his next six innings he made only 40 runs and he had retired by the time England toured India in 1951-52. A top-order batsman who sometimes opened, Ibrahim made his first-class debut in 1938-39 and from 1941-42 onwards he scored heavily in domestic cricket. He began that season with an unbeaten 230 when drafted in to the Bombay side following a late withdrawal and ended with 117 in Bombay's innings win in the Ranji Trophy final. He reached his peak in 1947-48 when he scored 1171 runs at 167.29, including four hundreds, a record which won him the Indian Cricketer of the Year award for the season. He started the season with scores of 218*, 36*, 234*, 77* and 144, a total of 709 runs without being dismissed. In the last three innings of the previous season his scores had been 2, 2 and 4. He moved to Karachi in 1950 and that marked the end of his first-class career.
Martin Williamson