Arvind Apte was taken on the tour of England in 1959 as a reserve opener, based on his fine performances at home when he had averaged 70 in the Ranji Trophy. An attacking opening batsman with a wide range of strokes, mostly cavalier, he met with modest success on the tour scoring 881 runs (27.53) with three centuries. His best score was 165 against Derbyshire. Given a chance in the third Test at Leeds following an injury to Nari Contractor, Apte was out for 8 and 7, falling to Alan Moss both times. He continued to play first-class cricket until 1972, finishing with an aggregate of 2782 runs (33.51) which included six centuries. He had a passion for motoring and drove a 1949 Bentley Mk VI round Mumbai and between 1953 and 2013 regularly attended Lord's Tests. He owned a flat which commanded a fine view of the ground before the building of the new media centre in 1999.
Martin Williamson