Former India opener Arvind Apte died of prostate cancer at his Pune home on Tuesday evening. “He was in and out of coma since Monday and died at 5:30 a.m. today evening. He used to live in Pune, London and other parts of the cricketing world,’’ said his nephew Vaman Apte.
Arvind would have turned 80 on October 24. He, Cricket Club of India’s Keki Kotwal (who died of cancer recently) and a few more from the Mumbai cricketing circle did not miss a Lord’s Test for more than two decades. He was two years younger to Madhav Apte, who played seven Test matches for India. He is survived by a daughter and son in law.
A right-handed opener, Arvind was picked for the 1959 tour of England under the captaincy of Dattajirao Gaekwad. He opened the innings with Pankaj Roy in the third Test at Leeds (scoring 8 and 7) and was dismissed by Alan Moss in both innings. He played 58 first class matches (14 for Bombay and 13 for Rajasthan and the rest for assorted teams) and scored 2782 runs with six centuries and 15 half centuries.
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