Sandeep Patil      

A dashing batsman and a useful medium-pace bowler, Sandip Patil was a tower of strength to the Indian middle order for many years. His good looks (he was a pop singer and a film actor), aggressive batsmanship and a penchant for big hits made Patil a natural crowd puller. An instant success after making his Test debut and on his first tour, he took 174 off Dennis Lillee and Len Pascoe at Adelaide. It was a remarkable innings given that in the previous Test he was concussed by a bouncer from Pascoe after scoring 65. After a moderate series against England in 1981-82 he was dropped but was back for the tour of there in 1982. And at Old Trafford he came up with another memorable display, hitting an undefeated 129, in the process taking 24 runs (4440444) off an over from Bob Willis - the third delivery being a no ball. He did reasonably well on the tour of Pakistan in 1982-83 but because of personal problems he dropped out of the team to tour West Indies in 1983. Back for the World Cup in 1983, Patil was one of the heroes of that triumph. But in the Tests against Pakistan and West Indies in 1983-84, his aggressive batting was laced with a bit of indiscipline and he could not maintain his place in the side. And though he did reasonably well against England the following season, he was dropped after two games and was never considered for Tests again, though he was picked for the tour of England in 1986 when he played only in the one-day games.

A stalwart for Bombay for several years, Patil in the last few seasons of his first-class career captained Madhya Pradesh with much success. After retirement, Patil served first as India A coach, then coach of the Indian team, before moving on to take charge of Kenya. He resigned after taking them to the semi-final of the 2003 Worl Cup, and returned to India for the next 18 months, but an uncertain future with India A meant that he went back to a minnow, Oman this time, in the Intercontinental Cup and helped them qualify for the ICC Trophy after some strong performances in the ACC Trophy. A man of many talents, Patil has also edited a Marathi sports magazine, Ekach Shatkar, and wrote Sandy Storm, his autobiography.

Patil went on to serve as the coach of the Mumbai Champs in the ICL, but returned to the mainstream when he cut ties with the unofficial league in 2009.
Partab Ramchand June 2008