This story is from February 01, 2022
Vishwanath Gangadhar Lele
, known more as ‘Vishu
’Lele
passed away on Sunday in Pune. He was 89. He was ailing for some time,” a source said. The Kalyan-born Lele played 33 first-class games between 1953-54 to 1968-69, in which picked up 92 wickets@27.34, with three five-wicket hauls. He also scored 577 runs@18.03. Lele was also a childhood coach of India pacer Shardul Thakur. “It’s very sad news,” batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, who opened the batting for Dadar Union in his early years with Lele, told TOI from London.Lele was one of those rare cricketers who played for Shivaji Park Gymkhana and Dadar Union. He started playing for SPG, but later had to shift to Dadar Union as SPG already had two India leg-spinners — the Gupte brothers Subhash Gupte and Baloo Gupte in their ranks. Old-timers say that Lele possessed a lethal ‘straighter one’ or flipper, which few batsmen could pick.“He was a brilliant allrounder. I played with him for Tata SC for four-five years. He was a naturally talented leggie-cum-opening batsman. He was also a superb billiards player, and represented Tatas in billiards too. I mean, at that time, Tatas had the likes of Michael Ferreira and Geet Sethi playing for them! Figures don’t tell you everything, but he was one of the greats of Mumbai cricket of those days. Players like him carried the burden of Mumbai club cricket on their shoulders. Later he became a very good coach. He coached Tata SC, SPG, and then coached Shardul at Tarapur. One more giant of Mumbai cricket has left us,” former Mumbai captain and chief selector Milind Rege told TOI on Monday.“He was a wonderful gentleman. He had wit and took things in the right spirit and looked at life differently,” Rege remembered.Lele was a part of the Tata Sports Club team which won the Times of India ‘A’ division title, beating Mafatlal Sports Club in 1971. He was also a part of the Tatas team which went to Sri Lanka on a goodwill tour and played four matches there.